2010AD – 2019AD
The boom of social media, made this decade full of hair and make-up trends, along with making it easier to spread awareness of what is in beauty products and how they affect our environment. At the beginning of the decade, micro beads (plastic) were still being used in shower gels, they were finally banned in the UK in 2018. This decade also saw the ban of animal testing on finished products in the European Union in 2013.
The beginning of Instagram “influencers” made it easy for brands to advertise their products via social media and not necessarily through celebrities.
Skincare:
Along with the social media boom, there was a skincare boom too. This was due to social media, as skincare education has become very accessible. Skin has become the main focus for the face, “skin first, make-up second”, with real skin being ‘in’.
The average person became aware of ingredients such as ‘Retinol’ and ‘Hyaluronic Acid’ and used customised skincare regimes, with sometimes 10 steps. This is considered an act of self-care and not so much vanity.
Make-up:
At the start of the 2010’s, singer Taylor Momsen wore her smoky thick black eyeliner around her eyes, continuing the panda eye trend.
As Instagram started to get more popular, people would post photo tutorials on how to achieve make-up looks, such as the cut crease and contouring. Drag queen inspired make-up became very popular and saw the beginning of the “Instagram face” with bright bold eye shadow, extreme highlighter (strobing), and defined eyebrows.
In 2017, singer and business women Rihanna, launched her beauty brand “Fenty”. This made finding the correct foundation shade a lot easier for everyone, as there were 40 shades available, and then later released 10 more shades! This raised the bar for inclusivity.
Along with the extreme “instagram make-up look”, there was the #IWokeUpLikeThis, which was a no make-up make-up look, accepting real skin and “flaws”, glowing dewy, fresh skin with groomed eyebrows.
Extra-long eyelashes were very popular, with eyelash extensions, eyelash perms, and tinting becoming a big business.
As well as eyelashes, eyebrows became a priority, brow make-up boomed along with treatments such as threading, microblading and laminating.
Filler injections for lips became very popular and easily accessible with high street shops, such as Superdrug launching their in-store injectable services. To achieve a larger lip look, people would also over line their lips. Lipsticks now came in every colour imaginable and some people would wear unconventional colours day to day. The trend for brown lipstick, from the 1990’s, saw a rise.
Towards the end of the decade, freckles were sort after so people would draw on “faux freckles”, use henna to stain them on, or in extreme cases tattooing them on!
Hair:
Hair styles are not as structured as in the past, with brides now opting for relaxed up-dos with waves and curls hanging loose.
Hair cut’s became edgier with undercuts, including people with long hair shaving off the under section. Blunt bobs/lobs styled with textured beachy waves were the height of fashion, along with big bouncy blow-dries.
The 2010’s has helped people to embrace their natural hair texture. With social media platforms making it easier for people to share information and help each other, a lot more people now wear their hair in its natural curl/texture.
In the mid 2010’s brightly coloured ‘unicorn hair’ was highly fashionable, with pastel pink being the most popular. Other colour trends included bright red hair and then silver-grey hair.
There was a trend for ombré hair where the hair was dyed darker from the root and blended down into a lighter colour at the ends. Then a rise of the French highlighting technique, balayage ( which was developed in the 1970’s) became very popular as it gave hair a blended, natural sun kissed highlighted look with no harsh lines.
Hair extensions were now becoming highly popular, with techniques that are better for the hair, such as micro beads, tape-ins and fusion.
NEXT: 2020’s
BACK: 2000’s