Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Jul 13, 2026

From Chanel to ‘Batman’, Dark, Intense Eye Makeup is Having a Moment

From Chanel to ‘Batman’, Dark, Intense Eye Makeup is Having a Moment

Sharpen your kohl liner, because word on the street is that over-the-top eye makeup is having a moment. And no, we don’t mean the sparkly wings and neon lids of Euphoria, we’re talking dark, black, smudged smokey eyes that look like they just made it through a very rough night. Over the past week, intense black eye makeup has shown up in the holy trinity of popular culture—on celebrities, in fashion, and in film—meaning it’s time to get heavy handed and prepare to waste a lot of your black eye shadow.

The recent charcoal eye renaissance began on Sunday, when Julia Fox stepped out with Kanye West for the Kenzo menswear show in Paris. Fox wore a Schiaparelli jacket and Daniel Roseberry’s own Carhartt jeans, but the real focus of the look was the actresses’ eyes, which featured a swipe of black shadow across her lid, reaching up toward her temple. The look immediately caused a stir, with memes popping up on Twitter in record time, but Fox wasn’t scared away by the ridicule. The next day, she stepped out again, in a new Schiaparelli look, but with the same dark makeup. This time, the shadow lifted up toward her eyebrows, but in such an imbalanced way, it looked like West flew his eight-year-old daughter, North, in for his girlfriend’s glam. In reality, the look was executed by a makeup artist working with Pat McGrath studios, with some touchups by Kanye, of course.


On Tuesday, just as the Fox jokes were getting stale, the Chanel couture show was warming up. Following an opening featuring Grace Kelly’s granddaughter on horseback, a parade of tweed, structured jackets, and tulle tiers came down the runway. Offsetting the femininity of Virginie Viard’s show, however, was the makeup of the models. Thick double liner wrapped around entire eyes, drooping on some in an almost depressing aesthetic. Others looked like they took a tissue to one of their lids, smudging the black to form a dark circle on one side. According to The New York Times, the technique was “meant as a nod to the constructivist set by the contemporary artist Xavier Veilhan.”



But these dark, brooding eyes aren’t only for couture week, they’re actually perfect for everyone’s favorite dark, brooding hero. Just as the world of fashion finished up calculating how many makeup wipes they would need to invest in if this black eye trend catches on, Batman’s director, Matt Reeves, spoke out about Robert Pattinson’s heavy, smudged liner in the movie’s trailer.

“You can’t wear a cowl and not wear that,” Reeves told Esquire UK, referring to the the vigilante’s honestly kind of chic neckline. “I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there’s the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character.”

And thus, Batman looks like he just stepped off the Chanel runway, or was sitting in the makeup chair while Julia Fox was getting in glam when he beckoned a makeup artist and said, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Though, considering the Batman trailer came out long before Fox’s run in with eye liner, or Chanel’s 2022 couture show, it’s possible both parties were inspired by the dark night.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Netflix Weighs Always-On Channels, Bundles and Short-Form Video
Passenger Is Pulled Partly Outside Ryanair Jet After Window Fails Mid-Flight
The AI Invoice Shock: Layoffs Didn't Save Managers Money — They Cost Them More
Concern: Sexually Transmitted Bacterium Among Men Develops Antibiotic Resistance
Following Massive Investor Demand: SK Hynix Raises 26.5 Billion Dollars on Nasdaq
Passenger Partially Pulled Out of Ryanair Jet After Cabin Window Fails Mid-Flight
After Four Years, and Under a Heavy Veil of Secrecy: King Charles Meets His Grandchildren, Harry and Meghan's Children
Severe Heatwave Drives Dangerous Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Across Two Thirds of European Union
Westminster in Freefall as Farage's By-Election Gamble Triggers Broader Systemic Crises
Institutional Fractures and Political Volatility Reshape Britain's Domestic Landscape
Deadly Fire, Health Emergencies and Political Upheaval Shape a Volatile Global News Cycle
Flight Instructor Jumped to His Death — Student Landed the Plane: "You Know What You Need to Do"
The Physical and Electronic Barriers Disrupting Domestic Wireless Networks
France and Morocco Open World Cup Quarter-Finals as Collina Defends Refereeing
Prince Harry Suffers Major Court Defeat in Legal Battle Against Daily Mail Publisher
Bonnie Tyler, Welsh Singer Behind Total Eclipse of the Heart, Dies at 75
Tech Pulse: The Future of AI and Screen Culture
Global News Briefing: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions and Corporate Shakeups
Global News Brief: Escalating Conflicts, Public Health Crises, and World Cup Drama
Federal Financial Framework Shifts as Treasury Launches Universal Savings Program for Minors
French Court Allows Le Pen to Run for Presidency, but with an Electronic Tag: "I Will Appeal, and I Will Run"
$1.4 Trillion: The Lawsuit That Could Crush Meta
Europe's Growing Struggle with Extreme Heat and Air Conditioning
UK Daily Briefing: Legal Developments and Social Issues
Political Turmoil and Rising Costs
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Logic Flaw in Windows 11 Permission Architecture Silently Consumes Hundreds of Gigabytes of Local Storage
Apple Advances Late-Stage Operating Systems with Fourth Beta Deployments
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Deep Purple Has Released Its Best Album in Decades
Microsoft Lays Off 4,800 Employees and Xbox Suffers the Hardest Blow
Morocco and France Advance as 2026 FIFA World Cup Enters Quarterfinals.
Historic 2026 Tour de France Opens in Barcelona With Revamped Team Time Trial.
Global Mergers and Acquisitions Approach $4 Trillion Defying Geopolitical Tumult.
Negotiators Advance 20-Point Framework for Gaza Ceasefire and Demilitarization.
OECD Warns Middle East Conflict Will Depress Global Economic Growth.
Ukrainian Drones Strike Major Oil Terminal in St. Petersburg.
World Meteorological Organization Issues Urgent Alert Over Rapidly Intensifying El Niño.
United States Commemorates 250th Anniversary With Diplomatic Summits and Global Flotilla.
Iran Begins Days-Long Funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei Amid Strait of Hormuz Standoff.
Technology giant reports surging carbon emissions driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure demands.
Artificial intelligence adoption accelerates workforce reductions across the technology and financial sectors.
Global technology and financial conglomerates collaborate to launch a new stablecoin standard.
United States regulators lift export restrictions on a major frontier artificial intelligence model.
Luxury bags take over the World Cup: style, status symbol, or just showing off?
×