Every year there is a new viral beauty trend or tip that everyone goes crazy about, there are constant updates of what women could do to look instantly prettier, but when it comes to beauty trends, these trends are here to stay, the past five years were filled with changes in the makeup industry, the makeup field is turning back its pages to the 70s and 80s but in a bolder, more defined way. Old makeup looks could be brought back to life if we used simple, edgy tricks to improve the look. So let’s go back in time a little bit and see what the past five years were all about.
2016, Contouring
Contouring has been there since the mid-1500s when stage actors would use chalk and soot as makeup to enhance their facial expressions, but in 2015 Kim Kardashian posted a before and after selfie of her contour to advertise a new product and all of a sudden contouring became a phenomenal makeup trend and everyone started making their own tutorials and hacks. It took all the rage back then and is still popular until now.
2017, Smokey eyes
In 2017, smoky eyes were back again from the early 2000s, according to Mahmoud Rashad, celebrity makeup artist, “beauty brands knew how to help in spreading this trend, countless eye shadow sets suited for smoky-eye looks. Makeup artists and burgeoning influencers breathed new life into the sultry, beautifully blended look with shimmering and matte finishes in shades that relied on both neutral and vibrant color combos.”
2018, Everything is highlighted
2018 was the gate to a whole new world in the makeup field, featuring mythical creatures like unicorns and mermaids, the products used to make such themed look were mostly very bright eyeshadow palettes, highlights and glitter.
“Makeup artists or influencers went crazy over how cool the colorful highlight trend was, some of us used it as a base under the foundation to reflect a natural shiny skin look. I believe everyone did that back then’ said Monica Remoin, makeup artist.
2019, More and more colors
Euphoria makeup, bold colorful eyeshadow and neon eyeliner took all the rage in 2019. It is safe to say that such trend kept on evolving until 2020, we started seeing more colorful makeup looks in ads, series and of course, Instagram. Some artists started applying different colors on each eyelid because why not?
“A while after I started my own business, I used to do a lot of prom makeup for girls and they would only ask for two main things, a lot of highlight and bright bold colors,” said Remoin.
2020, Skin is the best foundation
Makeup users are always demanding routines that don't just create a better canvas for makeup, but promote one's best skin ever for when they don't feel like wearing foundation. Skin care took a huge place of everyone’s life during quarantine, therefore, people started applying makeup without foundation as a base, and even if they did wear foundation, they use neutral tones to enhance one’s natural features. So excessive softness makeup and complete dependency on the face features were 2020 top trend.