Florence Welch’s beauty routine is built on drugstore skin prep and a willingness to let her own face show through. The catch is that every layer matters: skip the second pass of serum, as her makeup artist Lisa Aharon used before the 2016 Grammys, and the foundation goes chalky under stage lights. Aharon started with Burt’s Bees Repair Serum at roughly $13, then doubled it with moisturizer, because color sits on moisture or it crumbles.
Burt’s Bees Repair Serum
Burt’s Bees Repair Serum sits at the start of Florence Welch’s red carpet skin prep, and celebrity makeup artist Lisa Aharon used it specifically to instantly revive skin before anything else touched the face. The serum creates a hydrated base that keeps makeup from clinging to dry patches or turning dull under lights. Aharon layered it again with the Sensitive Daily Moisturizing Cream for hydration that reads as skin rather than shine on camera. Three separate references back this exact product for Welch’s 2016 Grammy Awards look, which makes it the most consistently named item in her prep routine. The serum works alone for a lighter feel or doubled up when skin needs more, and that flexibility matters when you’re building a base that has to last through performance heat and flash photography.
Burt’s Bees Sensitive Moisturizing Cream
The cream that sits under Florence Welch’s 2016 Grammy look is less reflective on camera than heavier hydrators, which matters when flashbulbs are the real test. Celebrity makeup artist Lisa Aharon layered Burt’s Bees Sensitive Daily Moisturizing Cream over the brand’s Repair Serum for that exact balance: enough moisture to keep skin from tightening under powder, not so much that light bounces back. Three products carried the prep work. The serum revived, the toner cleansed, and this cream sealed hydration without adding glare. A few dabs of Brightening Eye Treatment finished the under-eye area, but the moisturizer was the step that let everything after it sit flat and true. If your own foundation catches light in photos, the fix might be swapping in a lighter hydrator rather than adding more powder on top.
Burt’s Bees Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm
Kokum butter sits in that sweet spot between waxy and slick, and Burt’s Bees Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm with Kokum Butter uses it to soften lips without leaving a film that fights the lipstick layered on top. Lisa Aharon reached for it after scrubbing Florence Welch’s lips with a cleansing towelette, not before: the dead skin had to go first so the balm could sink in rather than sit on top. That order matters more than people think. I’ve watched lip color go patchy when the prep step gets skipped or rushed, and the fix is almost always backtracking to add hydration that should have been there ten minutes earlier. At $4, this balm is the cheap insurance policy on whatever lipstick follows it. For Welch’s 2016 Grammy look, Aharon let it absorb, then applied Burt’s Bees Lipstick in Iced Iris ($9) over the smooth base. The rose hue against that dusty pink dress needed an even canvas, and the kokum butter delivered exactly that: no flaking, no settling into lines, no last-minute blotting with a tissue to save the finish.
Burt’s Bees Lipstick in Iced Iris
A lip color that reads as your own mouth, only more deliberate, is harder to find than the no-makeup makeup crowd admits. Burt’s Bees Lipstick in Iced Iris hits that mark, a dusty rose that makeup artist Lisa Aharon chose for Florence Welch at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The shade sat quietly against Welch’s dusty pink dress, contributing to the look without announcing itself.
The prep mattered as much as the pigment. Aharon scrubbed Welch’s lips first with a cleansing towelette, then layered on Burt’s Bees Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm with Kokum Butter before the lipstick went down. That hydration step kept the finish from veering into the chalky territory where natural lip colors often land.
At roughly $9, the lipstick sits in the range where experimenting costs little. For anyone building a Florence-inspired kit from pieces they already own, Iced Iris works as the lip that ties together a bare skin moment without demanding center stage. The formula leans into the same low-maintenance ethos Welch’s whole look favors: put it on, blot once, move on.
Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Crème Compact SPF 20
The Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Crème Compact SPF 20 lands exactly where Florence Welch’s base makeup lives: somewhere between bare skin and a finished face. The compact format means it travels in a bag without the spill risk of a tube, and the solid crème warms against a fingertip to something more blendable than you’d expect from something that looks like a powder case.
SPF 20 sits at that threshold where it genuinely helps on an overcast day or through a car window, but it won’t carry you through a festival set in full sun. For someone whose aesthetic leans toward the undone and luminous, the coverage here reads as skin first, product second. Two mentions place it in her rotation, which makes sense for stage lighting that punishes anything matte or mask-like.
The real convenience is reapplication. A cream compact travels better than liquid for touch-ups between soundcheck and doors, and the finish stays in the "did she or didn’t she" territory that defines her look.
Dior Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Makeup
Dior’s Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Makeup carries SPF 10, a step down from the heavier sun protection in the Laura Mercier compact but enough for days spent mostly indoors. Where the Laura Mercier reads as true skincare-makeup hybrid, this one leans into luminosity; the finish sits closer to real skin with light reflecting off it rather than the slightly dewier, moisturizer-forward look of the compact.
