When a celebrity is invited to the Met Gala, planning starts ASAP. There are meetings with designers, lots of fittings, and sessions with the glam team figuring out the best hair, makeup, and manicure to go with the final ensemble. This isn’t just any old night — this is fashion’s biggest night, as they say, and every element has to come together. Just ask Cardi B, who shut down the green carpet in her billowing tulle gown and emerald glam. However, Cardi and her makeup artist Erika La’ Pearl revealed that they originally had another look in mind for the Gala, and it would have been a total surprise.
According to La’ Pearl, the first look she and Cardi tested was a fun twist on the “Garden of Time” dress code and “Sleeping Beauties” theme of the exhibit, with Cardi in a gray wig and facial and body prosthetics to make her look older, including wrinkles on her face and aged hands. (Tokyo Stylez was behind the curled salt-and-pepper wig.) Basically, Cardi was glammed up as herself several decades from now, complete with a soft smoky eye and lined lips. The prosthetic process was extremely thorough; Alexis Stone scanned Cardi’s face, neck, and hands prior to the Gala, then created 18 pieces of prosthetics to be worn on the red carpet, and each prosthetic was painstakingly applied to the star’s face and body. The final look was subtle, not costumey, and would have been really fun to watch; as you can see in her BTS video, Cardi even created a character to go with her older self.
Ultimately, though, the team went in a different direction and skipped the aged makeup and gray hair. Cardi was also choosing between two different dresses, including a green version of the one she ultimately wore. It happens! “Sometimes you have to go back to the drawing board just before it’s time to get ready!” La’ Pearl told Allure. The final result was just as gorgeous and memorable, though we are hoping Cardi brings back the “older me” look at some point in the near future, because it’s totally fab.