Some of our reckless beauty choices can be downright nightmare fuel. Whether it’s someone who overplucked their eyebrows in the ’90s or a bad sunburn in the ’20s, everyone, even professionals, has experienced this at some point.
Do you regret the latest makeup craze? Heavy, full eyelashes. “I went to my office wearing strip lashes, and guess what?” says celebrity makeup artist Kelly Ann Sewell. Demi’s early morning whispers seem so removed from the “less is more” energy that dominates the beauty industry that it almost feels unbelievable in 2024. In fact, girlies these days don’t even wear mascara.
“I actually feel more like myself when I wear less makeup,” says Sewell. “Mascara and brown mascara don’t go well with this.”
Blame it on the online pendulum swing, but over the past few years, fluttering your eyelashes has gone from being a daily necessity to an optional step. The industry has moved from cut creases and thick eyebrows in 2016 to a clean-girl aesthetic around 2022. And right now we’re somewhere in between. The charm is coming back in a subtle way. For example, a smudged smoky eye or a strong lip color diffused around the edges. However, the eyelashes remain light as a feather.
“In a way, it feels like everything is being undone to balance the face,” Sewell says. “You can rock a bold, muddy burgundy lip without mascara. It’s just a great vibe.” And this special vibe is seen everywhere from the runways to TikTok today. You can
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At Dior’s recent Fall/Winter 2024 show, models wore smudged burgundy lips, strong eyebrows and no mascara. Instead, makeup artist Peter Phillips applied a slightly darker eyeshadow with a flat brush and pushed it into the roots of her lashes.
“It makes the lashes look fuller without mascara,” Phillips, creative and image director of Christian Dior makeup, said backstage. “It’s not an eyeliner, it’s just something in between. You put it on one eye and there’s a visible difference in the other eye. But when you put it on both, it looks like you have no makeup on.”
Prabal Gurung’s Spring/Summer 2025 lashes took a similar, albeit more extreme, approach to the ghost lash trend. “We truly believe that the new no-makeup look is no makeup, just glass skin,” Alicia Yoon, founder of skincare brand Peach & Lily, said backstage. (She served as the show’s beauty partner).
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Models at Ulla Johnson’s Spring/Summer 2025 presentation put a different spin on the ghost lashes trend, wearing brown mascara instead of the traditional black. “We wanted the eyes to look grounded and effortless,” makeup artist Romy Solemani said backstage at the show.
For those who don’t want to give up on eyelashes completely, brown mascara is having a big moment. It’s not just the runway. Beauty enthusiasts around the world are swapping out sooty, ink-black formulas for subtle shades like chocolate and chestnut. Plus, there are over 200 million TikTok videos about brown mascara from creators of all skin tones, including Olivia Jade’s “Fall Glamor” look with Tower 28 mascara. I did. Beauty brands have responded similarly, with brands like Lush Princess and Beauble launching new brown mascaras over the past year.
Whether you’re wearing brown mascara or not at all, it’s not hard to see how subtle lashes can look great with your everyday look. “I’ve been wearing brown mascara for four years,” Sewell says. “Every time I put on black mascara, it felt like it was over. So I switched to brown mascara. I liked how it gave me a more natural look. I could layer it up to suit my mood. You can also add layers to your look for a more full-on look, but also more chic. ”
But regardless of the approach, dark, heavy eyelashes are slowly fading away, at least for now. Rather than covering up eyelashes with cosmetics or false eyelashes to emphasize the eyes, it has become a trend to keep eyelashes lighter to make them look more attractive. And while some may find this deviation a little scary, there’s nothing scary about letting your natural beauty shine.
