Years ago, when we went on the glorious run to Sephora, we were filling our bags with full-coverage foundations, the brightest glitter eyeshadows, and lipstick bold enough to be seen from a mile away. We were in love with glam, always beating our faces to the highest degree we could. As the years have passed, we have turned in our foundations for face masks, our eyeshadows for undereye patches, and our lipsticks for lip scrubs.
Instead of the full glam makeup tutorials taking over our feeds, we have seen an increase in skin care routines and tips and tricks gearing towards maintaining a “clean girl” aesthetic. We see less and less of the take on the town matte looks and more of the lightweight glowy faces. While many of us mourn the cat eyes of the past, an emphasis and promotion of minimal makeup is a lot more beneficial than we may think.
Skincare based looks ensure that we look like our natural selves and embrace the beauty we have without an extensive makeup routine. Especially in a world where plastic surgeries and beauty enhancements are easily accessible, influencers and celebrities promoting natural, skincare based beauty allows for young girls to embrace their features. Natural, true confidence is inspired without any promotion of changing or concealing our faces.
Apart from maintaining natural beauty, the “clean girl” aesthetic promotes taking care of our skin and ourselves. Influencers are creating content geared towards self care and prioritizing skincare, inspiring their audience to treat themselves with love. Not only is “clean girl” an aesthetic and a look, but a movement of self care and self-prioritization.
The “clean girl” is not killing makeup–but rather placing less of an emphasis on its need to make someone feel beautiful. Sometimes, we will unpack the foundation and the glitter and paint ourselves up, but we are feeling less of a need to do so on a daily basis. So, this is not a goodbye glam, but a warm welcome and open hand to the “clean girl.”
