Flower crowns, bold lips and more must-see beauty looks from the Toronto Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 shows

Unlike the dispersed set-up at many international fashion weeks, in cities like New York and Paris, all the designers at Toronto Fashion Week and RE\SET share the same teams of talented creatives to design their individualized beauty looks. At the glam headquarters backstage, lead makeup artist Simone Otis for beautyBOUTIQUE by Shoppers Drug Mart, lead hair artist Jorge Joao, International Redken Artist, and a Her Majesty's Pleasure x CND team for nails worked together to create a custom beauty look for each show, to complement the clothes and creative direction for the season.

From shows that prioritized "strong brows and perfect skin" (Sid Neigum) to collections that required an "androgynous, beautiful alien" look (Pedram Karimi), the lead artists — with the help of an army of backstage beauty pros — designed distinctive, directional looks for each presentation. Here are five of the must-see trends that they designed for Spring/Summer 2019.

Artful white liner

For both the Namesake and DISCOVER THIS: shopRE\SET presentations, models sported white liquid eyeliner that was artfully applied by Otis and her team. Rather than having a uniform look for each show, however, the liner shape and position was adjusted and adapted for each model's face. "White eyeliner feels a little 'fashion' and a little forward, but it's not aggressive," says Otis. "You can wear it with anything; it could be for daytime or nighttime."

Strong lips

"A big trend is a bold, matte lip in any colour," says Otis. "We've talked before about bold pink or red lips, which are easy to wear and fun, but now we're even moving into black, different shades of green, and deep purple." Bright, strong lips were the beauty highlight at both the Victoria Hayes and Hilary Macmillan shows, although one was designed by Otis using a lip liner and liquid lipstick combo while the other was painted using a matte lipstick. "What is very 'right' and 'now' is distinction on the face, so you're defining your features in a somewhat classic way, but using modern textures," says Otis.

The evening ponytail

In place of an elegant updo or sleek bun, Joao designed a high, relaxed ponytail to go with many of the evening and bridal looks at the Christopher Paunil show. Surprising easy to recreate at home, the unexpectedly informal hairstyle adds a youthful feel to even the most formal of outfits. Joao's tip for finishing your high pony like a pro? To hide the hair elastic, take a few strands of hair and saturate them with a strong hairspray, like Redken's Triple Take 32, before wrapping them around the elastic and using a blow dryer to heat-set everything in place.

Hair florals

At Narces and Christopher Paunil, oversized white floral headpieces were the hair accoutrement of choice. For the Mani Jassal show, Joao applied sprigs of baby's breath to each model's loosely-braided hair using eyelash glue.

And, most impressively, the jewel-toned, real-flower hair accessories at the Daniel Gregory Natale presentation recall a more minimalist version of Beyonce's September Vogue flower crown cover. To try this look at home, Joao recommends starting with flora that will hold its shape and look fresh for at least a few hours; he used flowers like orchid, carnation and sea holly for the show. "If you're going to use flowers, choose ones that are sturdy, and have a stem that's strong enough that you can put a pin into it," says Joao, adding that you can also simply glue or sew the blooms to a hair clip.

Miami Art Deco nails

John Nguyen of CND Canada created the nail art for the Victoria Hayes show using bright and pastel CND Vinylux polish shades like Taffy, Candied, and Gummi. The key to making these pretty colours look chic and not overly sweet? An elongated, oval nail shape and the addition of sleek, gold trim.

Truc Nguyen is a Toronto-based writer, editor and stylist. Follow her at @trucnguyen.