5 Spring Looks For The Average Skilled Makeup Lover

Spring is a time for renewal. Maybe you’ve cleaned out pieces from your wardrobe that still have the tags on, or you’ve gone as far to deep clean your makeup brushes. There’s an appeal to spring that makes us want to reinvent ourselves, change up the habits we’ve taken on over the past months and try something new. Makeup offers a myriad of ways to look and feel fresh, but it can be stressful to try and perfect the runway-ready makeup trends plastered over faces on social media. We’ve rounded up five makeup trends that take little effort and skill but are still guaranteed to liven up your spring look.

This spring, we’re ditching neutral makeup looks. The spring/summer runways were full of unconventional graphic liners, with each designer offering a different take on the once classic cat-eye. The beauty of this eyeliner look is you don’t have to spend hours making sure lines are straight or even. We’re seeing unconventional explorations of what can enhance and decorate different eye shapes with a focus on individual expression over perfection. This trend is experimental and editorial in nature, meaning the weirder it is, the better.

Think bursts of exuberant colour, asymmetrical designs, and lots of unconventional smudges of colour to create a unique, artistic eye look that could never have been created by overthinking placement or colour palette. For instance, scribbling various coloured liners over the lids to create an intermixing wave of colour, or loading up eyeshadow on the tips of your finger and smudging strips of colour over the crease, war-paint style.

If that feels a bit intimidating, applying a dash of colour to the inner tear duct or lower waterline is a sure way to play up a simple eye look. If you’re unsure of which colours to throw on your face, try creating a monochrome look to match your outfit or consult the colour wheel for some contrast.

Iridescent makeup, a nod to the inescapable Y2K resurgence, means a return to glitter and gloss on the eye. Shimmery eyeshadows or holographic glitter can be paired with either a full glam look or minimalist skin to bring either understated etherealness or full grunge glam. Chanel cottagecore fairy realness with glossy skin highlighted by chunky glitter swiped across the eye. For a bolder look, move away from the neutral glitters over a 90s smokey eye and into a mess of holographic sparkle over bright and bold eyeshadows, blown out and blended to the temples. Experiment with different sized eye-safe glitters, holographic shadow formulas, or actual rhinestones. TikTok is currently seeing the use of temporary tattoo transfers to create a whole host of different decorations on the face; from gold freckles to tiny artworks, these transfers are simple to use and offer a semi-permanent way to elevate your makeup look.

On a Monday morning, extravagant makeup probably isn’t on the cards. Time is money, but you can save both by incorporating makeup products that offer skincare benefits into your routine. We’re currently seeing skincare ingredients making their way into makeup across every category.

What started as BB and CC creams, offering anti-ageing and blemish banishing properties alongside a tint of colour, has grown into mascara/lash serum hybrids, heavy-duty foundations infused with exfoliating acids, antioxidants, and hydrating extracts to benefit your skin as it makes it look flawless, and caffeine packed concealers to treat the bags under the eyes while covering them. As skincare and beauty continue to merge, not only can we save time and money, but makeup can conceal and enhance in the short-term while bringing lasting benefits too.

In the same vein as makeup and skincare, skin minimalism and the ‘clean beauty’ look are big players for spring skin. The idea of ‘fresh skin’ for spring isn’t groundbreaking, a little like florals for spring, but ‘natural-looking’ makeup isn’t going anywhere this year. The no-makeup makeup look is a hard one to perfect. It’s nearly impossible to perfectly colour match, stop product creasing around those pesky crevices, or avoid the inevitable product separation as the day goes on–add wearing masks into the equation, and the no-makeup makeup can go south pretty quickly.

Forget the idea you must convince people there is no product on your face and instead opt for minimalism enhanced by occasional maximalism. Utilising lightweight base products, dotting the bridge of the nose with some faux freckles, fluffing up the brows, and bringing a skin kissed glow to the cheeks with a light sweeping of bronzer, ditch the no-makeup look by slathering on a liquid highlighter and a cream blush. Finish off with a juicy gloss and a sparkling eye, and the minimalist look is complete.

Draped blush has occasionally reared its head across the past six or so years, but it’s never managed to cement its place as a full-blown trend. This spring, it’s predicted to finally make its mark. The trend sees a pop of colour draped around the tops of the cheekbones and onto the temples. It often transitions into the wearer’s eyeshadow, offering a fully blown-out look. Those committed to the trend occasionally bring the forehead into play, framing the eyes and lifting the cheekbones up to the temple.

The best thing about this blush resurgence is the power this placement has in creating a natural lift for the face. Whether you try the unusual placement with a neutral-toned cream blush for a natural flush of colour, or you use blues, greens, oranges or yellows to drape your blush to the temples and crease of the eyes, playing with blush placement and draped blush can give your face a whole different shape, enhancing features you never thought to highlight before.

While the current makeup trends focus on imperfection as the new perfection, take the time to experiment with alternative styles and ideas of what makeup can be for you; how you can use it to express yourself and make yourself feel good.

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