We’re in a season of goodbyes. In between all the holiday cheer of the year end period, comes plenty of time to take stock of how 2025 has treated us. What worked, and what didn’t? What should we have skipped past, and what should we have taken a risk with? Chances are however, that makeover you’ve been mulling over is still the elite choice. After all, no breakout hair or make-up moment in the beauty space has ever been achieved for a lack of trying. And 2025 certainly rewarded us with numerous celebrity transformations—some we might even still be thinking about.
Plenty of which were revealed to us on the most dramatic and glamorous stage of all: the red carpet. It was the first few days of January when we first met Emma Stone with her audacious new cut: the pixie to triumph over all pixies. Bella Hadid, the paragon of unrivalled beauty that she is, made her routine return back to Cannes with pizzazz, stepping out with bombshell blonde locks. As for make-up transformations that we can’t come back from? Nothing could have mentally prepared us for Jenna Ortega’s soft goth, man-repelling make-up from her Wednesday Season 2 press tour.
It was certainly a year we were singing praises for some of the most accomplished make-up artists—who worked their painterly magic on our favourite faces. Sophia Sinot, for one, deserves all the stars for her work with Zara Larsson, as the Swedish singer-songwriter sported divine pop glam looks befitting of her world tour. So behold, some of the most memorable beauty transformations of 2025, and we’ll see you in the new year.
1 / 20
Emma Stone's pixie debut
It was the way she sauntered up with her fresh cut, fully nonchalant of her impact. Fresh-faced and beaming—just like how anyone would have wanted to start the new year—this pixie started a movement for the rest of 2025.
2 / 20
Lady Gaga's micro bangs
Mother Monster served us her regular dose of unconventional beauty amid the release of Mayhem: this blunt micro bangs look, paired to bleached brows.
3 / 20
Bella Hadid goes blonde
Oh, she’s still got it. It’s Bella Hadid, in Cannes, with a fresh blonde do. Need we say more?
4 / 20
The Swamp Princess goes afro
Doechii went for gold with this year’s Met Gala theme. Her lush, voluminous afro paid ode to Black dandyism, and she paired it with a single printed monogram of Louis Vuitton on her cheeks.
5 / 20
Jennie bleeds crimson
For all of one day, Jennie saw red. It was peak Ruby, as the South Korean star sported a blunt scarlet bob for the promotions of her new album.
6 / 20
Kris Jenner's facelift
Blink and you’ll miss it. At 69, the matriarch has never looked better, with the help of a near perfect facelift and tweakments. As far as celebrity transformations go, this one takes the top spot.
7 / 20
Anok Yai's bixie
The bixie took off in 2025. And one of its first proponents was Anok Yai, who made a strong case for the hybrid haircut at the Oscars.
8 / 20
Zendaya's retro bob
A modern twist to old Hollywood glamour. Zendaya’s retro bob of curls was certainly a headturner at the Golden Globes, and perfectly postured for her Armani gown that day.
9 / 20
Soyeon of (G)i-dle sports a fresh snip
Soyeon left us with a blond bixie for summer, and cranked up the heat further with those red hot nails. The I-dle leader never leaves us wanting.
10 / 20
Jenna Ortega dolls up, but not for the male gaze
Bleached brows. Ghoulish hues smeared across her lids and lips. And that divine contour work that transforms her face. All in all, this soft, gothic dream may have been man-repelling, but perhaps we were all the better for it.
11 / 20
Woozi of Seventeen takes to a pink buzz
There were plenty of buzzcuts in K-pop but none quite like Seventeen’s Woozi. Glazing his head in a wash of flamingo pink, the vocal line leader and group’s producer made quite the impact amid his HxW concert tour.
12 / 20
Keke Palmer pixie
It was the year of the bixie, but the allure of the classic pixie cut still drew the likes of Keke Palmer in, who opted for the look for her fiery tresses this summer.
13 / 20
Pamela Anderson proves her timelessness with a mullet
Pamela Anderson swept us a way with a series of head-turning looks over the Paris Fashion Week season, including this copper head of curls, cut in a mullet style—complementing her lit-from-within visage.
14 / 20
Nicholas Hoult opts for a villainous blonde
Lex Luthor, is that you? The actor who plays the intellectual villain in Superman may have been promoting his movie then, but he certainly made a case for those bleached locks too.
15 / 20
Rosalía ascends as an angel
This angel speaks Spanish (and croons in 13 other languages). Her bleached halo was a literal metaphor for the auditory experience of her newest album, Lux, and teems with just the right amount of beauty and simplicity.
16 / 20
Cocona goes heavy metal
In truth, any look by one of the XG members would have made the cut, but Cocona’s shaved head always sets the stage for even more avant garde numbers. Case in point: this metallic spiked look paired to the piercings on their mien.
17 / 20
Phoebe Dynevor goes for the chop
Phoebe Dynevor’s mid-length lob propelled her into cool girl status. It was simple, chic and simply befitting of the year end sentiments.
18 / 20
G-Dragon's slicked back hair
He came, he saw, he conquered. G-Dragon was aura farming the whole of 2025, but there was something to be said about his F1 headlining stage in Singapore. Beyond just the fresh jolt of cobalt, this slicked back do was a welcome bout of nostalgia that took us back to his heydays.
19 / 20
Zara Larsson dazzles in technicolour
Clean girl, who? Make-up artist Sophia Sinot serves us artful glamour for her work on Zara Larsson—in vivacious hues, strobes of neon and sparkles galore.
20 / 20
Hwasa says good goodbye to her long hair
It was the snip to end all snips. Hwasa bid farewell to her long, luscious locks for her newest song and music video ‘Good Goodbye’, and her fresh cut was just as healing as the song was.
