Before starting ninth grade, I gathered a stack of magazines that I had been saving since the early aughts and gently ripped out all the pages that featured a beauty look I wanted to try. Mind you, I knew I was going to eventually become a beauty editor—manifestation, baby!—so even back then I had an affinity for makeup trends and hair trends that my rural-Ohio peers didn’t necessarily, um, understand. I grabbed one of my school binders, carefully three-hole-punched every single tear-out, organising each look into hair, makeup, or nails. And so it began: my very own trend mood board—complete with fishtail braids and burgundy lipstick—I’d reference for all four years of high school
Sure, I’d add in a few extra pages anytime a new trend, like matte lips, popped up. But for the most part, I was set after my first sweep of research. I think back to that time—a distant 2011—and realise that if I re-created this fun lil arts and crafts project in 2023, I would probably have to scrap the binder every few weeks, it would be so stuffed with inspo. Because today, the beauty trend cycle cannot stop cycling.
In the past seven days alone, I’ve seen about a dozen “pumpkin spice makeup” videos. But last week? It was makeup for your Kibbe type (or “style essence,” as some have called it). The week before that? The tomato girl aesthetic. And the one before that? Latte makeup and strawberry girl makeup. And let’s not forget about the revolving door of nail moments. Lip gloss nails, milk nails, mermaid nails, butterscotch nails, and lemon-glazed nails all popped off last summer too.
Despite the sheer volume of new beauty trends, not everyone is into this frequent churn. Nothing got people in a tizzy quite like “blueberry milk nails,” a cutesy way of describing the light-blue shade seen on Sofia Richie Grainge, Sabrina Carpenter, and Dua Lipa. Immediately, creators all over TikTok were frustrated. The general consensus? Why is there a new trend every week, and why TF are they all named after foods? “We are not turning light blue into blueberry milk—I refuse,” exclaims @katiehub.org in a TikTok. Another TikTok by @macy_thompsonn says: “I can’t believe we live in a world where we refer to baby blue as blueberry milk.”
@macy_thompsonn #duet with @whowhatwear #summernails ♬ original sound - whowhatwear
When Hailey Bieber recently dyed her hair to a medium, warm-toned brown, the internet immediately crowned it “cinnamon cookie butter hair,” which led to countless memes, noting that—come on, guys—it’s just brown hair. One commenter notes, “Fr it’s getting out of hand” on a TikTok that offered up joke name suggestions for Hailey’s next colour trend, like marshmallow-cloud fluff, lemon drop-cheesecake, and evergreen dark-chocolate hazelnut latte with oat milk.
@notpreeti Replying to @cjXjude trying 3-layer bean dip makeup next! #blueberrymilknails #cinnamoncookiebutterhair #strawberrymakeup #haileybieber #sofiarichie #povthatonegirl #povcomedy #beautytrends #trends #satire #desi ♬ Quirky - Oleg Kirilkov
And listen, I fully get that constantly rebranding shades and beauty looks into cute bakery names is slightly exhausting (IDK how many more iterations of “glazed doughnut” I can possibly muster, I say with cherry-jelly-glazed-doughnut toenails rn). But beauty is fully in its micro-trend era, and in contrast to most of the internet and even some of my fellow beauty editors, I’m here to argue that this is actually a good thing.
I track beauty trends for a living, and I’ll be the first to admit that editorial trends like vinyl lips and colorful eyeliner usually only sloooowly make their way off the runway and onto the faces of us non-models IRL. I covered the ultra-bushy “boy brow” trend endlessly in 2019 but didn’t know a single person in my day-to-day life who ever tried to pull it off. But in the age of glazed everything, trends are as accessible as ever.
So is it really so bad that beauty trends finally seem approachable enough that real people want to try them, even just for a few days?
IMO, the constant hamster wheel of trends has actually encouraged self-expression and excitement around beauty, which is a refreshing follow-up to the “no-makeup makeup” and messy bun heyday of the early 2020s. It brings me back to my high school days, when everyone eagerly sought out beauty tutorials and mood boards on Pinterest and YouTube. Thanks to the democratising forces of social media, we now have all the references for how to try a trend ourselves, plus a whole slew of products we can add to our literal TikTok Shop cart. It couldn’t be easier.
And let’s get some perspective here: These micro-trends are all pretty low-stakes. You won’t be shaving off your eyebrows or dyeing your hair red just to look like you have the ethereal, highlighted look of “white wine energy.” If you want to look like an in-the-know beauty person in 2023, all you need is a glob of highlighter or Vaseline on your eyelids or a little deep conditioner to slick back your bun.
Even if the food analogies are tedious, the truth is people are still shopping the heck out of these micro trends (yay economy, go economy!). Drunk Elephant’s D-Bronzi Bronzing Drops were sold out basically all summer (in part thanks to Alix Earle but also because they’re used in practically every latte makeup tutorial to get a glowy, bronze-y base). Merit’s brand-new Solo Shadow Cream-to-Powder Soft Matte Eyeshadow sold out on launch in the warm and cool brown shades to get that coffee-inspired eye look. Once word hit that cherry makeup and cherry-cola lips were on the rise, Summer Fridays’ Lip Butter Balm in cherry went out of stock almost immediately, and suddenly, Benefit’s Benetint—a product that was popular when I was in middle school—started popping up all over my FYP.
On the bright side, these products, while inspired by a trend, aren’t throwaways like the “it” leather trench I ordered from Am*zon and wore exactly once. Instead of tossing my brown lip liner or caramel cheek tint once latte makeup eventually runs its course, I’ll just find new ways to utilise them. They’re versatile.
Critics say this entire micro beauty trend movement was created for clicks and views. A shiny new trend every other week for people to post their GRWMs and tutorials followed by an influx of purchases. Or that it’s robbing of us of our individuality, blah blah blah. But I don’t buy it. Can’t we just enjoy this absolute wealth of makeup inspo that most folks can DIY without graduating from beauty school? I haven’t felt this much joy propping up my phone to follow an eyeshadow tutorial since the 2016 warm-toned smokey eye moment. And if it’s called “spiced-cinnamon-blonde-roast-shaken-espresso makeup?” Whatever, now I’m just craving a coffee. The reality is you don’t have to like the current trend of the week—there’ll be a new one in about three to five business days, so just hang tight.
