Exploring the Future of Makeup with the Highly-Contoured Teens of Beautycon

She’s here, she’s actually here, oh my God I can’t believe she’s here!”
                                           

Three young girls are chasing after makeup vlogger Olivia Grace. The 16-year-old social media influencer might look like she’s still at school, but YouTube videos where she reveals the contents of her handbag or what she got for Christmas regularly receive tens of thousands of views. At Beautycon—the annual beauty convention beloved by YouTubers and teenage girls—screaming kids, selfies, and expensive luxury highlighter are the norm.

Thousands of mostly teenage, female makeup addicts have travelled from all over the UK—and even further afield (I meet one person from LA)—to the Olympia Trade Centre in west London. Most have paid $40 for entry-level access to the convention, but others have shelled out $160 for premium packages, including “access to all brands, main stage panels, and activations,” extra makeup shopping opportunities, and the opportunity to take selfies with their favorite influencers. They’re here to meet YouTubers, Instagram makeup icons, and reality TV stars—as well as to spend their pocket money at one of the dozens of teen-favored brands that have retail stands at the event.

Makeup here is not about appearing pretty or enhancing how you look. Gone are the days of buffing in pink blusher to create a natural flush. These girls and women want to look hyper-real—so perfect they resemble alien princesses.

At the stand for the glitter makeup brand Sparkles London, I meet three 15 year-olds who look like lost members of Little Mix. Natalia has eyebrows so angular that I wouldn’t be surprised if she drew them with a compass. (We have withheld the surnames of all the girls interviewed due to their age.) “Today I spent an hour on them,” she says, although normally she only spends around 15 minutes on her brows. “I brush pomade underneath, then I line on top and blend out, and I put concealer around to sharpen everything up and highlight.”

How Atomic Makeup Founder Navil Rico Is Making Beauty More Inclusive

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest beauty trends, you know that liquid matte lipsticks are some of the biggest products on the market right now. While there are many options to choose from, not all are created equal — some can be too drying, too expensive, or too limited in shade range. Luckily, there’s an indie brand out there with lipsticks that include a creamy formula, wide spectrum of colors, affordable prices, and a socially conscious attitude. Meet Atomic Makeup NYC.
                                                 

On an ordinary day, the cosmetics line sells thousands of lipsticks, and recently, Atomic sold out its entire inventory during a sale on Labor Day weekend. While this seems like an easy enough feat for a thriving indie brand, Atomic’s ability to achieve this is especially impressive given that her team includes only five people, including Navil herself.

It’s typical for sellers on Etsy and other online platforms to sell handmade products at a higher cost due to the time-consuming and laborious nature of creating them, but Navil keeps her prices low in order to be more accessible. She says, “It’s not so much about profit per lipsticks, it’s about how many lipsticks can someone enjoy within their budget?”

Creating such shades is essential to the brand, and Navil's personal experience as a woman of color made her hyper-aware of a beauty standard that favors light complexions. Of this standard, she says, “I think that the only way to get rid of it is working harder and bringing knowledge to everyone that it’s not just about what we grew up knowing as beauty."

Her upbringing made her conscious of the restrictive beauty culture which was everywhere she looked, from magazines to television shows and more. The Atomic founder says that in the predominantly Latino city of Santa Ana, California, many girls she knew tried hard to fit into that standard.

How to Apply Makeup That Will Still Look Amazing at the End of a Race

When I ran my first obstacle course race, I envisioned crossing the finish line triumphantly, a big smile on my face, glowing with the joy of achievement. In reality, it was a sweaty and humid unseasonably warm day, but in my race photos I look great. My secret? I ran in a full face of makeup.
                                         

As I turn 30, most of my big life moments are behind me. I’ve already done the graduation, wedding and new baby photos, so now the big moments and photo ops in my life are ones I create for myself. I’ve run several distance races in full makeup, and the photos above are from my first obstacle course race. It might be vain, but after months of training for the Spartan Sprint and a hefty entry fee, I’m willing to put in a little extra effort to go home with a few great pictures to go with my medal.

Race photos and action shots won’t be close ups. Your race day makeup serves a different purpose than everyday makeup. The goal is to look great from ten feet away, so focus on making your features pop and complexion look even. Make sure your eyebrows don’t disappear on camera and your lips stand out. More product means more things that can slide around, so keep your race day look stripped down and minimize any contouring or highlighting. You will have plenty of glow from the exercise, so you don’t need an artificial one.

Race preparation for something like a Spartan or a marathon takes months of training. After putting in all that effort, I don’t want to take any chances with my race day look. Most of what I wear are prestige cosmetics with formulas engineered to withstand a long day. The bigger price tag really does get you more technology and better ingredients.

My race day face starts with Clinique Fit foundation. It’s got SPF 40, so there’s no need to put on any additional moisturizer. I like this foundation because it’s long wear and full coverage without feeling heavy. Any longwear foundation you like will get the job done as long as it’s a matte finish formula.

Emily Ratajkowski Masters the French Makeup Game in Paris

Emily Ratajkowski is getting the hang of this whole Parisian beauty thing. A quintessential California girl at heart, EmRata's aesthetic menu typically centers on tousled lengths, nude lips, sky-skimming lashes, and strategic ab reveals. But some time spent in the City of Light—under the guidance of makeup artist Hung Vanngo, no less—seems to be eliciting a desire to ramp up all things above-the-neck. Though, as it's France, the elevation comes with a side of nonchalance, a winning combination that is more challenging than meets the eye.
                                   

