It looks like we’re all craving a more natural beauty look, now that we’re so familiar with our nakey faces. Skinimalism has emerged as one of 2021 biggest beauty trends. The jist? Taking greater care of our skin with considered skincare, then dialling back our makeup to let all that work shine through.
Going forward, we want to look barefaced, but better. Already we’ve seen a movement towards tinted moisturiser. Even self-confessed cake-face, Huda Kattan‘s on board. The latest line in her beauty empire, GloWish, combines the cosmetic side of HUDA Beauty with the skin-caring expertise of Wishful. Its first product? The Multi-Dew Skin Tint (£25.60) which “doesn’t even look like you’re wearing makeup, it just looks like beautiful skin,” Kattan told us.
If we’re easing up on our foundation, it follows that we want to do the same with the rest of our makeup, so heavy, blatant-looking contouring has been given a similar makeover. It’s not that we no-longer want enhanced cheekbones (in fact, facial contouring searches are up 141%, according to Bobbi Brown) it’s just that we don’t want it to look like we’ve outlined our cheekbones, nose and jawline with obvious makeup.
To fill the place of traditional contouring, soft-sculpting is taking off. It’s a subtler, more diffused take on the trend that should blend imperceptibly into skin so you look fresh-faced while still maintaining some definition.
“Applying a cream bronzer to your blending brush will seamlessly blend the product into your skin, this is a more subtle approach on sculpting for those everyday makeup looks,” explains Bobbi Brown Pro Artist, Aimee Morrison.
For a glowy, bronzed look, take a cream bronzer or contour, if it’s in a stick format, “take the brush to it instead of drawing lines on your face where you want to sculpt,” says Aimee. “By doing this, it will be quicker and easier to blend out. Starting high up on the cheekbones, blend upwards towards your hairline, up onto the temples and down across your jawline,” she says. The secret to it looking seamless is to blend, then blend some more.
As for the tools, Aimee recommends using a deeper and cooler toned Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick (£32.00) with the Precise Buffing Brush (£37.00). “This is great for dry to extra dry skin types as the Skin Foundation Stick has Shea butter in and blends smoothly onto the skin,” she says.
