Following beauty trends is over, and here’s why

Beauty trends are great… sometimes. Lately, the power is shifting back to the individual, and ignoring trends is more en ce moment than following them

I’ll admit, I’m scared of beauty trends. That’s probably not something a beauty editor should divulge, but it’s the truth. When I saw the return of the heavily lined, brown ’90s lip, I shuddered. When everyone was pencilling their eyebrows into a stencil and coming out with perfectly angular results, I did my best to avoid trialling them.

You do you

Which is why, at the MAC SS19 trend presentation last week in Brown Thomas, I was beyond relieved to hear two of MAC’s most senior artists say that following trends to the letter is firmly played out.

Terry Barber is MAC’s Head of Make-up Artistry, having been with MAC for 17 years, and Lesley is Ireland’s own MAC Senior Artist and has worked with MAC since 1997. Safe to say they both know their stuff at this stage, I think. They confirmed what I suspected was the truth – that in 2019, beauty is about the individual.

 

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A post shared by Lesley Keane (@lesleykeanemac) on Jun 18, 2018 at 4:59am PDT

An ongoing story

“The trend is, there are no trends. Respecting the individual is what it’s about,” says Lesley. “This is the reason products like the Groundwork Paint Pot are iconic – they are so basic and can be used in a versatile way on anyone,” she continues.

The freedom to create whatever look you want is the focus, for spring and into summer. If you want to go full-on Instagram glam, do it with pride. If you want to bleach your brows and wear only rust coloured lipstick, again, it’s all about you.

“Beauty is an ongoing story instead of cut and dried trends,” says Terry Barber. “Beauty at the moment is there to enjoy. It had become a diagram and a chore, the fun had gone out of it. An “if you can’t achieve this level, don’t bother” sort of thing, but now there’s something free loose effortless about being able to put a more casual look on,” he continues.

Skin tailoring

While strict trend following is out, something that make-up artists are really honing in on at the moment, both backstage at Fashion Week and with their clients, is skin tailoring, Lesley told me. It’s all about being more like an artist when it comes to prepping skin – so having a few different shades and textures of base, and really examining what needs to go where, using clever placement and leaving some parts bare will give you the ultimate in natural but perfected skin.