Let’s be honest, most of the makeup trend that makes its way from TikTok to Instagram Reels is just a re-invention of something that has already been done before. Take, for example, the ‘Latte Makeup’ trend–a classic brown smokey eye, sculpted cheeks atop matte foundation and a nude lip to finish it off. This is the look that has garnered 95 million (and counting) views on TikTok. But are you really telling me that a brown smokey eye hasn’t been around since the dawn of time? And just because it is suffixed with the word ‘trend’, it is new?
GenZ has decided that yesterday’s dewy skin and lip gloss (namely Glazed Donut Makeup) are officially out and a new monotoned latte look is in. But the fact is that the early aughts’ makeup looks on the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Tyra Banks walked, so that this latte makeup trend could run. Don’t get me wrong, I love that these trends excite beauty creators and have them put out their renditions of it, but it’s a bit lazy, in my opinion, when it comes to creativity and inventing something new.
Perhaps the only thing attracting me to the latte makeup trend is its ability to be inclusive. Unlike the ‘Vanilla Girl trend’ that centred around the fifty shades of white, the latte makeup trend fits a larger range of skin tones. All you have to do is adjust the tones of brown to match your needs!
Breaking Down The Latte Makeup Trend
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Latte makeup’s appeal is essentially in its warm and toasty washes of colour. Starting off with underpainting using a bronzer to warm up the skin, a thin layer of matte foundation (or just some concealer) goes on top. More bronzer goes on the eyelids to create dimension, connecting to the lower lash line for that desired smokey look. A darker shade of brown is used to create a buffed-out eyeliner, and the eyelashes are kept subtle. The eyebrows are also feathered out for a more natural, underdone feel. A little highlighter on the high points of your face and you have yourself a latte look!
This look defines the features of the face without making you look overdone. Think of monochromatic tones of amber for that perfect sun-kissed glow for the summer. The most important thing is to lean toward colours with a yellow undertone, like caramel, and stay away from the reds.
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While creating a ‘warm and bronzy, milky and effortless’ look over on TikTok, Rachel Rigler’s said “We’re gonna call this ‘latte makeup'”–and the look was actually quite stunning. So I don’t mean to put her down by any means, but the whole thing just got me thinking about the future of such makeup trends. Are we going to keep re-packaging old looks in fancy boxes, or is there something more exciting in store for us makeup enthusiasts?
Leaving the worries behind for a bit, let’s take a look at some stellar brown-toned celebrity makeup looks that have left us in awe, without the support of the word ‘trend’ attached to them:
Kim Kardashian
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The queen of contour and the nude colour palette, Kim Kardashian has undoubtedly given us some of the best warm-toned makeup looks along with her makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic. According to him, the key to achieving the perfect blend of your contour is constantly sheering the texture out before putting it onto the skin, and going in with soft layers.
Deepika Padukone
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Deepika Padukone wore this stunning copper-toned look just last year at the Cannes Film Festival, way before the inception of the latte makeup trend. Her effortless contour, feathered eyebrows and nude lips complemented her smokey brown eyes perfectly.
Jennifer Lopez
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Right from her music videos to her film appearance, Jennifer Lopez is the definition of bronze goddess. She always rocks a warm base with a nude lip, topped with lip gloss. She is also a great example of how this look sits well across different skin tones. Also, can we take a second to appreciate just how stunning she looks with a towel on her head?
Rihanna
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Our ‘bad gal’ RiRi is always seen with perfectly contoured cheekbones that her makeup artist, Priscilla Ono can achieve on her within 60 seconds. She focuses on the indents of the face rather than doing a tonne of stripes and then follows a method called reverse contouring–wherein you place foundation or concealer right below your contour to further make it pop.
Hailey Bieber
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Known to follow (and create) several trends, namely glazed donut makeup and nails, Hailey Bieber did dabble in the latte makeup trend herself. However, she herself has been seen in this very look several times before. Her brushed-out eyebrows, barely there lipstick, smudged brown eyeliner and highly defined cheekbones are proof of this.
Selena Gomez
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This makeup look on our collective girl crush, Selena Gomez, is the perfect example of how dimensional a round face shape can look with correctly placed contour. In fact, the Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick is the perfect product to achieve such a brown, warm-toned, latte makeup look.
