Is the Most Important Item in Your Makeup Bag Your Moisturizer ? The 5 Best Backstage Skin-Prepping Winter Essentials

With whipping winds and plunging temperatures dominating much of the backstage chitchat at the New York shows, it’s no wonder the week’s beauty dialogue has been increasingly skin care–centric. “In the wintertime, you see [dryness] a lot,” makeup artist Tom Pecheux admitted yesterday morning at The Row, where he was massaging two drops of jojoba oil into Estée Lauder’s DayWear Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme before starting in on the show’s incredibly minimal makeup look. “Plus, to be honest,” Pecheux continued, “putting on and taking off makeup dries your skin. So the [moisturizing], and massaging process is very important.” At Victoria Beckham over the weekend, Pat McGrath echoed a similar sentiment, nurturing models’ parched complexions with SK-II Facial Treatment Masks while they got their hair done and before they received the makeup artist’s natural skin and smudgy, sexy lids.

Hydration treatments aside, microwater mists and moisturizers have been a key part of the finished look at more than a few shows—which may explain the supernaturally luminous complexions spotted on the runways, in spite of the record cold. To mimic the “nineties scrubbed raw skin” of a young Sofia Coppola at Opening Ceremony, the makeup artist Yadim dialed up a good helping of Dr.Jart+ Ceramidin Liquid and Ceramidin Cream to lock in moisture and reduce redness; Charlotte Tilbury tucked into MAC Studio Moisture Cream—and little else—at Donna Karan to get the “really luminous” finish she was after without using highlighter; and last night at Rag & Bone, Gucci Westman relied on Omorovicza Blue Diamond Concentrate and Super Cream to preserve the essence of the designers’ “cool, modern” woman with the skin to match.

Here are the five backstage go-to staples you’d do well to stock up on this week.