Working as someone who studies and explores the face, I recently came across a book I found genuinely fascinating. It's called FACECODE, and it analyzes people's attitudes and tendencies toward appearance, classifying them into 16 types, much like MBTI. The author, a plastic surgeon with over 30 years of experience, argues that our perception of appearance shifts depending on how we view the world.

Korea's beauty industry has grown beyond product sales to become a culture in its own right. The book notes that alongside the rise of K-Beauty, overall aesthetic standards have risen, and that 40% of ID Clinic's clients are now international. Travelers coming to experience Korean beauty firsthand are driving growth in the cosmetics industry, and it seems Korea's overall image has been lifted along with it.

And yet, a thought occurs to me. Visitors come to Korea and leave with armfuls of products; however, when you say 'Korea's signature look,' does a single image come to mind? The reputation for product quality is clearly strong, but in terms of style, what tends to come to mind are the faces of a handful of K-pop artists. It isn't something that needs fixing — but it does leave a lingering sense of something missing. I want HERA's look and feel to be the first thing that comes to mind.

With that in mind, what I wanted to observe in this season's 26 F/W street beauty trends was not simply which items were trending, but how people are choosing to express themselves.

The Devil Wears Prada is a film I personally love. Perhaps because it calls to mind my time living in New York and a vague, long-held dream of becoming a beauty editor, it holds a special place for me. Like the streets of New York in the film, this season's street fashion was vivid and alive. Some treated the city as their own personal runway; others expressed themselves in styles that bordered on the deliberately obscure. Ultimately, fashion and makeup are deeply personal, emotional territories. Not everyone will understand every choice, but if each person reveals their own mood and identity in their own way, that in itself is more than enough.

1. Quiet Geek Chic

I tend to prioritize maximum efficiency, and that extends to my glasses; I've always preferred light, thin frames. Since I dislike anything sitting in my line of sight, practicality has always come first, but recently eyewear has expanded far beyond function to become a styling statement.

On the 26 F/W streets, the 'Geek Chic' mood has made a strong return. Slim metal frames and narrow, elongated rectangular shapes were embraced across runways and streets alike, with the intellectual quality traditionally associated with glasses recast as a sharp, cool fashion code.

This season, it was not only classic frames that drew attention; sporty, curved eyewear structures also gained traction. The functional design language of sports goggles has been reinterpreted through a high-fashion lens, carrying both a futuristic mood and an air of practicality.

Another important keyword is 'tinted lens,' and it goes beyond simply wearing a colored lens. The defining move is connecting the lens color to the makeup tone, creating a unified mood across the entire face. For example, Amber lenses, known for their warm, honey-toned hue, are paired with bronze makeup, while black frames are carried through to black eyeliner and outfit tones, creating a more fully realized look.

The essence of this season's eyewear lies in 'quiet detail.' From a distance, minimal and composed; up close, the frame's weight, curvature, and finish reveal a quiet precision. Some made the glasses the centerpiece of their look; others harmonized them with their hairstyle, each interpreting the trend in their own way.

2. Soft-Blur Femininity

Across all times and cultures, femininity seems to be an image that everyone, at some point, has admired. One of this season's 26 F/W street beauty trends interprets femininity not through excess or glamour, but through restraint and practicality.

At the center of this is a shift in blush placement, lower than before. Until just a few months ago, the look was rounded and cute, centered on the front of the cheeks. Now, blush is blended naturally with highlighter or bronzer, starting close under the eye and sweeping diagonally outward. Calm yet subtly dimensional, it creates a more mature, refined impression.

The color palette has likewise shifted toward shades that blend seamlessly with the skin tone. Muted corals and soft pinks that diffuse without leaving a hard edge are at the forefront; Flamingo Pink and Canyon Sunset are prime examples.

In skin, 'soft-blur skin' has become the defining look. Natural texture and contour are preserved, while pores are softly blurred up close, as though a thin, weightless filter has been applied, leaving skin looking powdery smooth. Lip makeup follows the same current. Rather than a defined lip line, the look favors a hazy edge and velvety texture to convey a natural, lived-in flush. Colors such as Mute Berry and Rose Dawn, dried-rose tones, were prominent. The effect is characteristic of the trend: diffusing softly like watercolor, blurring at the edges.

