Beauty is constantly on the move. Rewind just three years, and beauty was looking a whole lot different than what it does today. Girls were rocking long Victoria’s Secret hair while batting their false eyelashes and raising their highly pencilled eyebrows. Today, it’s a different story.
Below, we take a look at 10 beauty trends that have undergone a shift in the past few years. Take a walk down memory lane as we visit from then to now…
1. Drawn on brows – Brushed up natural brow
Like many beauty trends, we have Kim Kardashian to thank for the heavily drawn on eyebrows dominating Instagram feeds for the last few years. Now we’re being urged to put down the pencil, with the recent Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia seeing make-up directors opting instead to use a gel to set brows and then just brushing them up. “We’ve been making [it] look like their own brows but slightly fuller – so it looks like it’s a natural brow. There’s nothing really overly drawn, it’s not over-shaped,” explains senior artist Carol Mackie.
2. Contouring – Strobing
Another trend that originates with the Kardashian clan is contouring. While contouring combines a mixture of darker and lighter skin tone shades to chisel features and make features pop, strobing simply relies on highlighters to enhance areas of the face using light. "It’s about allowing the reflection of the skin to work the light rather than taking away light, and that’s a very big trend," explains founder Napoleon Perdis.
3. False eyelashes – Dramatic spidery mascara
False eyelashes were at every turn in 2013, with the end of that year seeing Priceline selling 1600 false eyelash packs a day. In 2016, make-up directors are ditching the false eyelashes for dramatic spidery lashes achieved with three to four coats of mascara. “Pointed, dramatic lashes are a massive trend... we want it spidery, spiky, clumpy – really quite crazy,” says Maybelline New York make-up director Nigel Stanislaus. Mackie adds: “We’re not adding a lot of individual lashes or plumping up the lashes.”
4. Winged cat eyeliner – Shadow lining
The first half of 2013 saw Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Liner storm in as the number four top selling SKU in overall beauty at Priceline. Its popularity spurred the winged cat eyeliner to become a common beauty look from runways to consumers. Fast-forward to 2016, and liquid liners are making way for shadow lining – where eyeshadow is used in favour of a traditional eyeliner. While still providing definition, it’s less obvious and blends into the whole eye look.
5. Smokey eye – Tea-stained eyes
This season saw fashion weeks across the globe replace the ever-popular smokey eye with tea-stained eyes. After spotting the look at Erdem, Roksanda Ilincic, Christopher Kane and Marques Almeida during S/S ‘16 London Fashion Week, make-up artist Heidi Scarlett King tells Buro24/7 that this lived-in, warm or muted browny cream shadow on the eyes is “definitive proof of how big the wet-look eye will be this season.” She goes on to explain: “Make-up artist extraordinaire Val Garland has termed the trend 'the tea-stained eye' after her stunning creation for the Erdem show.”
6. Bold lip – Faded lip
Ombré, bitten, stained, faded… they’ve all stepped in to replace the traditional bold lip. Explaining the look, make-up artist Lisa Eldridge tells Lancôme : “Faded lip colour: it’s the latest way to wear bold and bright lip shades. The key? Avoid over defining lip contours and opt instead for a more gradual fade-in technique. To start, begin by applying colour to the entire lower lip, then, move to the upper lip and apply a small amount to the centre, smudging it outwards to the edges with your fingertips for a beautiful just-bitten look.”
7. Victoria’s Secret curls – Effortless undone waves
The bigger the better was the motto a few years ago. Hair was getting curled and glossed, and pictures of Victoria’s Secret models were being taken into hairdressers across the country. With hair and make-up currently favouring the au naturel look, hair styles have been replaced with effortless undone waves. The more natural it looks, the more ticks of approval it reaps in.
8. Waist-length extensions – The chic lob
Coinciding with the big Victoria’s Secret hair, 2013 saw hair extensions become big business for hair companies. Girls wanted bigger hair, and if they didn’t have enough of their own to achieve the look – they were going out and buying it. But then Lauren Conrad cut off her famous long locks, and all of a sudden people saw the benefit of rocking a chic lob. When Lara Bingle followed suit, the trend was signed, sealed and delivered.
9. Balayage – Colour melting
After hitting the mainstream big time – balayage has led to a myriad of spin-off trends. The latest one that’s gaining global traction is colour melting. Colour melting is all about having a soft gradation effect in the hair rather than an obvious transition. "Melting is a technique that blends the highlights with the base colour of the hair so you don’t have any harsh lines. The difference between this and regular highlights is that you use multiple shades to create the ‘melted’ effect," Matrix StyleLink stylist George Papanikolas tells BuzzFeed.
10. Nail art – Short natural nude nails
Glitter, sparkles, graphic prints, pebbles, stars – you name it and you could find it donning a nearby nail three years ago. In 2016, nail art and acrylic nails are taking a backseat in favour of short natural nude nails. Discussing this year’s MBFWA nail trends, nail director Karon McKendrick Taylor says: “Nails are nude. The length is a little bit more rounder than we’ve seen in past years. We’ve not changed the shapes of the girls’ nails to match, we’ve not used one tip, and I haven’t seen many artificial nails. We’ve gone with the natural beauty and enhanced that.”
