During the Met Gala, celebrity makeup was a key proponent that helped deliver the messaging on the theme “Fashion is Art”. And between rhinestones, glitter, and fluttery eyelashes, a common look no one saw coming was the emphasis on the undereyes.
Emma Chamberlain had hers highlighted with diffused metallic eyeshadow; Hudon Williams’ dual look was swiped all the way down his nose; model Amelia Gray had pastels right before her freckles began; and Chali XCX went the au naturale route. If the undereye wasn’t being painted on with colours, it was having its natural shadows out, loud and proud.
The beauty trend has been rising in popularity for a while now. Around runways in the major fashion capitals, designers and makeup artists are skipping the perfect skin for a natural one. Chanel, Prada, Collina Strada and more had eyebags left alone, letting the runway lighting give us a peek. It’s a complete turn from the glass skin and clean beauty craze, with those trends, skin was highlighted to look naturally perfect. Minimal concealer was necessary for the tiny spots and hyperpigmentation to create the flawless base of “barely there” makeup. But with this new trend, it’s all about embracing the imperfect.
The undone vibe is what gives the look its chic, sexy energy. Here is a woman with a life to lead and she can’t be bothered to disguise the wear and tear of it. It radiates confidence and an unbothered attitude to strut what you’ve got and not think twice about it. It also aligns with the current trends of fashion and culture. Between fashion and culture, the vibes are to look “lived-in”, so why not apply that to the skin as well?
But beyond the glamour of highlighting the undereyes and empowering it, there is also a visual micro-cue that this tiredness represents. It’s a representation of how we feel about the current world—the eyebags come from endless scrolling and collective grief over wars and politics stealing our humanity. In a way, it’s a form of checking out; what is the need to cover up when there are bigger problems at hand? It is a cue to the visual disgust that we feel, as well as the stress as we continue to take things one day at a time, this time without hiding the reality of how we feel.
Regardless, there’s no point hiding that fatigue. There is beauty in the imperfect and the imperfect reveals something deeper about how our bodies feel about the world around us. We can choose to let the tiredness breathe or swipe some colour on and move past ageing beauty standards. Either way, it’s time to skip the concealer.