HERA Mesh Powder, which imparts a powdery softness to the skin, can also be used to refine the area around the lip line. Apply it before your lip makeup to naturally soften the edges, and you'll be able to create a lip blur look with ease.

3. Mood Comes First

A person's overall presence matters far more than we tend to realize. There are, of course, moments when the sheer physical beauty of someone's face is simply overwhelming. At the Black Cushion Mesh Powder event, I had the chance to see HERA ambassador Felix up close — and in that moment, the thought crossed my mind: 'Inner beauty, what a trivial thing···!' His presence was simply magnetic.

And yet, what lingers in memory is rarely the features themselves: it is the person's own particular presence. A vivid, buoyant energy that makes you want to keep talking, or a quiet calm that you feel even in silence.

The dominant mood in this season's street looks is a Taupe Smokey, a classic, mist-tinged shadow in warm gray-brown tones. The eye's depth is subtly enhanced, with the boundary across the eyelid diffused and naturally extended to the undereye, completing a dreamlike mood.

Contrary to what sharp, defined makeup can do, it is sometimes the hazy, open expressions that leave the deeper impression. In particular, a calm taupe-toned eyeshadow such as espoir's Eye Core Palette #10 Midnight Shell is well-suited to conveying this season's characteristic dreamlike, classic vibe.

What matters, I think, is discovering the mood that genuinely fits your own character. As the saying goes, after forty, your character shows in your face, and I believe that reflecting on the impression you want to leave, and the lifestyle you want to embody, is what gives your personal style its direction.

4. Eyebrow Bleaching

If you want to shift the mood of your face, the first thing I'd recommend changing is your brow color. It's especially worth trying if you're looking to step outside the predictable. Actual bleaching is one option, of course, but recently, brow mascara has become the go-to for achieving a 'bleach brow' look naturally and without commitment.

Products such as espoir's The Brow Color Fixing Cara #4 Fake Bleach, which gently diminish the brow's definition, are exemplary of this. Eyebrows are among the most influential elements in shaping a face's impression, and their color alone can evoke a wide range of moods. Dark brows create a strong impression; bleached or softened brows, by contrast, lend a decadent edge.

The bleach-brow trend of 26 F/W is not simply about making the brows lighter. The point is to pare back the face's impression. As the brows recede, the eye shape, facial structure, and skin texture become more visible, and the person's presence registers before the makeup does. Notably, bleach brows strip away some of the face's emotional legibility, giving rise to a cool, fashionable mood. By reducing the brow's prominence and letting skin and bone structure drive the mood, makeup and clothing fall into a single unified tone. The effect is one in which the eye goes first to the overall mood of the face and style together.

5. Defamiliarization

To understand global beauty, I believe a 'negative system' is necessary. In Again, Super Gap, the author argues that to build an organization in which autonomy takes precedence, you must first define what is prohibited, then allow freedom and experimentation across everything else. This perspective holds just as true when approaching beauty trends.

Sometimes you encounter styling that is so bold, so seemingly overwrought, that it resists easy understanding. Rather than rushing to judge whether something 'suits' or 'doesn't suit,' however, it's worth viewing such encounters as a channel for new stimulation and fresh provocation.

Among this season's street trends, one that stood out was the bold combination of silhouettes and ornamental detail. Moving away from conventional balance and codified beauty, there was a strong current toward embracing unfamiliar combinations as a language of style in their own right.

In design terms, people experience something as 'fresh' when it departs from familiar proportions or scale. And when an element appears where it isn't expected, something registers as distinctive. This season's hair styling was a case in point. Locks, flowers, hairpins, and other decorative objects in assorted patterns were layered into the hair as if stacking small sculptures, creating a striking focal point. Not ornamentation for the sake of beauty, but a deliberate disruption of familiar balance, designed to draw the eye.

Much like this season's street fashion, global beauty is increasingly less about presenting a 'right answer' and more about proposing new ways of seeing.