Kat Graham has been a mainstay on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet since 2013, and this year is no exception. Over the course of the past week, the 31-year-old Vampire Diaries alum has turned heads in deep-cut gowns, fiery-red halter necks, and sparkling, strapless numbers. “During what was my busiest Cannes festival yet,” said Graham, whose hotel room overlooked the Mediterranean Sea, “the water kept me centered while I rushed to change shoes, jewelry and dresses all week.”
Of course, it’s hard to pick favorites, but of all her epic ensembles, her most stand-out look was perhaps the one that she wore to the 27th amfAR Gala: a high-shine, skin-baring Nicolas Jebran design, which she (with the help of her makeup artist, Elisa Rampi) accented with an equally stand-out beauty equation. “Because this was my second carpet of the night and my third look of the day, my hair was already done before I got ready,” Graham explained of her getting ready process. Instead, after prepping her face with a 111Skin recovery mask, she focused on her makeup, opting for a cherry-glossed lip and a swipe of metallic pigment at eye level—not to mention her ultimate complexion-saving secret weapon: L’Oréal’s Infallible’s powder foundation, which, she happily notes, works double duty as a contour. As she put it, “With the hot summer sun, it was the only thing that I used to keep me from looking sweaty but not overly matte.”
Below, a behind-the-scenes look at how Kat Graham prepped for the 2021 amfAR Gala.