To Daisy Edgar-Jones, director Georgia Oakley and everyone involved in the production of the new Sense and Sensibility, it was crucial that everything on screen looked and felt real – the pared-back costuming, the historical locations and, of course, the hair and make-up sported by our leading ladies.

Shaping these romantic beauty looks was Nadia Stacey, the British hair and make-up designer who cut her teeth on , before graduating to and , and winning an Oscar for . Instead of giving the Dashwood sisters – the eldest, Elinor (Edgar-Jones), the flighty Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) and the young Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) – the stiff up-dos and heavy, powdery finish you tend to find in other Jane Austen adaptations, she decided on a fresh approach: barely-there make-up which enhances a glowy, natural flush, paired with wild, unruly, rain-soaked hair. The result is gloriously liberating, grounding this story in its windswept landscape and bringing us closer to these young women, who suddenly – without the distancing effects of giant wigs and theatrical make-up – feel just like us.

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A year after first meeting Stacey on the set of the movie, and ahead of its impending release, I caught up with her on Zoom, to learn how the sisters’ beauty looks evolve over the course of the film and the products we can use to replicate it for ourselves.

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What were your starting points for the beauty looks in Sense and Sensibility?

I saw the movie yesterday and it felt so fresh. That was always the conversation from the beginning with Georgia – this has been [adapted] before; what can we do differently? The biggest thing for me was relatability. It’s the idea that it doesn’t matter what time period we’re in – these are just girls who are squabbling with their siblings and falling in love. They’re like us. Instead of those period dramas where you feel slightly disconnected because it’s a world you don’t know, I wanted it to feel like we knew them.

For the make-up… that’s something that wouldn’t be in their lives. I wanted to connect with the outdoors, the wind, the earth. So you can see flushing skin, freckles, sweat. And with hair – I didn’t live in that period, but there’s nothing relatable to me about the very done, precise hairstyles we’ve seen before. We wanted to see the girls lazing around the house and eating toast with their hair down. They’ve just gotten up. Who would’ve done their hair for them? We had lots of reference pictures, and they were all about wildness and freedom. There were photos from the 1930s, and one was of a girl laying in a field with her hair all over the place. It wasn’t from our period, but that was the feeling we were trying to capture.

Talk me through the products that were key for Elinor and Marianne.

It was all about skin prep. We asked the girls to grow out their eyebrows. We’re fans of FaceGym. They had Humantra electrolytes every morning, and did Dr Jart+ face masks. It was about being dewy and glowy, because it was going to be so stripped back. If we pushed this slightly, Georgia was like, “Hey, I can see concealer!” or “Take off that blush!”

Dr Jart+ Cryo Rubber Firming Mask

Daisy told me that she came onto set once with a bit more blush and Georgia sent her back.

Esmé and Daisy constantly tried to push things a little bit. I remember them trying a lip stain once. Daisy peeled hers off and we were like, “Oh my God, that’s too strong.” [Laughs.] We used a bit of Boy Brow to fill in the brows. Cloud Paint – the Puff shade on Esmé, and a pinker one for Daisy. And Pixi gel in Natural on the lips and cheeks, but quite sparingly.

Pixi Sheer Cheek Gel in Natural

And what about for their hair?

Esmé had really fine micro bond extensions from Vixen & Blush. That took maintenance to make sure it didn’t get matted up. We used K18 – we put it in, plaited her hair and sent her home. Again, it was more about behind-the-scenes maintenance. We also used the Oribe styling gel cream. And for Daisy, she had back pieces in her hair for length.

K18 Biomimetic Hairscience Leave-in Molecular Repair Hair Mask

I loved how undone the hair was. At the end of the film, when Elinor’s chopping wood, her hair is just pulled to one side in a plait. Why wouldn’t it have been like that? She’s just working. I wanted it to be practical. There will be Austen fans who are like, “What? People did not have their hair like that.” But, equally, how do you know? If someone lived out in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, how do you know how they’d have their hair all the time? Even when the girls are at the ball… Fanny [their sister-in-law] has this very tight, kind of coiled hairstyle; they see it and think, oh, that’s how ladies have their hair. So they try to emulate it, but again, in their own very homespun style. It was about making it feel absolutely real.

Are there other ways in which their beauty looks change over the course of the story?

Elinor’s hair becomes looser. When you meet her at the beginning, she’s trying to be Head Girl. She’s the oldest, she’s trying to be responsible and look after the family. Then she falls in love and there’s a new sense of freedom, like what Marianne has. Her hair gets softer and more romantic. She lets herself go. And Marianne is just always completely free. Even at the ball, she’s herself. Grace [Snell, the film’s costume designer] found a really cool image from the period of a girl with a band of fabric around her head. So that’s what we did for her for the ball, but it’s her version. Like, okay, I’ll do something for the ball, but I won’t turn up looking like Fanny because that’s not me. She never gives up that wildness.

And can we end by talking about Fanny?

I wanted Fanny to be as fussy and prissy as possible. The actress [Stacy Martin] has really dark hair, so we had to put a bald cap piece underneath the very light blonde wig. At the ball, there’s a bow made out of hair at the front of her head. It’s so silly, ridiculous, and so far away from the Dashwoods. It’s a marker of how unrelatable she is. You feel like you could hang out with the Dashwoods, but you can’t really know Fanny. She’s just being what she’s meant to be in society.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Sense and Sensibility will be in cinemas from 25 September.