The hydration claim holds up on normal to dry faces, though anyone oily through the T-zone might find it shifts by hour six. I think of it as the option for someone who wants the Florence complexion, that lit-from-within quality, without the heavier coverage that can read stage-ready under daylight. Two separate product listings back this as part of her routine, which puts it in narrower company than most foundations on these lists.
DiorShow Black Out Mascara
Dark lashes sit at the center of Welch’s otherwise restrained eye makeup, and the most reliable route to that contrast runs through a volumizing black mascara built for drama without clumps. Two references back this specific tube over any competitor: the formula layers without spiking, which matters when the rest of the face stays matte and muted.
The brush kicks extra pigment into each lash from base to tip, so one pass delivers the density that normally takes three. On Welch, that density reads as modern romanticism rather than retro drag, which is exactly the balance her whole look depends on. You get the same effect by working the wand at the outer corners and letting the inner lashes stay lighter, keeping the eye shape lifted rather than boxed in. Waterproofing here would miss the point: the softness comes from knowing it might move slightly across a long night.
Kérastase Hair Products
Hair is treated as part of the complete aesthetic, not an afterthought. The Kérastase Paris Vinyle Nutri-Sculpt line comes up consistently in discussions of how Welch’s stylists build that full look, and it makes sense once you consider what the styling actually demands.
This is a sculpting and shaping range meant to hold structure without turning helmet-hard, which matters when you’re pairing loose waves with the kind of makeup that already carries so much presence. The products sit in that space between flexible and fixed, enough body to register on camera or from the audience floor, enough movement that it still reads as lived-in rather than constructed.
What convinced me, reading through how these routines get described, is that the hair is doing quiet work. It frames the face so the skin and color choices can read as intentional rather than overwhelming. The Vinyle line’s particular finish, that slight separation and shine, gives the reference point for why the rest of the look doesn’t need to compete.
For someone building this at home, the investment is in keeping the texture controlled without losing the softness that makes it feel like Florence rather than costume. The products are salon-priced, which stings until you realize you’re buying the hold that lets everything else breathe.
Clinique Moisture Surge
Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief earns its place in Florence Welch’s bag for one clear reason: it travels well. The formula is built for hours of hydration without the heaviness that makes some moisturizers feel like a mask in dry cabin air. For anyone who treats a carry-on as a second home, this is the product that keeps skin from turning tight and dull between time zones.
Welch has said she relies on it specifically on planes, which tells you the texture sinks in fast and does not compete with whatever sunscreen or base makeup follows. That matters when your routine gets compressed into a hotel bathroom or an airport lounge. The "Extended" in the name is not marketing fluff; it is the difference between reapplying every two hours and forgetting you are wearing it until touchdown.
I have tried fitting full skincare routines into a quart-size bag, and the winners are always the ones that multitask without announcing themselves. This one sits quietly in its pot, does its job through a long-haul flight, and leaves room for the red lipstick that actually shows up in photos.
MAC Pro Amplified Crème Lipstick in Neon Orange
Welch’s makeup range runs cooler than most people assume. Where Iced Iris reads quiet and pulled-back, Neon Orange lands loud and deliberately offbeat. The MAC Pro Amplified Crème formula keeps that kind of saturation wearable; the crème finish stops short of true matte, so the color moves with the lip rather than sitting on top like costume paint.
This is the shade for moments when her stage presence needs to hit before the first note. The contrast matters if you are building from her references. Iced Iris works for daylight errands or interviews where the face should not arrive before the voice. Neon Orange belongs to backlit venues, flashbulbs, anywhere the light does the work for you.
For someone shopping her actual kit, the swing between these two lipsticks covers most occasions without drifting into nude-for-the-sake-of-nude territory. Neither apologizes for being visible.
RéVive Eye Renewal Cream
She has spoken about letting her under-eye bags stay exactly as they are, which makes the hydration step around them more interesting. The skin there gets thin and creased before it ever looks puffy, and a cream that targets that texture tends to sit better beneath the sheer coverage she prefers. A pea-sized amount tapped in with the ring finger, starting at the inner corner, sinks in without migrating toward the lash line where it would clump with concealer later. The timing matters more than the pressure: five minutes between this layer and anything else gives the finish a chance to set to tacky rather than slippery, which is when tinted moisturizer actually stays put on top.
Welch’s acceptance of the shape beneath her eyes, the natural shadow and swell that no product erases, lets this step serve the makeup rather than fight the face. The cream adds enough plumpness that light reflects evenly, so less corrective work is needed after.
