By admin 
There was a time—not long ago—when each season brought with it a new beauty “moment” that we all knew about. Graphic liner, bold blue lips, glitter brows. And while many of these trends were polarizing or impractical for daily life, they kept beauty fun, expressive, alive because we were all talking about it. Now, trends seem to have disappeared.
Scroll through TikTok or Instagram, and the majority of trends are replaced with instruction. It’s a masterclass-heavy moment. In many ways, this is a gift—we’ve never had access to professionals and the knowledge that was once reserved for celebrities (think: Danessa Myricks’ tutorials or Mary Phillips’ underpainting technique). Yet, it feels like something’s missing: the joy of surprise or rush of reinvention.
Instead of beauty inspiration coming from the pages of a magazine or the front of Fashion Week, they’re stitched together by algorithms, hyper-personalized feeds, and ever-scrolling For You pages. One person’s feed might be neutral lips and soft contouring, while their best friend sees bold liner and smokey eyes. Whether it’s over-filtered social media feeds or the striking similarities between influencers, there’s a uniformity that’s hard to shake.
It’s splintered the beauty world into hyper-particular niches—each with its own set of unspoken rules and strictures.
“Trends are fragmented because everything is fragmented these days: how we communicate, who we listen to, how we get information,” says New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman in a recent article.
But in the deluge of tutorials and trends, maybe this fracture actually creates space for us all.
With the rise of no-makeup makeup and “your skin but better” foundations, there’s been a move toward embracing (and even re-creating) natural features—freckles, texture, human imperfection. We’re questioning the beauty standards we grew up with and collectively finding empowerment in choosing not to cover up.
Yet somehow, this movement meant to celebrate individuality has somehow developed its own homogenized aesthetic. Even the “natural” look—think perfectly dewy skin, fluffy brows, subtle contours—creates a new type of conformity, evolving into its own prescriptive routine. We’ve traded one uniform for another, even if it’s a more subtle one.
“When even being anti-trend—deciding to buy nothing or at least nothing new—is trendy, you know we have reached peak trend Dada,” writes Friedman.
Has the pendulum swung so far that there’s no longer any space for whimsy and weird? How do we get back to playful expression?
Maybe the way back isn’t about abandoning tutorials or the quiet power of subtlety, but about giving ourselves permission to color outside the lines again. To apply a product simply because it makes us feel something, not because it’s trending. To reclaim experimentation as a form of art.
Dare I say, there’s room for both celebrating our natural features while exploring creative expression through the color and texture of makeup. For finding both acceptance and transformation. Personally, I want to start having more fun again.
Instead of following a tutorial from someone whose features look nothing like mine, I want to start being more intuitive in how I apply my products. Instead of focusing on doing it right, I want to do it in a way that feels right. Some days, it may be no makeup, but other days, it may be a fun pop of color.
Recently, I find myself gravitating toward grungy green eye shadow and mustard yellow nail polish—the kind of unconventional hues the minimalist version of me would run from. So I’m saying it—rather typing it—here for accountability: My goal is to incorporate more colors in ways that feel personal and authentic. Less prescriptive, more playful. Maybe you’ll join me?
Illustrations by Megan Badilla