All right... Let's get it out in the open. There are a lot of trends that have started over the past year, and carried over into 2015. Some of them are okay, and I can enjoy the odd few, but we all know that when something gains a little bit of popularity, the social-media-influenced beauty world beats it to death like a dead horse.
Today, while I'm in rant mode, I wanted to talk about some of the biggest beauty trends of the last year that I just can't get on board with. I just want to say that I'm not attacking anyone personally, these are just opinions and I hope you keep reading with a sense of humour and an open mind.
With that, let's dig in...
I'm not sure where to start with this one. With all the 'contour guides' on Instagram, and contour palettes coming out, both cream and powder, and finding every person everywhere with cheekbones looking like they could cut glass, it's getting excessive.
Let me just say that I'm extremely glad contouring became more of a thing. It was frustrating working in cosmetics before it was a craze and only having so many contouring options available to sell and use. Now that being said, there are issues I've seen way too much that came along with the contouring madness, and I want to address a few of them.
Contouring is not meant to make your face look like it was carved out of stone.
If you're not a makeup artist on a movie set, where makeup needs to be thick and exaggerated to pick up on camera, then you do not need to chisel out every feature as though it wasn't already multi-dimensional. Contouring is a beautiful thing when it's done correctly, in moderation, and with a light hand. There's a beautiful phrase that goes 'Less is more' and frankly, I think it applies here.
After seeing way too many contour charts on Instagram, Pinterest, and wherever else, it's become overtly clear to me that people seem to want to make their faces polygonal. You do not need to contour your cheek bones, nose, forehead, chin, or eye sockets to make your face stand out.
Contouring (if done correctly) is intended to create shadows where there either are none, or you want to enhance existing shadows. I'm not bashing the art of doing this, but there is a rhythm and there is a rhyme to it that too many people have missed.
Lastly on the contour train is the products that are being used. Contouring is not meant to be done with bronzers. Especially not bronzers with shimmer. Like I said, when you contour, you are creating the illusion of a shadow. When you use a bronzer, you are doing the exact opposite. The types of shades to use for contour differ from skintone to skintone, but typically you want a muted taupe/grey-undertoned shade.
Bold, beautiful brows are gorgeous on everyone, and I'm a firm believer that the Audreys, Elizabeth Taylors, and Cara Delevignes of the world are truly gifted with astonishing brows, but there is nothing wrong with being on a thinner and sparser side of the eyebrow spectrum.
The point I'm trying to make here is that it's good to enhance, and embrace what you've got (or what you don't got). There's nothing wrong with filling in and shaping your eyebrows. Most of us need it. Hell, I've got thick brows, and I still need to fill mine in. If I don't I just look incomplete. Don't we all!?
Now the one thing I'm a little more than sick of seeing are the brows that are drawn on, and concealed around. Particularly the brows that have defined lines on the bottom starting at the beginning and going straight to the tail end of the brow. When you fill in your brows, the goal is to just create the illusion of fuller brows; you are drawing in the semblance of hairs where there are none. You want it to look as natural as you can, but when you draw an eyebrow that looks like it was painted on the face of a porcelain doll, you lose any semblance of natural.
Maybe Tim Curry gave the beauty world more inspiration than anticipated.
I am most certainly not the only one turned off by this trend. I don't know when nude lipsticks and full lips became Kylie Jenner, and why every taupey nude lippie product that is released lately has to be Kylie.
If you want to overline your lips and rock a fuller pout, I salute you! Some of us weren't blessed with voluptuous kiss pillows. If you want to overline your lips, I recommend learning how to do it first. Line only the middles of the lips, and don't overdo it! Most importantly, do it because you think it will suit your look, not because Kylie's everywhere.
Trends come and go, as we all know, but I am looking forward to the end of this one if only purely for the enjoyment of being able to enjoy a nude pout without being reminded that it comes at the price of being compared to a Kardashian. For now, I'll stick to my berries and vampies, thanks!
Remember when 101 Dalmations made a movie with Glenn Close as Cruella Deville? (Fabulous, by the way). On the same line, remember how she sported those sleek black gloves with claws on them? While I admire her style, and those gloves, I'm confused as to why we are voluntarily shaping our nails into claws like that. Are we stealing puppies too?
The line between square-tipped nails and claw-nails is blurred, to me. I'm not sure when it changed, but I didn't get the memo because I still file my nails into square-shaped tips. I have long fingers, and if I shaped my nails into the newest trend of talon-fingers, I would lose an eye. Someone else would lose an eye. There would be injuries left right and center.
I'm actually loving the trend of mild oval-shaped nails. I'm thinking of sporting it myself. But those long claws I keep seeing make me question our appreciation for our cell phones. Is this why we have screen protectors? I can't imagine your iPhone screen would survive more than a few weeks with tips like that. Surely texting can't be a huge part of your day, because I damn well couldn't do it.
This needs to stop. When did everything on the planet deserve a shrieking "YAAAAAASSSSSS!" from the beauty world's audience? Telling someone her eyebrows are on fleek, contour is on point, and face game is strong is the culprit for all of these prior offences.
The line between satire and serious is totally blurred on this one. I legitimately can't tell nowadays who's serious and who's just being ironic when someone posts a selfie and the collective response is a loud mooing of 'Yaaaaaaas!' and 'On fleek!' Why are you so excited? I get that a vine once upon a time, which coined the 'on fleek' craze was hilarious, but it was only that much for a brief time.
I get it to an extent. When I wax and tweeze my brows, I feel so 'on fleek' for a couple of days while they're just flawless. But why is everything on fleek? Why is everything on point? It doesn't need to be. I miss a lot of the classic compliments, and I'd love nothing more than to tell someone they're pretty and get excited with a simple 'Yay!'.
And there you have it. Those were five of my least-favourite beauty trends lately. I hope you read this blog post with a grain of salt, a sense of humour, and I hope you had a chuckle from it. I'm not throwing shade at anyone in particular, it was just a fun post to write.
What are some trends you can't stand lately? Are you guilty of any of these? Let me know!
Until next time, sunshine!
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