Whether first stemming from celebrities or digital influencers, 2015 brought with it a host of strange beauty obsessions taking over our social media platforms. But while we may question how some of the trends managed to go viral, there's no arguing that they did great things for brands - with consumers being introduced to new products and ranges.
"Beauty consumers are increasingly turning to their peers for advice on products and take the lead of their online idols, revealing the true influence of online social media channels like Instagram and Twitter," NPD director UK Beauty June Jensen told CosmeticsDesign.
Below, we take a look at the four top social media beauty trends of 2015.
#grannyhair
We've got Nicole Richie, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Kelly Osbourne to thank for this trend - with the stars choosing to dye their hair grey by choice. The fallout? Women of all ages were seen colouring their hair shades of silver and grey - posting the results on social media. Cue huge increases in hair colourant sales, with market research group Kline finding the brights and silver shade groups were up 46 per cent and 14 per cent thanks to this craze.
#ThePowerOfMakeUp
This trend first began last month when 21-year-old beauty blogger NikkieTutorials posted a video about the "power of make-up" - where the blogger posted an image that showed half her face with cosmetics on and the other without. This was to show that women can look beautiful with or without make-up, but that it is their prerogative to wear as much make-up as they like without feeling ashamed about it. Clearly inspired by the NikkieTutorials post, women began taking to the internet to post images of themselves wearing half a face of make-up.
Clown contouring
While we suspect Kim Kardashian has been doing clown contouring for many years now, this trend really went viral when BellaDeLune beauty blogger Esther Isabel Amado Romo uploaded a video to her YouTube channel performing the ritual. Clown contouring is when the face is defined by painting bright shapes on it that are then blended away. Romo's video saw users attempting to do their own clown contouring - with the results then posted to social media platforms.
Multi-masking
The most recent trend seen taking social media by storm is multi-masking - where a person applies multiple skin masks to their face at the same time to address different skin needs. Like with the other trends, participants have been uploading selfies to Instagram to show off their attempts. Thanks to this particular trend, face mask sales have risen by 22.8 per cent in the UK, according to NPD Group.
