From shimmering accents and next-gen primers, the new year is all about elevating your routine.
“New year, new you” always seems to be the messaging when the clock strikes 12 a.m. on January 1. At Allure, though, we’re not in the habit of telling you to reinvent yourself come the new year or even to make a resolution if you don’t want to. What we will tell you about are next year’s new makeup trends, which do not require totally overhauling your makeup bag. Whether it’s the most popular colors on the runway, trending aesthetics on TikTok, or the market’s most exciting product innovations, 2025’s biggest makeup trends offer various ways to enhance your existing routine or add something sparkly, fun, or glamorous to your look—if you want to, that is.
Skin remains a focal point, as last year’s obsession with extreme glass finishes softens to soft-focus, blurring effects. Flashes of neon get replaced with subtle metallic accents, while berry and blue shades now reign supreme. Blushes and mascaras will continue to roll around in your bag, but you can expect to apply them in different or more dramatic ways.
“Makeup trends for 2025—from the fresh minimalist complexions to the avant-garde shapes and colors—offer something for everyone,” says makeup artist Tonya Riner, who notes that even some of the bolder trends can be adjusted to fit personal style. Add a warm-colored blush to your go-to look, go glam on your eyes but keep skin fresh, and swap out matte lipstick with a neutral lip oil for a fresh take on ’90s monochromatic makeup. “That way, you can have a nod to the trend while still looking like yourself,” adds Riner.
The word “trend” holds little weight in the TikTok era, but makeup is still a tool for self-expression: ways to experiment with your look that make you feel most beautiful and happy. When life is busy and the world feels chaotic, some direction and creative inspiration can make sorting out your makeup bag a little easier as we head into the new year. We spoke to makeup artists, trend forecasters, and beauty buyers to learn what they’re most excited about for makeup in 2025.
The easiest way to amplify your makeup look is the addition of metallic accents. “Pops of gold, silver, and bronze showed up all over the spring 2025 runways,” says makeup artist Ash K. Holm, who predicts we’ll see more in the coming year.
Based on what we saw coming down the spring 2025 runways, we’re not surprised. Whether it’s a sliver of copper liner against a sooty, smoky eye (like the look makeup artist Vincent Oquendo created backstage at Christian Siriano) or a line of shimmering gold along the Cupid’s bow (which Pat McGrath did at Miu Miu), this trend is about adding minimal elements with major impact to your look.
Eyeliner pencil is the best place to start if you want to dip your toes in the trend. This is a foolproof way to add subtle accents to your eye or lip look, as there is no guesswork about which brush to use—you just swipe and go. We’re not sure what magic went into the Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal Liner (alright, it’s most likely the dimethicone, panthenol, and mineral-based silica pearls on the ingredient list), but these are some of the creamiest, most pigmented eyeliner pencils we’ve ever tried. The metallic hues are the most exceptional of the bunch.
An eye shadow palette with multiple metallic shades is a great option for someone who wants to get a little more advanced with their makeup. The Makeup by Mario Master Metals Eyeshadow Palette contains classic metal hues—silver, gold, copper, bronze, and rose gold—in a creamy gel-powder formula that can be applied wet or dry.
When creating accents as subtle as these, sometimes you need a little extra oomph so your shimmer shines brilliantly and lasts more than an hour. To ensure metallics shine bright, most professional makeup artists swirl their glittering shadows, creams, and loose pigments into a mixing medium, but that can be messy and complicated. Instead, we recommend the Pat McGrath Labs Intensifeyes Artistry Wand, which was used backstage at Miu Miu as a primer for sparkling lip liner. The clickable pen is basically a solid mixing medium, enabling you to easily swipe it on as a base no matter how you want to try this trend.
Allover Berry
Deep berry tones took over the fashion industry in 2024 (just scan the racks at any fast fashion store), and their influence will be just as strong in the 2025 beauty space, says Hannah Mauser, a senior beauty strategist at trend forecasting company WGSN. We got a glimpse of berry’s impending domination via the many cherry-lacquered lips at the fall-winter 2024-2025 shows and the ongoing popularity of cherry-cola hair on TikTok. Maria Salcedo, a senior vice president of merchandising at Ulta Beauty, also sees bold berry hues dominating store shelves through the new year.
Makeup artists like Holm and Georgina Graham welcome the berry trend with open arms. “I think after all the Barbie-pink mania it’s nice to see the cooler, moodier sister having her moment,” says Graham. “And there is something for everyone, as the range of shades is so huge—from pale-pink berry to the darkest blackberry.”
Graham’s all-time favorite berry lipstick is Clinique Black Honey (a shade the brand has expanded beyond the traditional Almost Lipstick formula to include an eyeliner, lip and cheek oil, blush, and mascara), which she likes to apply on lips and cheeks. “One of my favorite looks is using the same lip shade on the cheeks for a more monochromatic approach,” she says. “I apply it to the apples of the cheeks, but sometimes also across the bridge of the nose or even higher on the cheeks for a more sophisticated take.”
