"Pop Star Glam" Is Back, According To Zara Larsson's Makeup Artist

With her glossy, glitter-heavy, candy-colored glam, people online have been speculating that “Zara Larsson’s makeup artist loves her.” Sophia Sinot is here to confirm it’s true.

Working with the Swedish pop star on her recent Midnight Sun tour, the two formed a creative partnership. “One look I really loved was the Düsseldorf show,” Sinot says. “I showed the reference to Zara and suggested I try it that night, and without any questions, she said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Together, they’ve loudly brought the CD-era pop aesthetic back into the limelight. Another of Sinot’s favorite tour glams — the one she did for Larsson in Malmö — racked up hundreds of thousands of likes on social media. You couldn’t open X the following week without seeing it: the pop singer, affectionately referred to as “Zara Knowles-Carter Larsson” by her fans online, with pink eyeshadow, decal stars, and drenched in body glitter. The inspo? None other than Beyoncé’s outfit at the BET Awards in 2006, finished with rhinestone stickers down her leg.

Sinot tells Bustle she also holds a special place for Christina Aguilera, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Barbie — “I feel like that speaks for itself,” she quips — in the referential archive that runs deep throughout her work.

TikTokers swear they can instantly recognize Sinot’s signature look, but she insists her beats aren’t always planned in advance. “Half the time, even 30 minutes into the glam, I still didn’t really know what direction I was going in,” she says. “The one thing that was so important to me for this tour was that I wanted everything to feel playful and not so serious.”

That instinct for experimenting is why her makeup feels referential rather than costumey. More references from the Midnight Sun tour include literal images of space: midnight suns, moons, and galaxies. Kai Movellan, the creative behind Larsson’s visuals, even queued up “spiritual water drop songs” in the green room. With a playlist that includes “Blue Moon” and “Saturn’s Return,” the aesthetic for the tour clicked into place — pop star from another planet, still living in 2002.

While her Y2K-style glams never repeated themselves, Sinot says some products stayed the same. Think Haus Labs foundation, Huda Beauty’s loose powder, Dior Overvolume mascara, and Glam by Majha blushes, which are “very underrated,” she shares.

Before the tour kicks off for its second round in March, Sinot sat down to sound off on the techniques that she’s loving, the one trend she wants everyone to rebel against in 2026, and the pop star still on her dream client list: Rihanna. “I feel like she’d be open to cool ideas,” she says.