If you’ve been on beauty TikTok in the last week, you’ve probably seen your favorite influencer attempting the “eyemaxxing” trend. The goal of the trend is to accentuate your eyes with tones on the opposite of the color wheel, making the eyes stand out more. Someone with blue eyes, for example, would be encouraged to use more orange-toned eyeshadow, since it’s the opposite of blue on the color wheel and should make the blue stand out more. Different influencers have had their own spin on the trend, with everyone looking for the best way to make their eyes “pop.”
Even though this trend is a fun way to accentuate natural beauty and explore cool ways to play with color, it’s actually nothing new. I personally used a compact eyeshadow palette that was specifically made to accentuate my eye color (brown, purple, and bronze eyeshadows — all to make green eyes stand out more) a whole decade ago. In fact, if you talk to anyone who put on makeup in 2016, they probably recall owning a similar product, or using the color theory taught by their favorite YouTubers to make the color of their eyes stand out. It was eyemaxxing before “maxxing” was ever a thing — meaning, once again, 2026 has proven to be the ultimate throwback year for 2010s beauty trends.Â
The “messy girl” look has been in this year too, standing in opposition to the clean girl aesthetic that’s been championed in the last few years. But, this look didn’t appear out of the blue; it pays homage to the bold looks from 2016 and feeds into the nostalgia of going out and living a more carefree life.
Recycling trends isn’t a bad thing. After all, Gen Z has come a long way since 2016. From having our own money to buy nicer makeup products to having our frontal lobes a little more developed now than they were 10 years ago, it feels like this generation is well equipped to take the nostalgia of the 2010s and make it better.Â
Take “cloud skin,” for example. This makeup trend is a deviation from the ultra-glowy dewy looks we came to know during and post-COVID. The soft matte look blurs lines while still looking natural. It reflects the nostalgia of 2016 ultra-matte, while also showing that the people who learned to do makeup in 2016 are a little more grown up now.Â
We know that TikTok doesn’t necessarily invent new makeup techniques. More often, it recycles the biggest hits from eras past and repackages them for the generation that now has the financial and personal autonomy to make them their own. That’s why these throwback trends are so enticing to Gen Z; we grew up idolizing the people who pulled these looks off, waiting for the day we’d get to emulate them. And now, we get to.