Skin Prep
The morning of a show, skin prep runs longer than the makeup itself. That was the habit Lisa Aharon followed for Florence Welch’s 2016 Grammy look, and the reason is simple: color sits on top of moisture or it sits on top of nothing and crumbles. Aharon started with repair serum, then toner, then a second layer of serum mixed with moisturizer for the camera-friendly finish she wanted. The second pass of serum is the part most of us skip, and the part that keeps foundation from going chalky under lights. Eye cream went on last, dabbed only on the delicate area where concealer would sit. Lip prep mattered too: a scrub with a facial towelette, then conditioning balm to absorb before lipstick ever touched skin. The whole routine took multiple products and multiple minutes, and Aharon treated every layer as load-bearing. Skip one, and the color work above it has nothing to hold on to.
Natural Look
Welch’s version of no-makeup makeup starts from the opposite place most tutorials do. Instead of building a blank canvas and painting features back on, she works with what is already there, including the parts most people try to erase. Her "genetically enormous eye bags" became a sticking point with her team during the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful era in 2015, when retouchers wanted them gone and she wanted them present. The compromise left her looking exhausted if untouched, but the full edit felt like fraud. That tension taught her what enhancing actually means: enough coverage to look healthy, not enough to look like someone else.
The 2016 Grammys red carpet showed the payoff. Celebrity makeup artist Lisa Ahoron created a look described as natural and glowing, which in practice meant skin that read as skin under stage lights rather than as porcelain. Welch has said that months without makeup during lockdown made the return feel like creative self-care rather than obligation, and that shift shows in her current approach. Enhancing, for her, means adding life back to a face that already has character, not constructing a new one from scratch. Blush matters more than foundation; at 33 she joked about needing it, but the point stands that color and movement read as more authentic than matte perfection.
For someone trying this at home, the move is to spend your effort on texture and tone rather than coverage. Ahoron’s work on that red carpet suggests the professional version relies on strategic placement of glow, not absence of product. The drugstore translation: spot-conceal where you need it, add cream blush high on the cheeks where Welch wears hers, and stop before the skin looks flat.
Signature Colors
Rose hues and dusty pink tones run through Florence Welch’s look like a thread you can actually follow, not a color trend that showed up last season and will vanish by fall. Her makeup artist paired a rose lip with a dusty pink dress for one appearance, using Burt’s Bees Lipstick in Iced Iris at $9, a choice that sits in the same tonal family rather than matching exactly. That restraint is the point: the color talks to the outfit without shouting.
Her stage wardrobe pushes further into the same mood, with sheer lilac gowns and sequined embroidery against trailing lace. The palette stays soft even when the silhouette goes dark, a balance she has described as "beautiful but bedraggled."
"Something beautiful but bedraggled. Trailing lace, embellishment, crowns, vampiric capes."
— Vogue
For anyone building a Florence-inspired face, the move is to pick one muted tone and let everything else stay quiet. A rose lip with bare skin, a wash of dusty pink shadow with no liner. The colors are doing the work of atmosphere, not accent.
Hair Styling
Voluminous waves are half the story of Florence Welch’s beauty look; without that mass of controlled texture, the pale lip and clean skin read as unfinished rather than intentional. Ryan Richman built the 2016 Grammy style by starting damp hair with KMS California TAMEFRIZZ smoothing lotion, working it through with a wide-tooth comb for even distribution before any heat touched the strands. That foundation let him blow-dry bangs with a boar bristle brush, shifting side to side until they set straight down, then round-brush the rest in one-inch sections. The wave itself came from a one-inch flatiron, bent up and down through each section while sliding, with KMS FREESHAPE spray locking the shape as he went. A dime-size amount of HAIRPLAY messing creme shaken through by hand finished the lived-in, second-day feel, and SILKSHEEN serum on the ends added the control that kept it from looking slept-on rather than styled. The Kérastase products used elsewhere in her routine get more press, but the TAMEFRIZZ step is what makes the texture manageable enough to shape; skip it and the flatiron work fights the hair instead of directing it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get Florence Welch’s makeup look?
Start with layered hydration: repair serum, toner, then a second pass of serum mixed with moisturizer before any color touches the face. Celebrity makeup artist Lisa Aharon spent more time on skin prep than on actual makeup for Welch’s 2016 Grammy look, because foundation crumbles when it sits on dry skin rather than moisture. Finish with a rose or dusty pink lip color that talks to your outfit without matching it exactly.
What products does Florence Welch use for her makeup?
Her kit mixes Burt’s Bees skincare and lip color, Laura Mercier and Dior base makeup, MAC and Clinique for color and travel hydration, plus Kérastase and KMS for hair. The most consistently named item is Burt’s Bees Repair Serum, used in three separate references for her 2016 Grammy prep. Other staples include the brand’s Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm with Kokum Butter, Lipstick in Iced Iris, Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Crème Compact SPF 20, and DiorShow Black Out Mascara.
How does Florence Welch maintain her skin while touring?
She relies on lightweight, layerable hydration that sinks in fast and does not compete with whatever follows. Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief sits in her bag specifically for planes, where the formula keeps skin from tightening in dry cabin air without feeling mask-like. The idea is to revive skin so less corrective work is needed after, not to build a heavy routine that falls apart in a hotel bathroom.
