When a Netflix show centers around a road-rage incident and the snowballing catastrophes that follow, how much of that fictional universe is safe to carry off set? “I do find myself wearing a lot of cream and neutrals like Amy,” Ali Wong writes by email, referring to her role in Beef, the 10-episode hit that swept three top awards at Sunday’s Golden Globes 2024. (Wong and costar Steven Yeun each earned statues for their shimmeringly unhinged performances; Beef also won for best television limited series. All eyes on Monday’s Emmy Awards.) Wong’s character, Amy Lau, runs an upscale plant boutique while juggling home life with a young daughter and an imperviously upbeat husband—the kind of face-value success that leaves her emotions simmering just below the surface. When a parking-lot confrontation ignites a spiraling feud with a contractor (Yeun), her muted good taste becomes an aesthetic counterpoint. “Helen Huang, our costume designer, thought it was so funny for Amy to choose such calming, zen tones, while having the most insane thoughts,” Wong says. The actor’s Globes dress—a white Dior Couture column, seemingly fit for a marble caryatid on the Acropolis—carried on that sartorial serenity. This time, though, the emotional tenor was a match.
Chanel’s glass-encased lipstick—31 Le Rouge, in the shade Rouge Beige—brings a Cinderella effect.Courtesy of Daniel Martin.
“She loves getting us all together and just kiki-ing and laughing,” says makeup artist Daniel Martin of the day’s red-carpet crew, which included stylist Tara Swennen and Clayton Hawkins on hair. Martin recalls first meeting the comedian through Opening Ceremony cofounders Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, during a pre-pandemic event for Wong’s 2019 book, Dear Girls. “We had so many mutual friends, so when we met, it was just [like finding] a lost sister. We totally clicked,” Martin says. For Sunday’s Globes makeup, he took inspiration from a 1996 Chanel runway show, which paired a “frosty, light pink lip” with a smoky eye—an element of drama that Martin carefully calibrates around Wong’s ever-present glasses. The evening’s gold-rimmed selection, with an oversize cat-eye silhouette, echoed the actor’s Swarovski collar and drop earrings. “She said something today that was like, ‘Glasses are the shoes for your face’—how everyone has a fancy pair of shoes, so why not wear a fancy pair of glasses?” Martin recounts with a laugh.
For Wong, who followed last April’s Beef premiere with a cross-country slate of stand-up shows (she picks back up next month), the return to awards season has its perks. “Onstage, I wear mostly co-ord knit sweats that are kid’s size 11-12Y. I look like Paulie Walnuts with just some liquid eyeliner when I’m on tour,” she says by email. “I’m so grateful for all of the talented people who bippity boppity boop me into a red-carpet look because there’s no way I could do a fraction of what they contribute on my own.” She describes an all-day hang. “Daniel Martin always kicks it off with a dreamy face massage and a ’90s R&B playlist that has me body-rolling in the chair.”
That camaraderie is one of the perks to working with a trusted team. Fluency with a client’s skin particulars is another. Martin, who serves as Tatcha’s global director of artistry and education, takes care not to layer on overly emollient products for Wong, which can impart too much radiance in photos. “I do this trick where I take the [Tatcha] essence and put it on dry eye patches”—a DIY kind of mask, he explains, for “hydration without the weight of a cream or serum.” He tops off his cocktail of skin care (Water Cream, Liquid Silk Canvas) with a few touches of Chanel’s peach-toned color corrector and Ultra Le Teint: “It’s incredible because it’s a long-wearing, water-based foundation.” Elsewhere he continues his light approach, using highlighter to assess how light plays on her face and sculpting with a bit of bronzing cream. “We always keep everything pretty minimal with her,” says Martin—earthy shadows, a go-to gel liner—but there is room for an evening-bag bauble, by way of Chanel’s new glass lipstick, 31 Le Rouge. “The packaging is insane,” Martin marvels, and the texture is easy-wearing. “It’s such a high-pressure event as it is, especially if you’re nominated. The least you want to feel is comfortable.”