Although you might not realise it, hair and cosmetics are an important part of every movie and television show you watch. Some people think that skilled makeup artists are only required to alter an actor's appearance—think prosthetics, wrinkles, and wigs—but every production needs the makeup department, no matter how simple the makeup look is.

On March 27, 2022, the Academy Awards were presented. In February, the nominees for this year's award event were revealed. The teams behind Coming 2 America, Cruella, Dune, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and House of Gucci were nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their cinematic craftsmanship. L'OFFICIEL is examining what went into the styling on these enduring movies as a tribute to their toil.

The first team to receive an Oscar nomination this year was makeup artist Mike Marino, hairstylists Carla Farmer and Stacey Morris, and. The ensemble is nominated for their work on the movie Coming 2 America, in which Arsenio Hall plays Eddie Murphy's "wife" and the two tour the world in search of Jermaine Fowler, who plays Murphy's long-lost son, while also attempting to mend fences with their neighbouring nation Nextdoria.

The majority of Farmer and Morris' hairstyles were inspired by the Afro-punk movement. For this performance, Farmer and Morris braided hair till their hands hurt and made a tonne of wigs. Farmer drew inspiration for Wesley Snipes's Nextdorian hairstyle from the Amasunzu tribe of Rwanda and braided Snipe's hair in a fashion that resembles mountains with their intricately carved out valleys.

The prosthetics for eight of the characters in the movie were created by Marino, who replaced Rick Baker, the prosthetics artist who worked on the original Coming to America.

Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne, and Julia Vernon give the legendary Cruella persona a punk appearance for the Disney film. In the 1970s, an orphan named Estella is changing who she is to become Cruella, a fashion icon. Stacey wanted the hair and makeup for the movie to have a look that was reminiscent of the real-life '70s punk movement in London.

The crew was given complete creative control over the appearance, but they had to maintain the signature black and white hair. Stacey, Donne, and Vernon gave Estella a darker appearance as she begins to resemble Cruella more. To highlight the increased confidence she was showing, they gave her makeup a theatrical look. The Sex Pistols, a British punk band, were the source of inspiration for Cruella De Vil's trademark appearance in the movie, "the future," which was spray-painted on Cruella's face. The Cruella crew, well known for their album Never Mind the Bollocks, adopted the album cover's lettering and spray-painted aesthetic as inspiration for their "the future" look.

Dune, the science fiction film that dominated social media, had stunning hair and cosmetics. Dune examines both human and alien appearances as it tells the tale of a conflict between the House of Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Fremen on a galactic scale.

Donald Mowat, the director of hair and makeup, wanted Zendaya and Timotheé Chalamet to look as natural as possible. While Chalamet's hair was left natural, Zendaya's was treated with sea salt spray to give it the unkempt, windswept appearance it had in the movie.

Although Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Timothee Chalamet, and Zendaya all received only light makeup, Stellan Skarsgrd's character required extensive makeup. Love Larson and Eva von Bahr, prosthetics artists, helped Skarsgrd become a huge, hairless ruler. Fortunately, Skarsgrd was only filming for seven days because the entire outfit weighted roughly 20–25 pounds.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye required a significant amount of makeup in the aftermath of the rise and fall of the Bakker televangelist family. The head makeup artist for the film, Linda Dowds, sought to accurately duplicate Tammy Faye's appearance without making fun of her. Faye was one of the first women to be shown wearing a lot of makeup on television during her day and was well-known for her dramatic eye makeup.

Faye was ridiculed as a sort of caricature as her career progressed because of how much makeup she used. Dowds made it a point to stay as true to the genuine actress as possible while filming Jessica Chastain's portrayal of Faye. Chastain consistently wore overlined lips and large, dramatic eyes, which closely mimicked Faye's appearance.

The prosthetics played a significant role in this film. Chastain was had to wear a full neck wrap, acquire pieces to enlarge her chin and cheeks, and wear lip prosthetics to make her look older. In order to add ageing around the actress's eyes, the team also performed "stretch and stipple" treatment. The actor who portrays Faye's husband Jim Bakker, Andrew Garfield, also had prosthetic surgery. Garfield was given a longer neck and larger facial features, though not to the same dramatic extent as Chastain's.

Although House of Gucci is better recognised for its clothing, it also had outstanding hair and beauty displays. The film's stars were transformed into their iconic roles by Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock, and Frederic Aspiras during extended days spent in salon chairs.

As Lady Gaga's character became increasingly entwined with the Gucci family, the cosmetics team changed how she looked. Gaga first experimented with '70s glam, which featured minimal makeup and loads of gloss. As her character rose in status and the decades passed, Gaga's makeup became more matte and focused on the Italian glam of the 1980s. Gaga's avatar was portrayed as being more careless for the 2000s era, wearing unkempt hair and nude lips. The ten wigs Aspiras created for Gaga's character allow her brunette hair to change colours and styles throughout the movie. Aspiras produced the looks he wanted to give Gaga with wigs rather than having the actress cut and dye her hair for the movie.

Adam Driver's appearance stayed almost unchanging throughout the movie. Depending on the decade, his smooth, combed-back hair was either short or long.

Lundström worked tirelessly to change Jared Leto into Paolo Gucci for the role. Lundström alone worked on Leto's prosthesis; he made all the other components himself. Leto spent the entire time wearing heavy prosthetics, including a bald cap, as well as the ones required for a thicker nose, larger cheeks, and a larger neck.

Special effects makeup artists (also known as SFX makeup artists) offer their much-needed skills when it comes to creating more imaginative, unnatural looks, such as creating monsters and aliens, making an actor look older, or fabricating phoney injuries. SFX makeup artists need to have a thorough understanding of materials like as rubber, latex, and fake blood in order to produce prosthetics that look realistic. They also need to be well-versed in the same cosmetology techniques as their more traditional counterparts.

Rick Findlater, a makeup artist on The Hobbit and Avatar, advises aspiring makeup artists to find the truth in whatever makeup work they're tackling each day, regardless of where they received their training or what style of makeup they choose to specialise in. Don't apply makeup the way you imagine it to look; rather, do it as it is, he advises. So, if you remember it, you won't make a mistake.