The Young Royals' makeup artist reveals how she created each character's look

You’ve probably never heard of Anna Mirow. But we’re willing to bet that you’ve seen her work and the characters she’s made up who have put their best faces forward on screen (literally).

If you’ve ever seen the movie Salmon Fishing in Yemen, It: Chapter Two, or the TV series Before We Die and The Box, then you’ll already have experienced a bit of Mirow magic. But it’s her work on the Young Royals that is gaining this bashful makeup artist recognition for somewhat less conventional reasons.

Anyone who has tuned into the Swedish teen drama streaming on Netflix will have been struck by the distinct lack of airbrushing. From Prince Wilhelm of Sweden to Simon Eriksson, real skin is celebrated with oily patches, breakouts and scars on full, unfiltered view.

“So much effort went into making these characters, which I really think shows in the end result,” says Mirow. “I’ll always be thankful to the fantastic director Rojda [Sekersöz], who had a big vision that the characters should be as authentic as possible. 'If they have a scar, make it bigger,' she would say. We wanted teenagers to be able to relate to them and feel safe and empowered.”

These realistic depictions of skin on screen is something Mirow hopes will also contribute to a wider conversation about acne positivity.

Vogue Scandinavia caught up with Mirow to talk beauty standards and what techniques she used on set of the Young Royals…

“I love skin and think it’s important to see natural skin on screen. We had a vision to let the viewers relate to real teenage skin in the Young Royals.

For most of the characters we used Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation as it has such good coverage. Sometimes we mixed it with Embryolisse Lait-Creme to get the skin to look more natural and a little oily. The latter was a real saviour in the cold Swedish winter.”

“It can be difficult to let things look natural. We’re all affected by beauty norms and we almost always see 'perfect' skin on screen. We have fans thanking us for showing real teenage skin but we also get comments from other fans, who are often older, saying that they don’t believe rich kids would need acne medication. It’s sad that these traditional beauty standards are so hard to break and I really hope we can normalise not having 30-year-old actors with Barbie-perfect features playing teenagers!”

“Makeup can be very simple but at the same time hold a great deal of meaning for the character. We tailored all the actors' makeup bags so they matched the characters, including fake braces, frizzy homemade hairstyles, expensive hairclips, wigs, lenses, nail art, small hidden tattoos, fake facelifts, face lace and glitter. In addition to Armani makeup, we also used products from Lancome, YSL, Pixi, Fenty, Milk, Maria Nila haircare and Sweed Lashes Lash Lift mascara, which I love!
 
Prince Wilhelm
We wanted to match the colour of Wilhelm’s hair and eyebrows with that of his character's parents. As the actor Edvin [Ryding] was in another production at the same time we used Benefit Gimme Brow Nr 3 and washed it out each day using a foam cleanser. For his face we used Embyolisse Lait-Creme mixed with Armani Silk Foundation Nr.5 and small amount of Jane Iredale PurePressed Base Mineral Foundation in Golden Glow.

Simon
Omar Rudberg, who plays Simon, has the most ridiculously smooth skin so we had to add on scars to make it look less airbrushed and paint bigger eyebows. For his amazing curls we used Maria Nila Curlicue Cream.

Felice
For Felice we used a lot of Fenty, Milk and Pixie makeup and, very importantly, the YSL Rouge Volupte Shine Moisturising Lipstick she uses on screen. A big story line is that she will go from straightening her hair every day to letting it go natural so of course we included her Versace hair clips in her kit.
 
Madison
We always made sure we had fun earrings to put in her different hairstyles and face lace stickers. Like all the other characters, Madison’s base was Armani foundation and rouge, as well as Natasha Denona eyeshadow and Pixi Natural Brow Duo.

“I think that today's standards and the beauty norms that are portrayed in different TV shows and movies are often unrealistic. It sends out a really bad message to young people. We made it a priority to stay realistic in the Young Royals.”