Holm, on the other hand, prefers the look of a berry lip gloss over a longwear lip liner, and recommends a combo of the YSL Loveshine Candy Glaze in Burgundy Temptation layered over the Rare Beauty Kind Words Matte Lip Liner: “The liner glides on smoothly and lasts all day, while the gloss adds the perfect pop of color and gorgeous amount of shine.”
Vivid Blues
Makeup artists had a case of the blues backstage at the spring 2025 shows with cerulean brows at Chet Lo, pearlescent pale-blue lids at Marques Almeida and Luisa Beccaria, and rich-navy smoky eyes at Tove. We loved the effortless vibes of the latter, where makeup artist Lynsey Alexander applied Merit Solo Shadow in Midnight onto the lids and buffed out the edges for a diffused effect that looked both casual and elegant.
And it’s not just the runways signaling a blue wave: WGSN named Future Dusk its 2025 color of the year (the countdown is still on for Pantone’s). The deep blue-violet is the “perfect color for a period of uncertainty and wonder,” Mauser says. “It delivers an otherworldly, surreal, and cosmic quality that will be key for experimental hair, nail, eye, and lip colors.”
Future Dusk can be softly buffed over the lids or meticulously crafted into sharp, shadowy wings. Chanel’s Ombre Première Laque in Milky Way is a close match (with its blue and purple shimmers suspended in an indigo base), as is Byredo Colour Stick in Ultramagnetic (a purple-blue cream with iridescent flecks) that can be used on eyes and lips.
Hang on to your Polaroid camera and platform boots because beauty (and culture’s) obsession with the ’90s is set to continue into 2025. Modern takes on ’90s-inspired beauty will all start with fresh, luminous skin, thanks to an enduring fascination with the clean-girl aesthetic. From there, you have many ways you can channel the era through makeup.
Riner loves the look of barely there, monochromatic makeup that is created with neutrals just a shade or two darker than your skin tone. “What makes neutral tones so beautiful is how they enhance each feature, highlighting their natural shape,” she explains. Riner loves using the Danessa Myricks Beauty Colorfix Eye, Cheek & Lip Cream Pigment to sculpt the eyes and lips. “The Nudes Collection offers a beautiful range of shades to mix for a custom look,” she adds.
Embracing the ’90s doesn’t mean you have to forgo color in your makeup. Look to Nigerian-born, British-bred musician Sade Adu for inspiration: Videos with the hashtag #sadegirl are currently going viral, with tutorials for re-creating her rich, red-toned lip paired with smudged brown eyeliner. For this look, we recommend using the Uoma Beauty Badass Icon Matte Lipstick in Sade, a bright poppy red named after the singer, or Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipstick in Toast of New York, a more muted, warm-toned medium copper hue. Both are perfect for capturing Sade’s effortless yet elevated vibe.
Extra-Glam Eye Looks
The clean-girl aesthetic might be sticking around for 2025 (searches for “clean girl makeup” have gone up 61.1% year over year, according to Spate’s Popularity Index, a metric that combines search volume across TikTok and Google), but there’s also something sparkly, smoky, and a little extra bubbling up in the background. “Glam is back!” says makeup artist Daniel Martin—and many artists agree. Says makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell, “I have felt the excitement around bold, smoky eyes rumbling in the past six months. I was excited to see so many bold eye looks on the Victoria’s Secret runway that were glamorous but also super wearable.”
Eyes are the focal point of this glam resurgence, says Martin, and there’s no shortage of inspiration out there. Dramatic, smoky eyes were all over recent red carpets, with Emily Ratajkowski’s diffused chocolate shadow at the LACMA Art and Film Gala and Jordan Chiles’s sooty, winged eyes as some of the most memorable. The spring 2025 runways were also full of graphic glam looks, including the retro-inspired wings at Bora Aksu and Giorgio Armani, the sharp under-liner at Christian Dior, and the exaggerated cat-eyes at Gucci and Carolina Herrera.
The options are endless, but what makes the return to maximalist makeup in 2025 so striking is that no matter how “glam” you go, there’s always a natural element worked in. It’s about mastering the delicate balance between a bold eye or lip look (or both!) and the rest of your makeup. Says Sewell, “Skin should look fresh and beautiful, so there’s still that emphasis on clean beauty.”
Big, Fluttery Eyelashes
An obsession with all things lashes is growing. At the spring 2025 shows, makeup artists favored colorful falsies—red at Diotima, gold and silver at Bottega Veneta, a rainbow of hues at Dries Van Noten—or lashes that looked cloggy and spidery, like at Harris Reed. Though we do love a fantasy look, what will be trending next year in the IRL lash category is decidedly tamer.
Searches for tubing mascara, cluster lashes, and brown mascara are all gaining traction, according to Spate data. In fact, as of November, #Lashes had 4.5 million posts on TikTok, with the most popular content about long, lightweight lashes (whether false or natural).
