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In The Scenario, reporter Kirbie Johnson takes readers behind the scenes of the buzziest movies and TV shows to reveal how the best wigs, special effects makeup, and more are created. For this edition, Johnson spoke with Love Island USA season 7 contestant Huda Mustafa to set the record straight on which products she really used in the villa.
Season six of Love Island US manufactured several bonafide beauty influencers, like islanders Leah Kateb, who’s been named the chief creative officer of fragrance brand Skylar, and JaNa Craig, who’s partnered with brands like Maybelline, Shea Moisture, and Flamingo since exiting the villa. The show’s impact is no different following season seven, with brands sliding into the comment sections to cozy up to islanders, including winner Amaya Espinal, Olandria Carthen, and Huda “mamacita” Mustafa, who each had viral moments on the show—and are clearly obsessed with beauty. But what brands were they actually using on the show?
A few days after her release from the villa, Mustafa, a 24-year-old fitness instructor, chatted with Allure about her love for makeup, which runs deep. “Remember when everyone was doing the [Anastasia Beverly Hills] Dip Brow situation? I would do my eyeliner and make little tutorials,” she says. “I was obsessed with makeup back [during the] Kylie lip challenge—I was doing the overlining lip thing. Even now, I am obsessed with makeup and playing around.”
During season seven, we saw the women of the cast using a lot of Maybelline and CeraVe products while getting ready because the glam suite was stocked with those brands—they were sponsors, after all. But for her daily routine, Mustafa packed a slew of her other favorites. “I have a very thorough makeup routine,” she says. “I like Benefit Cosmetics [Hoola] Bronzer, the Charlotte Tilbury [Beauty Light Wand] highlighter and [Airbrush Flawless] setting spray. I love Hourglass brushes and concealers. I loved the Maybelline concealers as well in the villa. I used the Natasha Denona primer.” As for her lips, she says she usually only wore a little MAC lip liner because her natural lip color is flushed on its own.
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She did not have lash extensions, which is why she was able to keep a consistent look throughout the season. Instead, she used a long-lasting glue to apply a D-curl lash cluster to the outer corner of her eyes every few days.
Her daily makeup routine is in part what drew her so close to Espinal. “When we would get ready, I would catch her staring at me, and sometimes she would catch me staring at her—we just admire each other.” Mustafa even says Espinal had the best makeup skills in the villa. “She eats down every time. She has such a good base… her face is perfect.”
While watching this season, you may have noticed the women had little or no visible nail growth between manicures despite being on location over the course of six weeks. Their sets always looked fresh, even though there were no nail techs on location. Press-ons were their saving grace; Mustafa bought a few pairs from Amazon. Her feet, on the other hand…
“A lot of the guys in the villa complimented my scent 24/7. The number one compliment I got was, ‘You smell so good.’”
“When I tell you, my toes were hanging on for dear life, we were fending for ourselves,” she jokes. “I got them French [tip] before the villa, and then they grew out like nobody's business. The challenges fucked them up. They looked atrocious. The motherfuckers were looking like talons. I love getting my toes done. So I was like, ‘This is no bueno.’” Thankfully, “We all knew that we had crusty feet, so no one really judged anyone.”
Mustafa has amassed 4.1 million followers on Instagram and 5.6 million on TikTok, the largest following of any season seven contestant. People are clearly interested in her, especially how she smells: People on TikTok have been stocking up on one vanilla fragrance after videos that used AI to make it sound like Mustafa wore said scent on the show circulated widely (Mustafa confirmed she did not make any of this content herself, nor does she wear the scent featured).
This obsession goes for the other islanders, too. “A lot of the guys in the villa complimented my scent 24/7, even when I went to bed,” she says. “Everybody would comment because I would hug everybody down the line, and the number one compliment I got was, ‘You smell so good.’”
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She doesn’t wear just one fragrance, which makes her pretty sure no one has cracked the code to her signature scent just yet. “I literally hate when people smell like me,” she says. “I have two different lotions I put on and like four different perfumes. Someone could be like, “Yeah, I use [the same] perfume, and I'm just like, “Yay. [Long pause.] Me too, girlfriend.’ But we don't smell the same because I wear so many different things. It comes down to things like your body wash, your body oil in the shower.”
Mustafa’s favorite fragrance is Burberry Her; she also bought Pure Fiji’s Noni-scented Hydrating Body Lotion while on location; it smells both tropical and floral with notes of noni fruit, lotus flower, hibiscus, and amber. “That’s the one that everyone in the villa bought because I was wearing it,” she says.“I smelled so good.”