Beauty Trends 2021
June 3 // FW Beauty // Fizza Naqvi
As most of us spent the last several months cooped up at home during the lockdown, it felt like time stopped. Lucky for us, trends never do! During 2021, we noticed many trends that challenged and altered long lasting beauty standards. With the ample extra time everyone seemed to have, social media helped curate the trends while quarantine helped pave the way for us to experiment and play around.
SOAP Brows
For years, women preferred to have clean, shaded and perfectly arched eyebrows. This classic eyebrow trend was renowned for depicting a pair of brows that were versatile enough to be worn naturally, or with full glam. Considering in 2021, there were very few opportunities to get dressed up, this beauty trend seemed to falter into a more natural and everyday look. Women swapped their angled eyebrow brushes and pomade for simply a bar of soap (literally)! Instead of plucking, threading and waxing their brows to achieve a prim and crisp look, they let their eyebrows grow naturally, to fluff them out for a feathered, carefree appearance. Initially, all this trend required was a spoolie and a bar of soap, as soap has a strong hold, is cost effective and easily accessible. Eventually, higher end makeup brands such as Glossier and Anastasia Beverly Hills released products like clear brow gel and styling wax which build on the fundamental idea.
So next time you are about to book that brow appointment, grab a bar of soap and a spoolie or some styling gel and see if soap brows are a style that you could get on board with!
skinimalism
Keeping in line with the soap brows trend, women turned to embrace a more natural, minimalistic overall makeup look also known as skinimalism. The idea of this is to keep products and effort minimal in order to simply enhance our natural features. With the increased focus on skin care, the notion of using heavier, full coverage products is dwindling. To achieve a minimalist makeup look, women used concealers rather than full coverage foundation to hide any blemishes, resulting in a decrease in the use of face makeup, an airier look and not to mention less effort removing it at the end of the day! Furthermore, there was a greater focus on glowy, natural skin that women achieved through the use of enriched skincare products, serums or highlighter drops. Brands like Glossier and Charlotte Tilbury have ‘glowing skin kits’ that contain 2-3 products that aid in enhancing skin for a radiant yet natural appearance.
curtain Bangs
For years, hair has been considered a form of articulation, whether in terms of cut or colour, women would frequently change their hair as a method of self expression. While bangs used to be extremely popular back in 2010-2015, the trend eventually diminished. Women began shying away from drastic changes such as front fringe or side bangs as they were unsure of whether it would suit them. The new curtain bangs trend has enabled women to experiment with bangs while still maintaining the majority of their length. Unlike front fringe or side bangs, curtain bangs are jaw length, which is why they gained popularity very quickly. The concept of curtain bangs is to provide face framing pieces that would suit any face shape. This beauty trend gained recognition because of the versatility it provided, instead of being a long term commitment, curtain bangs can be styled in a variety of ways. They can easily be pinned back, grown out, or for the daring ones, be cut even shorter! Additionally, women claim that curtain bangs provide the perfect effortless texture to their haircut that simply needs a blow dryer or rollers to style and can even get away without any heat styling! Once cut and styled, the chic look can easily be recreated at home, which is what attracts women the most.
All in all, like people say, everything that was once in fashion or considered trendy, will eventually make a comeback as is embodied in the curtain bangs trend.