By Editorial Team
Beauty loves a binary.
For every bold red lip, there is a nude one waiting in the wings. For every era of excess, there is an inevitable return to restraint. Trends rarely move in a straight line. They swing.
Over the past decade, the pendulum appeared set. Skincare became the main event. Makeup became lighter.
Yet beauty trends rarely stand still. Somewhere between glass skin tutorials and serum foundations, beauty began craving colour again.
The age of glass skin
Few movements have shaped contemporary beauty as profoundly as K-beauty. What began as a fascination with glass skin, hydration layering, and preventative skincare evolved into a broader shift in priorities. Ingredients once reserved for dermatology discussions—niacinamide, centella asiatica, ceramides, peptides—became household names.
By the early 2020s, the “clean girl” aesthetic had become one of social media’s defining beauty trends: brushed brows, luminous skin, neutral lips, and makeup so subtle it appeared almost accidental.
The highest compliment became surprisingly specific.
“You have amazing skin.”
The return of glam
When HBO’s Euphoria debuted in 2019, makeup artist Donni Davy’s rhinestones, graphic liner, and glitter tears sparked an aesthetic movement that quickly escaped the screen. Runways followed. Colour returned.
Today’s maximalism feels different from the contour-heavy beauty culture of the 2010s.
Rather than pursuing perfection, it leans towards personality. Think Chappell Roan’s theatrical stage makeup. Think Doja Cat arriving at Paris Fashion Week covered in thousands of red crystals. Think the porcelain doll faces at Maison Margiela’s Artisanal show that dominated fashion feeds in 2024.
These looks are not asking to look natural.
They are asking to be remembered.
The freedom to contradict yourself
Yet statement glam only feels rebellious because minimalism came first. Without clean girl beauty, graphic liner would not feel graphic. Without glass skin, glitter tears would not feel subversive.
The relationship works both ways.
After all, what makes a bold lip bold if everyone is wearing one?
Perhaps this is what the current beauty landscape is teaching us. Trends are less like opposing camps and more like dance partners. One moves forward, the other responds. One whispers, the other speaks louder. Together, they keep beauty moving.
Which brings us to the practical question: what does this mean for the beauty girlie standing in front of her mirror?
Possibly that she no longer has to choose.
The same makeup bag can contain a barrier-repair serum and a cobalt blue eyeliner. The same person can pursue glass skin on Monday and wear glitter to dinner on Friday. Beauty today is increasingly less about allegiance to a single aesthetic and more about having a wider vocabulary of self-expression.
Some days call for refinement. Others call for fun.
And perhaps that is the real trend beneath all the trends: the freedom to move between them.
Malaysia