The Bride!’s Makeup Artist Breaks Down Jessie Buckley’s Look

Jessie Buckley is everywhere right now thanks to her new appointment as the 2026 Oscar’s Best Actress for her role as Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. But just weeks before heading to the British countryside to step into the role of England’s most renowned playwright’s wife, Buckley was wrapping another film about a famous bride—this time set in 1930s Chicago with a much different backstory. Buckley swapped her signature bixie haircut and minimalist glam for bleached brows, bruised eyes, and an ink-splattered mouth to become the undead focus of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s reinvented Frankenstein film, The Bride!

Though Buckley’s scene-stealing performance as the self-described “feral” main character—who oscillates between the names Penelope, Ida, and, finally, The Bride—is entirely unforgettable, the aspect of film that became seared into the minds of us beauty editors was the star’s striking look, which was ripe with bruised discoloration and black smears emanating from the corner of her mouth. The culprit? The film’s decorated head makeup artist, Nadia Stacey, not just the messy hand of her mad-scientist maker.

Jessie Buckley in hair and makeup on the set of The Bride!

You may recognize Stacey’s work on Emma Stone for her shape-shifting roles in Poor Things and Cruella, but this romantic thriller guided the hair and makeup head down a campier road.

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“From a makeup perspective, I knew there were so many incredible opportunities to create character,” Stacey tells Who What Wear about her initial pull toward the script. “I love a reimagining of classic stories—an opportunity to redesign and put my own slant on something.”

The original material that Stacey put said slant on was a Frankensteined affair. (Forgive the pun.) There were the obvious references to the 1935 horror Bride of Frankenstein—where Elsa Lanchester, donning a white-streaked, electrocuted wig and blackened lips, portrayed the monster’s resurrected mate. Then there were the more subtle nods to Man Ray and Pat McGrath’s runway looks for Galliano, the latter of which Stacey called “a huge inspiration.” In the end, a patchwork of references stitched together the picture we now have of The Bride, but the look’s defining mark was a love child of Stacey, Gyllenhaal, and Buckley.

You see, The Bride’s stark black stain was never written into the script. It was a result of the trio’s brainstorming and an element that would soon become a trademark design of the film, splashed across movie posters and premiere carpets alike. “[It was written] that she would have black ink pumped through her veins as part of the reinvigoration process,” Stacey explains. “Maggie, Jessie, and I talked about what would actually happen in the process, and we thought about her sitting up and coughing—the ink splashing across her face.” We later see this spillage everywhere, draining from her ears, trickling down her collarbones, and streaming from major arteries on the inside of her arm.

Jessie Buckley in hair and makeup on the set of The Bride!

On any set, no-budge beauty products are a must for long shoot days and early morning hair and makeup, which is why the artist turned to Pat McGrath Labs for Buckley’s haunting look. “I needed staying power, so I relied on Pat McGrath’s Sublime Perfection Primer,” she states. Though The Bride’s makeup changes throughout the film (most notably before death and after), there are elements of the character’s look that remain, and if you examine closely, you can spot the Pat McGrath magic.