A History of Katseye’s Best Beauty Looks

4 min read

There’s plenty to talk about when it comes to Katseye, but what doesn’t get enough attention is the group’s beauty looks. Creating distinct beats that fit each member’s personality and individual aesthetic, while keeping things collectively cohesive, requires a certain level of makeup mastery. It’s a challenge makeup artist Andrew Park has taken on since he started working with the group during The Debut: Dream Academy back in 2023. “I lead the makeup for most of Katseye’s shoots and projects. My role is to establish the overall makeup direction for each member—thinking about which colors suit them, what elements we want to emphasize, and how each look fits into the concept,” he tells ELLE.

If you’ve followed Katseye since their formation, you know that the group is made up of girls who grew up in different countries, cultures, and environments. “I don’t think their beauty can, or should, be defined too narrowly. To me, that’s one of the most interesting things about the group,” says Park. “There is such a wide range of what beauty can look like within Katseye.”

Their looks are also constantly evolving. It’s why Park says it’s difficult to define each girl’s aesthetic, but he offers overarching breakdowns for each. “Sophia has a very feminine, sparkling quality to her beauty, while Daniela has this sharp, polished kind of chicness. Lara wears luminous, glamorous beauty incredibly well. Megan has a rawness to her that I love—something a little rougher, grungier, almost like a rock star. Manon has this natural edge where even a very simple, uncomplicated look can feel glamorous. And Yoonchae has a softness, but also this unique ability to absorb so many different types of looks and make them feel like her own,” Park explains.

With so much constant change, where does a glam team begin? Park says it all starts with the music. Humberto Leon and João Moraes, the group’s creative directors, give Park and his team the creative direction and the world surrounding each song. “For ‘Hootie Frutti,’ we were thinking about summer in Brazil, where João is from. I started collecting images that gave me that feeling: fruits and vegetables almost wilting in the heat, colorful ice cream, flushed cheeks after dancing in the summer. When I start putting those images together, the makeup begins to appear in my head,” says Park. The results for the music video were vibrant, colorful, and highly glossy makeup looks.

Even with inspiration and musical direction, Park finds ways to infuse his creative freedoms into the process. “I’ll find makeup references that come closest to what I’m imagining, but I don’t like to plan every detail too rigidly. On set, I’ll lay out the color shades that remind me of all those images I collected and work quite instinctively from there. I like leaving some room for spontaneity,” he adds.

Whether it’s in anticipation of hours in front of a camera or under bright stage lights, Park has a very particular process to keep the girls’ makeup locked in. “For me, it starts with keeping the skin care light and making sure the skin isn’t too warm before applying makeup. I sometimes use a cooling applicator to bring down the surface temperature of the skin,” he says.

For the base, Park prefers to apply multiple, very thin layers rather than one heavy layer. “I also use loose powder strategically to improve longevity without making the skin look too flat or heavy. And one of my favorite tricks is ONE/SIZE’s waterproof setting spray. I layer it throughout the process and again right before they go onstage. For performance makeup, those thin layers really make a difference.”

With so many looks created in a relatively short group history thus far, it’s hard for Park to pick a favorite—but he remembers a few fondly, like “The neutral, girly beauty of ‘Touch,’ or the classic, vintage, telenovela-inspired glamour of ‘Gabriela’.” One of his most recent projects, though, tops the list. “One of my recent favorites was the Disguises concept we created for the EP3 concept shoot. We used crazy colored contacts, studs, colored shadows, and other elements to transform each member so that the same person could look completely different from one image to the next.”

The process, although chaotic, was quite memorable for Park. “Each member had five outfits, and for every look we basically had five minutes to change clothes, five minutes to change hair and makeup, and five minutes to shoot. I still don’t know how we pulled it off!” The shoot spoke to Park’s previous sentiments about uniquely expressing each member’s personality and personal evolution through their beauty look. “I loved the idea of creating something that was the same but different—literally disguising them while still allowing something of each girl to remain. In a way, I think that connects back to Katseye itself: six girls with different backgrounds, cultures, and identities coming together while remaining completely individual.”

As for what Park sees on the horizon beauty-wise, for Katseye, he’s leaning into lip liner. “I think it’s one of the simplest products, but it can completely change a look just through color and shape,” Park notes. “I use everything from salmon tones and taupe browns to reddish browns and deep dark browns. Even without changing much else in the makeup, switching the shade or the shape of the lip liner can create a completely different mood,” he concludes.