Routine in need of a shake-up? These are the moment’s biggest beauty trends, fresh off the runway and ready to make your own.
While developing a signature beauty look can ensure a streamlined daily routine, a desire for simplicity can see you resting on your hair and make-up laurels. In order to bust out of a beauty funk, it can help to look a little further for a spark of inspiration.
Where better to kickstart the imagination than the couture runways? Driven by innovation and individuality, the beauty looks presented in couture shows force us to look beyond our go-to make-up routine and toward bright hues, dimensional textures and artfully subtle colour combinations.
Here, we bring seven must-try beauty trends for 2021 straight from the spring/summer couture runways—along with the products you can use to help achieve the look yourself (with the option to call on our experts where needed).
18-carat gold glitter
Taking the trend to the extreme, the gilded models at Valentino’s spring/summer 2021 couture show reminded us once again of our love for glitter. You need not coat your entire face as Pat McGrath intended, but you can still give a subtle nod to her extreme take within your own look.
Take a glitter-flecked gold eyeshadow and swipe it across your entire eyelid for a pared-back statement, spritzing water onto your shadow-coated eyeshadow brush to deepen its pigment if desired.
Coloured liner
With subtly colour-lined lids emerging as a trend in recent years, now the graphic coloured eyeliner is making a bold statement for 2021. Replace your classic black winged eye with a bright hue for an easy way to ease yourself into the technicolour look, and a quick way to avoid that ‘same same’ feeling your beauty routine might have taken on of late.
Make like the models on the Viktor & Rolf spring/summer 2021 couture runway and line a bright blue (or pink) shade on your lids, ensuring you’ve prepped your eye with a flawless base so that your coloured liner really pops. Our picks? M.A.C‘s Liquidlast 24-hour Waterproof Liner and Dior‘s Diorshow On Stage Liner. If you don’t have the most practised of hands for applying liner, we suggest locking in a M⋅A⋅C Express appointment to get expert tips on nailing the bold look.
Shyly flushed cheeks
While a glance back at retro beauty may have seen you swear off bright pink blush for good, a flat complexion is no solution. Not only does a touch of blush bring dimension to the face, it also helps in the quest to capture the often elusive ‘no make-up make-up’ look.
Mastering the art of subtle blush were the models walking the Giorgio Armani Prive spring/summer 2021 couture runway, wearing just a hint of light pink on the apples of their cheeks for a fresh look. Not sure what shade of blush suits you best? Lock in a made-to-measure appointment with Dior to find your perfect complexion companion.
An other-worldly glow
If there is a more sought-after look than the aforementioned ‘no make-up make-up’ face, it’s the glowy complexion. While the idea of getting glow may sound easy enough, what is tricky about it is making sure you’re not bordering on looking sweaty or greasy, a balance perfectly struck at the Fendi spring/summer 2021 couture show.
Bypass any chance of excess shine by avoiding any heavy moisturisers and instead prepping your skin with a radiance-promoting serum, letting it settle, then layering on a luminous, lightwear foundation. The combination of these two products will allow for the illumination of the face’s highpoints without looking overly dewy.
Monochromatic make-up
If you’re not yet up for bold hues and graphic techniques, ease yourself into the trend with a monochromatic make-up look. As the name suggests, monochromatic make-up sees you take one hue from the same section of the colour wheel and swipe it across lids, cheeks and lips.
Take inspiration from Chanel’s spring/summer 2021 couture show and stick to an earthy palette or a subtle pink. Our top tip? To ensure maximum monochromaticity, use a colour from your eyeshadow palette (such as Tom Ford‘s Eye Colour Quad) to pop on your cheeks. Make a Runway Colour appointment with Tom Ford to pick an all-over shade that suits you best.
Regency-era hair volume
We’re certain we’re not alone in saying that that recent repeat-watches of Bridgerton have made us want to get a lot more experimental with our strands. The styles worn by the talk of the ‘ton reached new heights, and we were constantly looking on in admiration, as we were at Giambattista Valli’s spring/summer 2021 couture show, where models wore equally voluminous hair looks.
While such a towering style might not be as practical off the runway, you can channel the trend by adding a little extra volume into otherwise everyday styles. Apply a few spritzes of volumizing spray to damp hair and gently blow dry for wearable volume—bows and barrettes optional.
Wet-look hair
A favourite of Kim Kardashian West’s, the wet look is the head-turning alternative to your stock-standard smooth blowout—after all, who doesn’t want to look like they’ve stepped straight out of the ocean à la KKW’s 2019 Met Gala look?
Channel the beauty mogul—taking inspiration along the way from the Fendi spring/summer 2021 couture runway—and try out the wet look for yourself. After washing your hair, lightly towel dry it, then mix a gel and hair cream together and apply to hair for the perfect combination of hold and fluidity. Top it off with a holding shine spray. Bonus points for a product that also promises to add texture, like these from Aveda and Oribe.