By Eva Longoria's count, she has ascended the red carpeted steps of the Cannes Film Festival for nineteen years. One style directive has kept the event feeling fresh across nearly two decades of appearances: It's the carpet where she can "color outside the lines."
Speaking to me from the L'Oréal Paris suite at Hôtel Martinez, the director and actress describes her trips to the French Riviera's famed film circuit as an invitation to step outside her comfort zone. "I think it's because it's such a global audience that descends upon Cannes, you can take probably more risks on this red carpet and push the envelope," she says. "I feel like in the United States—it's a little, not conservative, but it's just more safe."
But Longoria has a caveat: Her boundary-pushing glamour applies to plunging, crystal-coated gowns by Elie Saab and cutout couture by Tony Ward—not her beauty. While every carpet she's walked has come with a dramatically different look—I've counted eight official outfit changes during Longoria's 2024 circuit alone—she's kept her hair and makeup fairly consistent from her earliest appearances to the present.
"I like a simple glam. I'm really into small head shapes with the hair, very, very clean makeup like a strong lash line, and that's about it," she explains. By keeping her beauty classic, "That kind of lets the fashion do the work then, in terms of making a statement."
This year at Cannes, Longoria has walked the red carpet to support films including Emma Stone's dark comedy Kinds of Kindness and Selena Gomez's musical Emilia Pérez, in gowns coordinated by Maeve Reilly with hair by L'Oréal stylist Stephane Lancien. In the process, she's also set the stage for her next major project: Land of Women, a feel-good series set in Spanish wine country coming to Apple TV next month.
The show is her first since Desperate Housewives ended in 2012. Prepping for her return to the small screen has transformed Longoria's approach to beauty when she's not on the step-and-repeat. "There's been a shift in focus to skincare, and you can't have good makeup or look good on TV if you don't have good skin," she says. As a result, she and her glam team have a longer process—inclusive of de-puffing, hydrating, protecting, and plumping—before she even sits in the makeup chair.
One tool, Facify's six-in-one facial smoothing and lymphatic draining wand, has been Longoria's game-changer. (She tells me she loves products that can multitask more than others.) "I put on my Revitalift Serum and then I just use the tool and it wakes up your under eye, which is important when you're on camera," she says.
Innovative beauty tools and custom couture gowns aren't the Cannes updates Longoria is ultimately the most passionate about. She tells me it's the evolving, increasingly inclusive atmosphere of the festival—where Greta Gerwig is currently jury president, Lily Gladstone is a fellow juror, and women from around the world are directing and leading some of the buzziest film entries—that has been the most "beautiful to witness." Some things in film need to change; her Cannes beauty was never one of them.
