Which beauty looks actually mattered at the 2026 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? Three clear trends emerged from the runway and backstage prep: gothic-inspired smoky eyes, bleached brows, and a full embrace of natural hair texture. Each was worn by identifiable models, and all sat under one creative umbrella — what the show's makeup artist described to Harper's Bazaar as "elevated radiance and playful sparkle" setting the stage for bombshell beauty in 2026.
Want to spot these trends yourself, in coverage or in your own makeup bag? Here's the breakdown, look by look, with the models who wore each one.
The 2026 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show: A New Era of 'Bombshell Beauty'
Start with the direction, because it explains everything else. A spotlight-worthy glow is always part of the Victoria's Secret runway — but this year, the approach shifted. Rather than crafting glowing skin purely for its own sake, the artist backstage told Harper's Bazaar that elevated radiance and playful sparkle defined the 2026 mood.
Why does that framing matter? Because it holds the individual looks together. The show ranged from darkly dramatic eyes to soft, natural lips to hair left to move freely. On their own, those choices could read as contradictory. Under one theme of radiance with a playful edge, they become a coherent statement.
There's also a commercial backdrop worth noting. Glossy reported that Victoria's Secret built its 2026 plans partly on social listening — tapping fan groups on its app, Reddit, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to develop a road map for what consumers want from the brand. The beauty direction you saw on the runway was shaped with that audience in mind.
Trend 1: Gothic-Inspired Smoky Eyes
The most striking eye statement of the night? A smoky eye with genuine gothic edge. Awar Odhiang carried the look onto the runway, with WWD's runway coverage crediting her smoky eyes with adding "gothic edge" to her overall appearance.
The same mood appeared backstage. Daiane Sodre and Abény Nhial were photographed getting ready with smoky shadow paired with natural lips and two types of curls. Notice the formula: depth and darkness at the eye, restraint everywhere else. That balance kept the dramatic eye from tipping into costume.
How do you recognize this trend in the wild? Look for heavily smoked, dark shadow as the focal point of the face — with lips kept natural and skin glowing rather than matte. That contrast is what separates gothic-inspired smoky eyes from a standard evening look.
Trend 2: The Bleached Brow Statement
If one brow treatment signaled the season, it was bleaching. Abby Champion walked the runway with brows lightened significantly, balanced by natural lips — a pairing that let the bleached brow read as deliberate rather than unfinished.
The look repeated backstage on Iris Law, who was photographed getting ready with a bleached pixie cut and glitter-dusted eyes. Two models, two very different hair lengths, one shared brow statement.
That repetition is the key point. A single bleached brow is a styling choice; the same treatment on multiple models across different looks is a trend. And the effect is consistent: lightened brows strip color from the upper face, creating a striking, minimalist frame that pushes attention to the eyes themselves.
Trend 3: Embracing Natural Hair Texture
The third major statement was hair — specifically, hair allowed to be itself. Imaan Hammam brought texture to the runway with bouncy coils, while Bella Hadid wore what WWD described as deflated curls, paired with thin brows and a baby wing of eyeliner.
Backstage, the texture theme continued. Daiane Sodre and Abény Nhial wore two types of curls, and Irina Shayk and Ashley Graham were both photographed with curlers in before the show — visible evidence of the prep behind the finished movement.
The emphasis on individual texture and varied curl types aligns with the show's broader creative push toward looks that feel effortless rather than lacquered. Notably, the texture wasn't uniform: coils, deflated curls and bleached pixies all appeared, suggesting the direction was "movement and personality" rather than one prescribed shape.
Trend 4: Playful Sparkle and Glitter-Dusted Eyes
Alongside the darker smoky looks sat their shimmering counterpart: glitter. Iris Law's glitter-dusted eyes, photographed backstage, embodied the "playful sparkle" half of the show's stated makeup direction.
It's worth being precise here. The evidence supports glitter as an element of the overall 2026 makeup theme rather than a standalone trend with a long list of named wearers — Iris Law is the clearest documented example. Treat sparkle as the counterweight to gothic depth, not a separate movement.
How does it fit the bigger picture? Radiance and sparkle were the stated foundation of the show's beauty direction. Glitter at the eye delivered that sparkle literally, while smoky looks delivered the drama — two halves of one "bombshell" formula.
Trend 5: The 'Baby Wing' Eyeliner
One more detail deserves a mention, with a caveat. Bella Hadid's runway look included what WWD described as a "baby wing" — a subtle flick of eyeliner paired with her deflated curls and thin brows.
Can you call this a full trend? Not on this evidence. The "baby wing" appears in a single model description, so it's best understood as a supporting detail within Hadid's overall look rather than a widespread statement from the show. But it's a useful illustration of how the 2026 direction worked: even the eyeliner stayed restrained, letting texture and brows carry the personality.
Other individual looks rounded out the runway without forming distinct trends. Megan Moroney made her Victoria's Secret debut with her trademark blond hair, pink lips and flirty lashes. Candice Swanepoel returned with glazed and frosted lips. Both fit the radiance-and-polish theme, but neither launched a repeated statement.
Key Beauty Trends from the 2026 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
To make the show's beauty direction easy to scan, the major trends are grouped below by shared features — eye makeup style, brow treatment and hair texture — with the models who wore them. Use it to identify and differentiate the looks at a glance.
| Trend | Key Elements | As Seen On (Model) |
|---|---|---|
| Gothic-Inspired Smoky Eyes | Dramatic, dark eye makeup with a gothic influence, balanced by natural lips | Awar Odhiang (runway); Daiane Sodre and Abény Nhial (backstage) |
| The Bleached Brow | Brows lightened significantly, paired with natural lips or glitter accents | Abby Champion (runway); Iris Law (backstage) |
| Embracing Natural Hair Texture | Bouncy coils, deflated curls and varied curl types emphasizing movement | Imaan Hammam and Bella Hadid (runway); Daiane Sodre and Abény Nhial (backstage) |
| Playful Sparkle | Glitter-dusted eyes as part of the show's "playful sparkle" makeup direction | Iris Law (backstage) |
Read the table as a categorization, not a ranking. Each row groups individual model looks that shared a defining feature, drawn from runway and backstage reporting on the show. Where a model appears in two rows — Iris Law, for example — the looks combined rather than competed: her bleached pixie, bleached brows and glitter-dusted eyes were one cohesive appearance.
One boundary on this summary: it reflects the looks described in the available coverage, not every model at the event. Backstage photographs captured prep moments — curlers in, glam in progress — that don't always match the finished runway result.
Identifying Emerging Beauty Influences
Readers can identify and differentiate the key beauty trends from the 2026 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show — gothic smoky eyes, bleached brows and textured hair — and recognize their defining elements within the show's "elevated radiance and playful sparkle" direction.
A quick self-check: the reader can accurately describe at least three distinct beauty trends from the show, naming their core elements and associated models. If you can name the smoky eye and attach it to Awar Odhiang, the bleached brow and attach it to Abby Champion and Iris Law, and the texture-forward hair and attach it to Imaan Hammam and Bella Hadid — you've grasped what defined bombshell beauty in 2026.
What should you watch next? Whether these runway statements repeat across other major shows and campaigns in the coming season — and whether Victoria's Secret's social-listening-driven beauty expansion, including its first skin-care partnership, carries the same radiance-and-sparkle mood into products you can actually buy.
