When talking about make-up trends – despite the trend of all trends being that there is no such thing as a trend anymore – the conversations are all about, if anything at all, sheer colours. Textures or sometimes finishes, matt versus glossy, have been the talk of town in the last couple years, but nowadays? Anything goes, from acid green to washed out pink, reflecting glitter, dusty mattes. But how does it make you feel?
‘The experience’ has taken over the place of visionary colour palettes. A feeling, an experience with the brand, within its spaces, within its community but also with a products is what we are looking for now.
The feeling you get the second you set foot in a store and try, apply or compare gliding glosses or delicate blushes. Just a breeze away is the wave of emotions and experiences that is about to flood the mainstream.
Make-up is riding that wave already. It is haptic, designed to be touched and physically already pretty close to us. And you wouldn’t allow something to get up that close to you without expecting some sort of feeling right?
Glossier is one of the brand that shows us how a real shopping experience is done. Their ‘spaces’ (is there still anybody out there who says stores?) are interactive in the truest sense of the word. You can take photos, save on those passport pictures at the same time, pose and pout, snack and shop, play and paint. Get your picture in the middle of a retro style café or in the depths of an artificial canyon. This is no longer a simple selfie: The surroundings and the experience itself has to be documented and made visible to others, for them relive it.
It starts with the shopping, it continues with the products: Why for example do the 2 Faced eyeshadows smell like peach? Why is the Becca transparent powder cooling? Or why does Lipstick Queen’s lipstick change its colour from green to pink when applied on our lips? Why do brands like Nars work on innovative formulas, that feel special? Because we need more stimuli.
Make-up is a really good and purely positive drug: In fact, it makes the whole world prettier than it actually is. It emphasises the beautiful, masks out the less beautiful, conceals almost everything and covers the rest in a flattering Gaussian blur. It takes care of highlights. Who does not yearn for a multisensory experience? Which entails nothing more than the idea of stimulating as many of our senses as possible. A little trip that is nearly too good to be true. Of course, this exuberance can lead to an overconfidence as well. Especially the things that fill us with joy and beauty are the ones we like to take a big sip of. Which in this case simply leads to more colourful results.
So color can be an experience by itself, too…
