Before Zara Larsson reaches the first chorus, the face has already announced the fantasy. One night it is a sunset built from yellow light, lavender shadow and scattered crystals. The next, hot-pink stones travel across the body like leopard print, or a rhinestone butterfly opens around one eye.

No two looks from the Midnight Sun era are quite the same, but they all belong to the same universe: glossy, colourful, hyper-feminine and completely uninterested in restraint. The internet has already found its shorthand for what is happening: “Zara Larsson’s makeup artist loves her.”

Her name is Sophia Sinot. The Netherlands-born, London-based artist has spent the past year turning Larsson’s face and body into an evolving piece of pop-star world-building—and making maximalist makeup feel exciting again in the process.

A face you can recognise from the back row

Sinot’s work is made for every distance at once. Up close, the precision becomes visible: individual stones, tightly mapped colour and lips built from several tones of liner and gloss. From the crowd, the same details catch stage light and turn Larsson’s face into something legible from the back of an arena. On a phone screen, they become the kind of image people save, repost and attempt to recreate the following morning.

The recurring codes are now instantly familiar. Blush rises high across the cheeks and temples, sometimes crossing the bridge of the nose like heat from the sun. Candy-coloured shadow moves beyond the eyelid instead of remaining neatly inside it. Black lashes provide structure, while rhinestones, body glitter and decals carry the look away from conventional celebrity glam and towards something closer to performance design.

At Denmark’s Roskilde Festival in July, Sinot hand-placed a magenta rhinestone butterfly around Larsson’s eye, stretching its wings from the cheek to the centre of the forehead. Icy white and mauve shadow sat inside the outline, grounded by a sharp black wing and heavy lashes. It was recognisably Y2K, but not trapped there: less direct revival than a memory of TRL beauty rebuilt for an ultra-high-definition screen.

Sinot treats the face and body as one continuous canvas. Courtesy of Sophia Sinot.

The plan is often no plan

The apparent cohesion makes it tempting to imagine a folder of fully mapped looks waiting backstage in every city. Sinot’s process is much looser. She has said that much of the time she begins without knowing exactly where the makeup will end, allowing colour, wardrobe and mood to redirect the face as she works. That uncertainty is part of what keeps the results from becoming a repeated tour uniform.

Her reference archive moves between space, nature, Barbie, showgirls, Christina Aguilera and the glossy excess of early-2000s pop. The important distinction is that Sinot does not reproduce any single reference literally. A galaxy becomes scattered stones across the eye; sunlight becomes blush placed beneath the eyes and over the nose; the reflection of light on water becomes glitter moving across Larsson’s shoulders.

Larsson’s willingness to follow the idea wherever it goes is equally essential. For one Düsseldorf show, Sinot presented a reference and suggested trying it that evening. Larsson agreed without hesitation. That trust gives the artist room to make decisions that would be difficult inside a tightly controlled celebrity beauty brief—and explains why the work feels authored rather than simply applied.

Glitter that survives the choreography

For all its fantasy, the makeup still has to survive a full performance. Larsson dances under heat, lighting and cameras, yet Sinot’s approach to longevity is surprisingly restrained. She keeps the skincare and base light, powders where necessary and sends Larsson onstage with little more than a powder puff and lip gloss for touch-ups. There is no complicated wall of setting spray holding the illusion together.

Some staples remain consistent beneath the experimentation: waterproof black pencil, luminous foundation, saturated blush, MAC lip pencils and reflective gloss. For the face and body sparkle that has become inseparable from the era, Sinot has cited Anastasia Beverly Hills Space Dust as one of the products that stayed in rotation. The products matter, but the recognition comes from placement—the moment ordinary glitter becomes part of the visual identity.

The fantasy is built to remain intact through an entire performance. Courtesy of Sophia Sinot.

From backstage credit to a name of her own

Sinot began experimenting with makeup in high school and only realised it could become a profession at 18. Years later, photographer Paul Edwards connected her with Larsson for a last-minute shoot in Stockholm. Sinot flew in the following morning; the pair clicked, and a full press week in London followed almost immediately.

Their partnership has now lasted for years, but the Midnight Sun era gave it a sharper identity. Sinot wanted Larsson’s makeup to operate as branding—to tell viewers who the pop star was before a caption or song title had to explain it. The response has made Sinot visible too, with fans now actively searching for the person responsible rather than allowing the work to remain an anonymous part of the glam team.

Her wider client list already includes Doja Cat, Camila Cabello, Emma Chamberlain and SZA, whose radiant yellow 2026 Met Gala makeup was also Sinot’s work. But with Larsson, she has created something rarer than a collection of individually beautiful faces: a sustained beauty era with enough consistency to become recognisable and enough freedom to remain surprising.

Pop-star makeup is fun again because Sinot treats it like pop itself—referential, emotional, excessive and made to be seen. The glitter catches the light, but the point of view is what keeps everyone looking.