If you’re looking to jump in on any of these three growing trends, don’t worry, we’ve got product recs. Oquendo suggests Victoria Beckham Future Lash Mascara, a budge-proof tubing mascara that lengthens and volumizes. For individual clusters, we’re obsessed with the Isamaya x Lashify Edge Gossamer Lash, designed by makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench to create a feline, eyeliner-like effect.
As for brown mascara, Graham loves Glossier Lash Slick for “an easy, everyday brown” that lifts and lengthens lashes. “I’ve been a longtime brown-mascara fan, as I think it looks fresh compared to regular black,” she says. She also likes to combine the two: “I’ll do brown on the upper and lower lashes and black at the outer corners to create a real doe-eyed effect.”
Makeup Product Trends Taking Over Your Vanity in 2025
Blurring Formulas
According to Salcedo, loads of upcoming product launches will marry a matte finish with a subtle glow, creating textures that give your features a blurry, soft-focus effect. Says Sewell, “These new technologies will allow you to blur pores but still gain luminosity to the skin without feeling like an oil slick.” Adds Mauser, they also offer a more refined approach to traditional, stark matte finishes that millennials or older Gen Z’ers may have grown up with.
If you want to get a jump-start on the trend, there are already some incredible blurring complexion products on the market. The Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm features unique technology that allows the cream formula to set as a powder, while the KJH Brand Soft Smudge Lip & Cheek stick features a powder-to-cream formula that sets as a radiant, soft-matte wash of color.
For blurred lips, you can sweep on a traditional lip liner or lipstick and diffuse the pigment with your fingers or a lip brush (this is what makeup artists did at Ulla Johnson and Carolina Herrera’s spring 2025 shows). You can also use one of the many lip stains or new blurring lip products on the market. Graham discovered Fwee Lip & Cheek Blurring Pudding Pot on a trip to South Korea, which she says is “really fun to use and particularly good for a hyper-smooth matte finish.” She’s also partial to Violette_Fr’s Bisou Balm for a soft-focus lip. “The shade Bêtiise is truly the perfect bitten lip shade. I’ve been through three tubes already.”
Essential Multitaskers
Be prepared for makeup products that work smarter, not harder in 2025. “From what I’m seeing, cross-functional eye, lip, and cheek products will reign as consumers become more driven by makeup artistry and experimentation,” says Martin. Salcedo agrees, adding that we’re set to see more and more multifunctional sticks launching in 2025. Ulta has already added several to its shelves, including Dior Beauty’s viral Forever Skin Perfect and DIBS Beauty Desert Island Duo, a blush and bronzer duo, that can be used on eyes, face, and lips.
We know what you’re thinking. Multisticks aren’t particularly new or innovative. “It’s a throwback to the ’80s and ’90s, when it was common to use your lipstick on your cheeks too. I remember my mom doing that,” says makeup artist Robin Black, before adding that she has seen a rise in popularity since the pandemic.
But why the sudden multiuse-stick obsession? Perhaps it’s unease about the economy and people wanting to get more bang for their buck. It could also be that this type of product pops up very frequently in clean-girl makeup tutorials on TikTok. Black, however, thinks it’s about people wanting to pare down their beauty routine. “The multiuse trend speaks to how complicated makeup routines have become since the advent of Instagram and YouTube,” she says. “All those 30-product tutorials and endless layering… People are on the hunt for simplicity again.”
New-Age Primers
The good news? Primers are getting increasingly better, with formulas that last longer, grip makeup better, and come in a range of incredible finishes. The bad news? Our changing climate is making that necessary. “The environment is playing a crucial role in the future of makeup, as hotter temperatures call for products that combat concerns like heat and sweat,” says Mauser.
The new makeup primers coming down the pipeline are focused on finish—glowing, blurred, bronzed—but without compromising what they’re really there to do: Extend the wear of makeup. Take, for example, Milk Makeup’s new 3-in-1 Hydro Grip + Glow Primer, which locks your makeup in place for up to 12 hours and leaves your skin looking like you just got back from Tulum. There are also primers that promise to extend the wear of your makeup while hydrating skin, such as Ilia Beauty’s Face Base
Climate concerns have also created new primer-adjacent categories that are already emerging on the K-beauty scene, including environmental shields and skin-protecting seals, says Black, who frequently consults with brands and labs across the globe on formulations. “These categories are definitely on the rise, either as a final skin-care step or primer,” she says. Slurp Laboratories’ Hydromer Perfecting Shield is one example that you can purchase in the US (Black tried it, but it aggravated her very sensitive skin). “They’re usually like a clear serum but they sit on top of your skin,” she says. You can apply them on a bare face, but they’re meant to go over either your SPF or makeup to help extend their wear and protect them from external influences.
K-beauty is adopting the concept quicker than other markets, but Black has seen similar ideas at labs in Taiwan and Europe. “As climate change worsens, ‘shield’ products will become an industry standard, particularly in the emerging markets where extreme heat, pollution, and humidity are already impacting product performance.”
