Fall’s Biggest Makeup Trends Are So Easy To Wear
Bold color, imperfect lines — thanks to fall’s biggest trends, makeup is fun again.
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The mind-bendingly glossy porcelain doll look Pat McGrath imagined for Maison Margiela Haute Couture may have been the viral hit of the New York Fashion Week fall 2024 shows, but the most widespread trends for the upcoming season prove far more wearable. From smudged black liner to crimson lips, rainbow-hued shadows, and doll-face pink cheeks, there’s a lot to love about fall's coolest makeup looks. The best part? All these “imperfect” looks means putting these fresh trends into practice is everything makeup should be: easy, fun, and experimental.
Smudged Liner
We had it all wrong; brat summer isn’t just about the warm weather. Thanks to a wealth of lived-in eyeliner looks that populated the fall 2024 runways, messy liner (a brat hallmark) will live on well into fall and winter. Looks at Prabal Gurung, Gucci, and Tom Ford, among others, featured black and ultradeep brown tight-lined liner in varying degrees of thickness that were imperfect and smudged, rather than precisely smoked. Unlike with indie sleaze and grunge looks of previous eras, this time around, the party-girl staple was shown with barely-there lips and clean, healthy-looking skin. Reach for a gel waterproof pencil, which provides easy-glide application and long wear.
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Single Shadow
Eyeshadows at the fall 2024 shows looked as if they were swiped onto lids with a finger and in shades meant to make eyes pop (think: golden hues for blue eyes, blues for brown eyes, pinksfor hazel eyes, and purples for green eyes). There was a flash of bold pink and orange suspended on upper lids at Bach Mai; bright blue, lavender, and that pink again at Carolina Herrera; swipes of gray, pink and blue in the inner corners of eyelids at Chanel; and a messy swipe of metallic color on lids at Ulla Johnson. As with fall’s eyeliner trends, imprecision is best here. Organic, unexpected shapes — no cut creases here — make the look a bit punk and ideal for the overscheduled among us (since it takes but seconds to achieve).
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- Chanel Les 4 Ombres 88 Coral Treasure
- Bakeup Beauty Micro Palm Palette in Neons
- RÓEN Beauty Gold Lust Eyeshadow Palette
Saturated Red Lips
A bold red lip has remained a beauty staple since wearing makeup became commonplace in the U.S. in the 1920s — and this fall is no different, with the look turning up at Moschino, JW Anderson, Richard Quinn, Khaite, and others. This season’s red lips are so arresting, they don’t need to be paired with much else — just clean skin and a swipe of mascara. Some of the newest lipstick formulations pack more pigment than ever, but don’t dry out lips.
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Doll-Faced Cheeks
Blush continues to have its moment. Pink, diffused cheeks appeared all over fall runways, including at Harris Reed, Naeem Kahn, and Chloe. But forget dusting only the apples of your cheeks: This season, placement starts higher on the cheekbones and crawls up the temples for a lifting effect, while color is blended for a blown-out look.
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- Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush
- Nudestix STAX All Over Color Blush Balm in Magenta Pink
- Armani Beauty's Luminous Silk Cheek Tint in 53 Bold Pink
Fanned-Out Lashes
From a delicate take at Alice + Olivia to more extreme looks at Marc Jacobs, fanned-out lashes brightened eyes on the runways. . Blame it on a continued fascination with coquettish aesthetics and doll-faced beauty, but the fluttery look feels spot on for fall. Whether you achieve the trend with a fanning mascara (made to isolate and volumize individual lashes) or go for falsies, maximizing lash count without weighing lashes down is always a good idea.
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Inky Nails
It’s no surprise that black, navy blue, and bordeaux nails dominated the runways at NYFW fall 2024 shows. Dark shades often dominate fall, but perhaps the coolest interpretation was JinSoon Choi’s reverse ombré mani at Jason Wu. She used a makeup sponge to apply two layers of JinSoon Polish in Risque to about a third of the nail, starting from the cuticle, then topped it off with clear polish. It’s the imperfect trend that dominated eyeshadow and eyeliner looks in the form of a manicure, and we couldn’t love it more.
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