Healthy Skin Is This Year’s War Paint

Contributor

By: Ignacia Soto-Aguilar

As we all dust off our favorite old lipsticks after two years of mask mandates, this year’s makeup trend, as seen on our favorite celebrities during this year’s awards season; contouring is OUT. Bare skin is in.

As our earth is healing after the last couple of years, replacing “face beats” with N-95s, our skin is healing too–at least for those of us who ran to the bathroom immediately after a long day of mask wearing to cleanse and replenish skin moisture. Active ingredients in our skin care worked uninterrupted by our old heavy coverage habits, and now our skin is glowing and ready for anything. Something happens at the end of an era- 60’s obsession with space travel was revolutionary for makeup at the time, or a more recent example – Y2K’s apocalyptic predictions, which were followed by a sense of rebirth and new found creativity in the early 2000s, as technology access became more available and connected us and our ideas like never before. Just like those colorful and metallic trends that emerged were the product of all of the trends that came prior, the driving force of these new styles throughout history is always the same : A fascination with the future. But make it fashion.

And it’s happening now! What a time to be alive! So where will our creativity go now that we are not spending all morning layering makeup on because our skin is just TOO good to cover up? Drum roll please… EYES AND BROWS. YESSSS. My prayers have been answered. My vision boards have materialized. I never thought this day would come. The day my clients didn’t expect me to pick up a pair of tweezers at the start of an application. But, here we are, and I’m delighted. I myself have a new found love for my job as I’m no longer holding up a picture of one of Kim Kardashian’s glam looks from the 2010s per clients’ request. Perfection and symmetry is no longer relevant. It’s all about soft framing with tinted creams– no more heavy contour. All face makeup that isn’t some type of skin like finish tinted serum, tinted SPF, tinted moisturizer, or concealer to apply where needed is now in the back of the store. The words “dewy,”, “ethereal”, “luminous”, “holographic” are a sure way to sell out. I mean, you literally can’t possibly shine too bright! We are seeing metallics on the eyes again, it’s like an elevated and more eco-friendly/brand philosophy conscious Y2K.

This new bare face trend allows for way more room to take chances. The red carpet as well as the runways for all Spring 2023 shows had so much brow action going on I barely looked at the clothes. Bleached brows as we are seeing on Kendall Jenner and Julia Fox aren’t overwhelming when the skin appears bare and luminous. And don’t even get me started on Peter Do’s models rocking bedazzled brows that had me going straight to Michael’s. Eyes this year will be less linear and more smudged and lived in (welcome back Courtney Love). Stick shadow Cream blush, eye shadow pigments – the brighter the better. Same goes for lips, as the Dsquared2 runway models showed us in Milan.

It does feel a little vapid to deduce that makeup trends are a direct result of the world being on fire time and time again, but I do believe to some degree that it is. With worldwide uncertainty come cultural waves of nihilism–then why not try this because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and artificial intelligence may come take over the world. But I find some comfort in that if they do, we are at least making sure they have to clean up glitter for eternity like the rest of us.