With the arrival of spring, makeup becomes a direct reflection of the changing season: lighter skin, luminous finishes and a color palette that embraces fresh and vibrant tones. This season, the trends are a hybrid between naturalness and the more dramatic tones, providing versatility when choosing our daily makeup.
In this context, both runways and social media play a key role in defining what’s in fashion, but they are not the only influential agents. Film and television series have established themselves as beauty trend creators, marking styles that quickly transfer to real life. Iconic characters, reinterpreted era aesthetics and highly defined visual proposals inspire looks that go viral and adapt to everyday life.
Movies and TV series that set makeup trends
This spring there are two audiovisual milestones that will shape trends and inspire professionals when creating their looks: the new film Wuthering Heights and the series Love Story following the life of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The makeup artist Antonio Romero considers they are “the ones that are influencing my work the most and the ones I use most as inspiration, also because they are the ones closest to my tastes.”
For Marta Arce, they are also two of her main sources of inspiration, with Wuthering Heights because it is “inspiring very ethereal looks” with “glowing skin, romantic blush and a very natural beauty.” If we focus on Love Story, for the expert it is key to recover “a more emotional aesthetic of very alive skin, soft blush and intense but diffused gazes.”
Two very clear trends that will mark the season, and to which Romero adds the upcoming release of the Euphoria season because “we already know how it has always revolutionized the look and makeup landscape in its previous seasons.”
Fashion shows, a laboratory of trends
Runways are a trend creator beyond fashion; in makeup, there are also references that we can adapt to our look. For Antonio Romero, “there have been several that have struck me as especially impactful and that I think reflect very well the changes that are taking place.”
One of them is Tom Ford, which “returns to the 80s and 90s with strong colors on both eyes and lips. They aren’t as loud as in the 80s, but the makeup artist highlights “the way of applying them, blending the eyebrow and emphasizing the eye structure more instead of elongating it to seek a feline gaze.” He adds, in the same line with a slightly stronger tone, to “Saint Laurent, Prada or Gucci” and also highlights Dior, which “softens everything in terms of color” with “quite monochromatic proposals,” the return of metallics at Chanel and “the eyeliners” of Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino or Courrèges.”
“The runways in New York, London, Milan and Paris remain the main focus from which trends emanate,” emphasizes Marta Arce. For the makeup artist, key are the “pastel shadows and especially in sky blue, the luminous and very natural skin, the blurred lips and the soft blush that rises toward the temple.” Among the shows she highlights “Anna Sui, Victoria Beackham, Private Policy or Jane Wade” in terms of “blue eye shadows and creative lashes,” in addition to “Dior, Chanel, Valentino or Balmain” who “have reinforced a common idea of fresh skin, blush as the focal point and makeup that accompanies the face without concealing it.”
Trends in the face, gaze and lips
Knowing who the season’s protagonists are, it’s time to break down the trends. At the face level, these trends are “built on the clean look we were coming from and the skin treatment is maintained,” notes Antonio Romero. For him, skins will be “slightly covered, or at least it appears so, nothing excessively matte nor excessively glow, but a more natural balance, with a hydrated skin look, letting freckles and texture show through.” This is where Marta Arce agrees, who also gives prominence to the “blush” that is “placed higher on the cheek or even slightly toward the eye contour to give a more romantic and youthful effect.”
The expert highlights in the gaze “pastel shadows, especially blues, lavender or very soft tones along with diffused eyeliner or soft smokey, less structured than in previous seasons.” She adds “more creative eyelashes or with color, but always accompanied by a clean and fresh base makeup.” In Romero’s view, the emphasis is on “respecting more the bone structure of each face. Color is worked diffusedly, maintaining that structure and rising toward the brow, seeking a more vivid finish, less perfect than in previous years.” He highlights the “color freedom, from more vibrant tones to blacks and browns, but always with that sense of makeup being more organic.”
On the lips, Marta Arce notes that “matte rigidity and extreme outlining are abandoned and they become softer.” For her, the season’s stars will be “blurred lips with less defined edges, softened or satin reds, applied more naturally, in berry or raspberry tones with a juicy effect.” The overlip will continue but “much more naturally, with a slight overline in the central part very integrated. The color concentrates in the center, with reddish tones applied in touches and diffused, aiming for that mucosa effect of the lip’s inner part,” states Romero.
Proposals that are fading away
As new trends arrive, others fade away. We lose “the contours excessively defined in all areas, both on the face, as well as around the eyes and lips. The face moves away from the marked and restrictive contouring, seeking a more organic result,” Romero highlights. In the gaze, “the sharp-edged shapes disappear in favor of more natural structures, and on the lips the perfect and rigid outlining is abandoned, opting for diffused and integrated contours,” he adds.
For Marta Arce, it will be the end “of overly rigid or heavy makeup, very full-coverage bases, extremely marked contours, very hard graphic liners.” The professional concludes that we are “moving toward a freer, more natural and more expressive makeup, where real skin again takes center stage.”
