Hello, fellow members~ This is makeup artist Vincent, who knows a little bit about beauty. In this column, let's take a look at the forecast for the makeup trend in the second half of this year categorized into face, eyes, and lips, based on the fashion week in the four major fashion capitals (Paris, Milan, New York, and London) that lead beauty trends. Please note that I will take you through the makeup trends we saw a lot and overlapped during fashion week starting with the ones that can be applied in our lives realistically!

2020 F/W designers' collections showed skin makeup trends that are quite familiar to us. The 'no makeup' look of a natural complexion with heightened gloss finish and glow took up more than 75% of the entire show. The keywords here are glow finish, fresh skin, and bare complexion. Let's take a deeper look.

Unlike any other year, we saw more of 'glow finish' than 'matte finish'. Skin complexion makeup included different levels of glow from bright glow makeup to dewy finish that delivers lively skin complexion full of moisture like dew drops.

✔ Related major brands - Burberry Prorsum / Balmain / Custo Barcelona / Private Policy / Alberta Ferretti / Private Policy / Area / Marine Serre

Unlike the glow finish, which adds glow on top, 'fresh skin' complexion is a look with a light finish that is natural like actual skin. The fresh skin look, especially, was notable in luxury brands. It is the trendiest luxury makeup today. It offers coverage, but the point is to deliver a naturally clear and pure complexion without brightening or darkening the skin.

✔ Related major brands - Chanel / Hermès / Issey Miyake / Paco Rabanne / Isabel Marant / Elie Saab / Rick Owens / Boss / Sacai / Rochas / Valentin Yudashkin / Annakiki / Christian Wijnants / J.W. Anderson

Even among the 'no makeup' look that seems like the look applies almost no makeup, techniques that heightened freckles and blush to make it seem the look truly is 'no makeup' were notable.

✔ Related major brands - Kenzo / Moon Young Hee / Ryan Roche / Palm Angel / Priscavera

Not all backstage was like this, but overall, we saw a lot of light colors and edgy black look, giving the eyes a point makeup. To perfectly fit fashion week, there were strong looks using metallic textures or still blue colors, but natural looks of glossy texture and coral colors stood out. Light eyebrow makeup of natural strokes, unlike recent trends, stood out as well.

Fashion week unveiled intense eyeliner looks along with natural-colored shadow. Unlike the bold eyeliner looks that expressed a retro feel, these eyeliners were longer and straight, delivering graphic aesthetic beauty.

✔ Related major brands - Marc Jacobs / Rag & Bone / Moschino / Dolce & Gabbana / Dior / Miu Miu / Ultrachic / Bibhu Mohapatra / Christian Sirian / Libertine

Pleasantly so, the familiar coral tone-on-tone makeup look appeared on stage. The color was used a lot to express the eyes and lips and even in blushers to maximize the tone-on-tone look.

✔ Related major brands - Ann Demeulemeester / Victoria & Tomas / Each X Other / Kenzo / Elie Saab / Mame Kurogouch / Cynthia Rowley / Jeffrey Dodd / Kim Shui / Daks

One of the trends this season is the makeup look that heightens feathered eyebrows. The look can create a livelier and more modern image by neatly shaping the lashes like feathers. A slightly strong eyebrow makeup trend continued for the recent 5 years, but this season unveiled a more delicate looking feature without the lashes sticking together.

✔ Related major brands - Victoria & Tomas / Ryan Roche / Kristina Fidelskaya / Noon By Noor / Raisavanessa

In both the East and the West, the most defined makeup detail that expresses the femininity and the trend of the era is, of course, the red lip. Let's take a look at the red lip makeup of the 40s to 90s and the burnt and ombre lip makeup aligned with K-Beauty.

This season chose vivid red lip to heighten the retro mood, romantic, and elegant look. Take note of how the looks are mostly red lips of vivid colors and the perfect gloss rather than a matte texture!

✔ Related major brands - Saint Laurent / Lanvin / Givenchy / Msgm / Brock Collection / Libertine / Marc Jacobs / Ralph & Russo / Brognano / Dolce & Gabbana / Jil Sander / Jason Wu / Just In Xx / Proenza Schouler 

Those of you who've read my column on lipstick trends early this year would know burnt colors refer to burnt MLBB colors, delivering a more vintage and sentimental feel. The color trend is already used and loved in the market, so I'll skip the elaborate explanation on this trend. Just remember that these colors were not only used in lip makeup, but also eyeshadows this season!

✔ Related major brands - Missoni / Luooif Studio / Nina Ricci / Antonio Marras / Bore Aksu / Elisabetta Franchi / Concept Korea / Pamella Roland / Michael Kors / Eckhaus Latta / Calcaterra / Rachel Comey

Korea's makeup trend showed a lot of ombre lip makeup, also known as gradation lips or two-tone lips. Take note that what's unique with this trend is that there were also gradations of colors from left to right expressing full volume, not just up and down.

✔ Related major brands - Chloe / Thierry Mugler / Fendi / 16Arlington / Molly Goddard

We looked at 3 different categories and 9 keywords. Let's summarize.
First, skin makeup can be summarized into three keywords – glow finish, fresh skin, and bare complexion. Largely speaking, the three trends are all based on natural glow. Most of the time, fashion week in the four fashion capitals rarely used glossy, glow skin complexion and therefore, requires our attention. Remember luxury fresh skin, which was the most frequently applied look among all.
Second, eye makeup sums up into bold eyeline, coral color, and feathered eyebrows. The coral color tone-on-tone, especially, caught my eye. There are two reasons to this. The bold eyeline and light and feathered eyebrows have been introduced continuously with slight variations, and even when Pantone introduced the 'living coral' in 2019, it was not reflected in the makeup of fashion week across the 4 cities. I personally am keen to find out how much this will become popular in Europe and North America.
Finally, I found a lot of similarity between the lip makeup trends and Korea's recent trends. Lip makeup sums up into precise red lip, burnt color, and ombre. Clear vivid red lips, the burnt colors that are already loved in the market, and ombre.

Considering the 30-year beauty trend cycle, maybe it's the comeback of the 90s' natural clean makeup? Or maybe Asia's beauty powerhouses, including Korea, are leading the global trends in makeup? I may not be able to give you an answer, but one thing is clear – the boundary between the makeup looks of the East and the West is blurring quickly. I conclude my column hoping that we will be able to offer global big hit items in makeup and skincare with this positive signal in trend. Thank you.