While the New Year comes with a bevy of trend forecasts, I’m always most excited to learn about makeup trends. As a true makeup girl through and through, I’m always going to be the first person to try the latest trend, no matter what it is.
There’s no doubt that 2022 was a fantastic year for all things makeup. After all, it was the first year we began to shed our masks and reenter society, and with that came many, many makeup looks. People were ready to put products on their faces! We saw the emergence of face gems, ultra-glossy lips, siren eyes, and more.
Next year, expect the makeup trends to get even better. The ’90s are back with glamorous goth looks, supermodel-inspired makeup, and extra-lined lips. To get insider intel on this year’s makeup trends, I reached out to a heavy hitter: Cat Quinn, the executive director of global trends at MAC. No one has their finger quite on the beauty pulse like Quinn does, which is what makes her trend predictions so sharp. Keep reading for Quinn’s 2023 forecast.
“We’ll see two major trends reemerge from the ’90s: soft goth and ’90s nudes. On the one hand, expect a soft-goth renaissance of people embracing their inner Wednesday [Addams] with smoky plums, browns, and burgundies blended under and around the eye and balanced with sooty, smoked-out black shadow on the lash line.”
“On the other hand, we’ll see a move toward beautifully sculpted and pretty ’90s-supermodel nudes in cool shades that work for all skin tones like mauve, gray, taupe, and charcoal.”
“Between the cultural shift from gold to silver jewelry and eye shadow, a lot of consumers will land on in-between copper for a decadent shade that feels fresh and unexpected. So many people went copper with their hair color this year, which has made the shade feel less intimidating to a lot of consumers. Makeup is the natural next step.”
“I also believe we’ll move away from everything being about lifting and tightening to embracing downturned liner—or, as we’ve coined it at MAC, sad liner. It creates the prettiest ’60s doe-eyed effect. We’re seeing ‘crying makeup’ take off on TikTok, and this will be the next iteration. Crying is glamorous.”
“We’ll see consumers lift lipstick shades straight from the runway collections—it’s the easiest way to try an on-trend color without dropping a fortune. (See the lipstick index.) Expect cherry red, bubblegum pink, velvet peach, coral, bright violet, and rich berry.”
“You’ll also see the return of lip liner in a major way. Between ’90s lip contour and the soft-goth lip, consumers are realizing there is a world of possibility with lip liner — from contouring to inner-lip lining to filling in the whole lip to creating crisp edges or ‘bow lips’ to pairing two liners for a two-toned or ombré lip. Instead of just gloss, we’ll see consumers pair lip liner with frosty lipstick for a ’90s-supermodel look or with lip balms for a syrupy, plumpy glaze.”
“The ‘vampire skin’ trend might have felt shocking at first, but we’ll see consumers get a lot more comfortable with glitter and shimmer all over the face versus just on the high points. I expect a rise in what we’re calling ‘backlighting’ or reverse highlighting: applying shimmer and glow all over the face and then going in and mattifying specific spots, which is the reverse of how we traditionally think about highlighter (i.e., applying it on matte skin).”
“We’ll continue to see glow, but rather than just a glazed finish, expect a more skin-forward, steamy skin look that values skin health, glow, and elasticity. Consumers are looking for that high-collagen bounce-back, and you’ll see [them] combining skincare and makeup for multidimensional glow that’s beyond surface level.”
