There was a time—pretty much the early 2010s—when Lady Gaga wearing a fantastical hair colour and avant-garde makeup meant it was just a day of the week ending in Y. Although she never ceased to surprise with her creative looks, idiosyncratic beauty is what we came to expect from the superstar.
She’s spent much of the last decade serving up a toned-down version of herself or opting for a more classic glam, though, so when she showed up at the London premiere of Joker: Folie à Deux with a hair and makeup combo that looked straight out of the Born This Way/Artpop era, it came as a surprise—and yet, it seemed, in a very Gaga way, like a return to normalcy.
Lady Gaga, who plays Lee Quinzel (AKA Harley Quinn) in the Joker sequel, wore a dramatic red gown to walk the carpet, but it wasn’t just her puff-sleeve bolero jacket that matched. The red also made its way to her hair in the form of a cherry cola bob.
The slightly textured chin-length style featured splashes of intense ruby highlights on an almost-black base, creating a variegated contrast that’s especially apparent in her choppy bangs.
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The red carries over into Lady Gaga’s makeup look, too, with a softly blotted, not-too-bold red lip. The boldness is reserved for her eye makeup, which features bright blue eyeshadow and smoked out black wings. Under just her right eye is more smudgy black shadow, which has been topped off with glitter and completed with a tear-like detail.
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Although Lady Gaga never has to choose between an exclusively daring and an exclusively subtle beauty style, we can’t help but hope this means she may start incorporating some more old-school Lady Gaga individuality into her appearances more often.
A version of this article originally appeared on Allure.