This year’s 2020 Billboard Music Awards did not disappoint when it came to red carpet beauty, but it was really Nicole Richie’s purple smoky eye that made viewers do a double — possibly triple — take. Sure, the fashion designer is no stranger to a hazy smudge of eyeshadow (most recently, she wore a smoky eye to the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the premiere of the HBO show Camping), but last night’s interpretation was something entirely different than we’ve seen on her.

At first glance, Richie’s look was a sultry purple smoky eye cornered with a blur of black pigment. But there was more to it than its deep plum color. Richie’s makeup artist Beau Nelson used a Karla Cosmetics’ Multi Chrome Eyeshadow in the shade Snooze, which gave it a chromatic, iridescent finish and provided the illusion of a rainbow when light hit it.

For the rest of her face, Nelson used Tarte’s Shape Tape Concealer and Tom Ford’s Shade and Illuminate Soft Radiance Foundation, according to his Instagram Stories. While the rest of her makeup stayed fairly simple, Nelson did decide on a rosy pink lipstick to complete the look, and celebrity hairstylist Gregory Russell tousled Richie’s hair into a swept-back chignon, fastened with a clip.

This red carpet show was also indicative of a style that seems to be forming: unique revisions to the iconic smoky eye. This fall, the stars reinvented the typically neutral, two-tone theme. Recently, Lucy Boynton rocked a version that was barely there, and even at the Chanel Spring / Summer 2021 show, the models lined the runways with unusual variations — with gloss finishes or a smoky eye made of only one hue. Yet the verdict is that this is going to snowball all the way into the season.

Find out what items did Nelson used to get Richie ‘s vivid Billboard Music Awards look to help you start spicing your own winter makeup.

Multi Chrome Eyeshadow in Snooze $22.62 | Karla Cosmetics

Shade and Illuminate Soft Radiance Foundation $150 | Tom Ford

Shape Tape Concealer $27 |Tarte