During her final year of high school, Sarah Weingartz, 18, developed a passion for beauty and began working as a makeup artist. A lot of her days were spent in Zoom courses and working as a part-time cashier at McDonald’s.
Ms. Weingartz, who had never used makeup before the epidemic, stocked up on bright pencils, powders, and palettes while she was stuck in the quarantine zone. It was via Kris Collins, a Canadian TikToker with more than 40 million followers, that she learned how to apply cat-eyes. She also experimented with blue eyeshadow and eyeliner, which are now mainstays in her ever-expanding cosmetic collection.
Then she puts white liner on her waterline to make her eyes “pop,” drawing an exaggerated wing on the outside of her eye that “swoops up” and reaches past the outer corner of her eye. When she feels like it, she smudges on a little of red or blue eye makeup to brighten things up.
Having spent years romanticising “no-makeup makeup,” which is a catchall term for the materials used to create the illusion of a “bare” (but beautiful) face, individuals are increasingly choosing self-expression as they consider their looks in a world that is essentially post-lockdown. Many people have returned to socialising, dining out, travelling, going to the workplace, attending events, and, shortly, attending Christmas parties, and they are looking for new ways to show their unique personalities.
The pandemic is one of the rare instances in human history in which everyone was impacted at the same time on a worldwide scale. Those who have been confined to their homes and relegated to three inches of screen real estate on video chats are now seeking for ways to distinguish themselves or display their uniqueness. One of the most easy and cheap methods to achieve this is via the use of makeup, which provides the chance, in its simplest form, to be an artist working with a blank canvas and a paintbrush.
In fact, it’s because of the epidemic that we’ve seen an explosion in the use of cosmetics, as well as the products and colours we use and our views regarding beauty.
It isn’t groundbreaking, but it is a step up from the agonisingly pink Glossier age that before it. Dewy-faced teenagers and millennials still want to appear dewy, but they prefer to do it with dazzling yellow-gold liquid eye makeup instead of traditional eye shadow. Authentic skin is back in style, whereas the full-coverage foundation of the contouring boom — which occurred between 2015 and 2019, approximately — is out of style.
According to 1010data, overall online eye cosmetics sales in the United States will be 47 percent greater in 2021 than they were in 2019. Compared to the same time period last year, this represents a more than twofold increase in sales in the lip and face categories.
The tendency is seen in search keywords as well. 1010data examined the most popular search keywords on Amazon that resulted in a beauty purchase. Last year, the most often searched for goods were “face wash” and “shampoo.” Now, the terms “mascara” and “gel nail paint” are the most often searched for while making a beauty purchase.
Alanna McDonald, the president of Maybelline, said that the company’s Sky High mascara, which first entered the market in January, has been one of the company’s best-selling products this year.
A similar success storey can be seen with the e.l.f. Cosmetics Big Mood mascara, which was released in August, and the No Budge Shadow Stick, a set of twelve metallic eye shadow pencils that range in colour from neutral beige to vivid blue.
Gayitri Budhraja, the chief brand officer of e.l.f. cosmetics, said that the shadow sticks are intended for “one swipe” application. Additionally, they are sparkly and only cost $5.
Drew Elliott, the company’s global creative director, revealed that sales of yellow shadow had tripled or quadrupled in certain areas, a consequence, he said, of content and a “Yes to Yellow” campaign that launched last spring.