Case in point: After the Jacquemus runway show, which was held at the Musée Picasso, the party found Ratajkowski serving up a look classique: Show-stopping red-orange lips defined by its glaze of gloss (as well as her signature plump pout). Lengths were styled in a rumpled wave that offered a familiar frame for the flicks of liner and amplified lashes that completed the doe-eyed gaze. And rather than following the splashy moment with a one-up, the morning after saw the model-turned-actress embracing a no-makeup makeup look that was pared-down and demure (and very French) at Dior's front row. Those same lengths were neatly tucked behind ears, her lips coated in a transparent gloss, eyes edged in a touch of highlighter, with smudged onyx making a subtle showing under the lower lashline. The shared factor was EmRata's glowing complexion and compulsion for contoured blush (that L.A. lean), but it's the contrast of the looks that demonstrates her mastery of what defines the Parisian allure: the ability to move seamlessly from French femme fatale to angelic ingenue without skipping a beat.

Is there animal fat in your blusher?

Veganism is moving from what we put into our bodies to what we put on our faces. In a decade, the number of vegans in Britain has increased from 150,000 to more than 540,000, according to the Vegan Society, fuelled by younger people, aged 16-34, who account for nearly half that number. It makes sense that those avoiding all meat, dairy and animal derivatives such as wool and leather would also be keen to avoid beeswax in lipbalm, animal fat in cream blushers and eyeshadows, and crushed cochineal beetles in red lipsticks. You don’t have to be vegan to be put off by this.
                                                 

Tashina Combs has been writing about cruelty-free and vegan makeup for the last six years on her blog Logical Harmony and has recently noticed a surge of interest. “I think people are becoming more aware. For a long time, people didn’t really realise how common animal testing still was in so many places around the world. With vegan cosmetics, they start to look at the ingredients too and are realising a lot of them are byproducts of other industries they don’t necessarily want to support.”

The new vegan brands, she says, have a mainstream feel. “I think for a long time there was a stigma – that everyone thought they were these earthy, crunchy brands and now they’re realising you can go to department stores and buy this stuff. They are high-quality products that makeup artists are using and they perform in the same way as the conventional brands we’re used to.”

Jenkins recommends British company PHB Ethical Beauty – she rates their mascara – and she also likes Arbonne, and the long-established vegan company Beauty Without Cruelty. “I love Pacifica for their BB creams, and their mascara and eyeshadow is great. Lime Crime is a really fun brand – they do fantastic brightly coloured eyeliners and gorgeous lip glosses.” A lot of lipbalms have beeswax in them, she says, but a company called Hurraw makes “beautiful creamy lip balms, which I use a lot”.

Several Outdated Makeup Trends

The 70s, 80s, and 90s gave us so much good stuff. (We love you, Fleetwood Mac and smartphone-free family dinners.)
                                               

But when it comes to beauty? Let's just say there isn't quite as much to feel nostalgic about. Even though each decade was defined by very different styles, they all had one thing in common: makeup that seems kinda crazy today. (Not only did makeup trends baffle us, but how about these old-school dating rules that we can't believe existed?)

1: Heavy concealer
A severe matte complexion is a lot like a power suit: Both are usually unflattering and announce to the world that you're stuck in the 1980's. Plus, all that pancake makeup can actually make you look older, especially if you pile it on under your eyes. "It settles into fine lines and accentuates them," says freelance makeup artist Hillary Klein. (Avoid making these 7 foundation mistakes that age you.)

The update: Using a little bit of concealer is totally fine. Just stick to applying it on the inner halves of your under-eye area, where there are fewer lines for it to settle into, Klein says. And always moisturize before adding makeup: Hydrated skin is plumper and less crepe-y, so your concealer will go on smoother.

2: Crazy amounts of bronzer
A little glow is good. But too much can look like you're trying to harken back to the (dangerous!) days when people used to sit out in the sun slathered in baby oil. (If you can't help sunbathing, slather on one of these 5 best sunscreens to keep your face looking young.)

The update: The key to doing bronzer right is picking a powder that’s just one or two shades darker than your skin tone, so it'll look natural instead of radioactive. And apply it lightly, says Christina Flach, CEO of Pretty Girl Makeup. Using a big brush, swipe a "3" on both sides of your face—starting at the corners of your temples, curving in towards your cheekbone, and ending at the corners of your chin.

Meet the Instagrammers Testing Makeup for Women of Color

When all you see is an online photo of a makeup palette, it doesn't tell you much. It's impossible to know if a new shade of eye shadow or lipstick will really look good IRL, especially since most websites use digitally-rendered swatches for darker skin tones. That's why women are taking matters into their own hands on Instagram, swatching makeup so women of color find their matches.
                                             

I wanted to create a resource to have all swatches on complexions that were more like mine in one place," says Ofunne Amaka, the woman who runs @cocoaswatches and its app, "Some people don't even buy anything before they see it on my page." Since launching two years ago, she's amassed nearly 88,000 followers eager to see how the latest launches look on deep skin and discover new brands.

Even on so many of the brand pages, I always would wonder: Where are the swatches for people who look like me?" Osase Emokpae, who founded @browngirlfriendly in April 2016, tells ELLE.com, "Why should brown girls and boys be forced to use their imaginations to figure out how a makeup product might look on us?" There's clearly a need for these online spaces–back in April when Forbes released its first-ever list of Top Beauty Influencers, of the 10 named, nine were fair-skinned.

It's definitely difficult. Sometimes I feel left out of the conversation because I'm catering to a certain market," Amaka says in regards to brand partnership opportunities, "The people that I'm helping is what helps me keep going, and validates me to keep going. To relieve that frustration for some people so makeup can be fun is a really good feeling.