Top 5 beauty looks at 2012 Met Gala Carey Mulligan Jessica Biel Kate Bosworth Karolina Kurkova Emma Stone They call the Met Ball the ...

Top 5 beauty looks at 2012 Met Gala

Carey Mulligan

Jessica Biel

Kate Bosworth

Karolina Kurkova

Emma Stone

They call the Met Ball the "Oscars of the East Coast." Every May the famous steps of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art are transformed into an epic red carpet, with designers, models, Hollywood stars, Mayor Mike, and, yes, even a few football players coming out to celebrate the opening of the Costume Institute's newest exhibition. This year, "The Impossible Conversation" a look at the work of Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli, pays tribute to quirky, boundary-pushing style. And that is exactly what came down the red carpet. Here are our picks for top five looks of the evening:

Carey Mulligan. I have one word to describe Mulligan's look for the evening—fierce. In the star's first appearance since her wedding to Mumford & Sons lead singer Marcus Mumford, she certainly doesn't fail to impress. Her hair was swept up into a voluminous, slightly futuristic updo that complemented her metallic Prada dress nicely; the sooty shadow was unexpected (especially for for the typically demure actress) yet very sexy.

Jessica Biel. Okay, I know I'm a little partial to bangs these days, but damn—Biel's blunt, heavy bangs looked amazing and framed her face perfectly. Her slightly paled out lips added to the sixties-vibe of both the dress (Prada) and her hair. And if you caught her interview with Elettra Wiedermann on the vogue.com livestream, you may have noticed how glow-y her skin looked, and with Justin Timberlake on her arm, now I'm really jealous.

Kate Bosworth. While she may have slipped in fairly unnoticed, I literally let out a scream when I saw Bosworth walking down the red carpet. The slicked-back braided chignon, the perfectly groomed brows, the fluttery lashes, and the cleanest looking dark lipstick you've ever seen, it all worked perfectly with her short, feathery dress.

Karolina Kurkova. Now folks, this is how you wear a turban. Kurkova pulled of this accessory of all accessories by keeping her makeup gorgeous, but not crazy—simply contouring and highlighting in all the right places and a bit of black around the eyes for definition. She also made sure to warm up her skin tone to match all the gold (and she's definitely wearing a lot of gold).

Emma Stone. Not only does Stone get my vote for cutest date of the night—c'mon you can't get much better than Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz—but she also wins cutest beauty look of the night. Her bright blue manicure contrasted perfectly with her Lanvin dress (the flowers were made out of plastic, Elbaz said!). As for her makeup, Stone's winged liner and pretty pink lipstick looked plenty polished, but didn't take away from the dress or her hair—which was thrown up into a messy (but shiny!) updo.