As one of Hollywood’s most classically beautiful women, Angelina Jolie has stuck fast to the old-school rule of red carpet glamour: eyes or lips, but never both together. Her signature look has always been a sultry smokey eye plus a nude glossy lip, although, since embracing blonde hair, she’s often chosen to play up her famous pout with a vibrant slick of red.
Now, though, we’re seeing a new era of Angelina, which chimes perfectly with the ‘less is more’ makeup era led by Pamela Anderson. We’re yet to see her go totally bare-faced on the red carpet (although with that bone structure she’d undoubtedly pull it off), but her latest appearance shows just how gorgeous she looks with her makeup pared right back.
The Maria actress showed off her natural beauty in Italy this weekend, where she was attending the ‘Couture’ red carpet at the 20th Rome Film Festival. Angelina turned 50 this summer, but looked decades younger with some seriously fresh-faced makeup.
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The key to the whole look was to let her own skin tone show through, no doubt aided by her known love of laser treatments and religious use of the best SPFs. Her complexion looked flawless and ultra-natural with no obvious trace of blusher or contouring, while her neutral lip shade could almost pass for her own tone with just a little clear gloss slicked on top.
She kept some definition on her eyes, with her tried and trusted liner, but it was kept softer and a little smudgier than her classic feline flick. Brows were kept softly shaped and gently pencilled but no darker than her hair’s root colour. The only statement splash of colour came from her rich burgundy nails, a shade loved by manicurists for its youthful look on hands.
Her lashes, too, had just a whisper of enhancement, which looked more like mascara plus a good lash curler than falsies. This sits prettily with the ‘ghost lash trend’ we’ve seen taking over in 2025, as celebrities move away from obvious eyelash embellishment and opt for a softer look.
Speaking of the ‘ghost’ beauty movement, Angelina is also shifting into the seamless hair colour trend, aka ‘ghost balayage’. As her latest appearance shows, she’s allowed the ‘up-to-the-root’ blonde shade we saw her wearing earlier in the year to grow into something more graduated.
Her root shade is now a mid-brown, which is darker than before but not a return to the raven shade of her 20s, which would be draining in her 50s.
‘Maintaining a brunette tone with lighter ends creates both light and depth in the hair, which is really classy,’ explains celebrity hairstylist Gustav Fouche. ‘Embracing lighter tones in the hair is youthful, but you don’t need to be blonde from root to tip to get the best effect. Keeping a darker root softens the blonde, making it look more chic.’
