Beauty trends used to last for seasons. Now, they can barely last for weeks. We are constantly looking for a new name to everything we wear to how we look, and even who we are. But why is it that way?
The real problem is not exactly the beauty trends that cross our feeds, it is our need to turn every way of looking into an identity. If you spend enough time on TikTok, there is an aesthetic waiting to tell you what kind of makeup you should wear, which clothes you should buy, how your hair should look like, and how your life should be. These trends work because they give us a sense of instant identity.
Today, you are a clean girl, tomorrow, you are in your messy girl era, next week Y2K, next month cottage core. Gen Z changes so much because beauty is no longer a fixed identity. But why do we always have the need to put a name on everything?
When freedom becomes a trend
Gen Z alleges authenticity, but how do you find it when we are constantly trying to escape beauty standards by turning every attempt at freedom into another beauty trend? Even authenticity eventually becomes something marketable. We want to be unique, but social media keeps giving us categories to fit in.
Is messy beauty freedom, or just another popular aesthetic with different rules? Because in the end, looking messy can still be a performance. The person is not being messy by the rule. If you search the media, you will find out that even messiness requires some sort of a “formula”: smudged makeup has to look good, messy hair has to be “the right kind of messy.” The imperfection still needs to be visually interesting, there is a specific way to look effortlessly.
It is okay to try distinctive styles, but you do not have to follow them just because they are a hyped trend. You can always experiment with different things, clothes, hairstyles, makeup, and see what works best for you today. Trends can be fun. The problem is when they stop being an option and start to feel like you must experiment to fit in.
The algorithm behind the aesthetic
And that is the reason TikTok is so good at creating those trends. It gives a name to everything. Then suddenly a simple hairstyle, a combined makeup, a cute outfit becomes an aesthetic, “clean girl bun,” “latte makeup,” “coquette girl.”
The name keeps changing but the formula remains surprisingly similar. Give an aesthetic name and a set of products that suddenly thousands of people will buy and try it.
A fresh style appears, people recreate it, videos get millions of views, products quickly become associated with it, brands start taking advantage of this movement and before we even have time to get tired of it, there is already something new taking its place.
Are we consuming beauty or identities?
We are not just consuming beauty anymore; we are consuming identities. That might explain why these trends are so addictive, they offer a simple answer to an extremely complicated question: “who am I?”
You can be a different version of yourself just by changing your makeup, clothes, hair, or habits. You can try it for a day and move on to something else tomorrow. There is something fun about that, beauty can be a way of playing with yourself and finding out who you are.
But if there is always a new aesthetic does the previous one stop being interesting? Do we stop liking it or do we just stop seeing it on our For You Page?
The obsession with beauty trends is not really about beauty, it is about belonging, about fitting in and finding people who like the same things and having a name for something we never knew how to describe.
There is nothing wrong with following a trend because you genuinely like it, the problem is thinking that you need a trend to tell you what looks good or not on you.
“Clean girl,” “messy girl,” “old money,” “Y2K,” “vanilla girl,” “latte makeup,” “indie,” “coquette.” Everyday a new aesthetic appears, and you can be all of them, or none of them, it is always up to you.
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The article above was edited by Sofia Bianco.
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