Beauty in the Face of Adversity

Nothing changes quite as fast and as frequently as the hyper-paced worlds of beauty and fashion, which have an unmatched ability to move with the times. Even in the face of a global pandemic,  women’s undying desire to experiment, transform and express themselves in amazing new ways marches on from the safety of a home via physically-distanced webcams and social platforms.

Already 2020 has brought a range of exciting new ideas, with the coronavirus pandemic gripping the world proving to be a source of inspiration and creativity for influencers. These are the top trends to follow this year.

1 – Make-up is back in a big way

The trend report from the beauty and hair care app Treatwell is always a smart source of information on what women in Ireland will be looking for. One trend picked up by the report is that the break-up with make-up that many women went through in 2019 is officially over and experimentation is in.

The smash-hit HBO show, Euphoria, is inspiring a wave of unusual and original approaches to make-up that seem likely to replace the natural look of last year among young Irish women who keep up with the cultural zeitgeist – sign it up fast please Netflix!

Of course, the coronavirus and lockdown are affecting the beauty industry, but the major influencers are often online these days and they are devising make-up projects for young people who want to show them off on social media. Under the hashtag #maskmakeup online beauty influencers are challenging their followers to come up with eccentric and eye-catching ideas that complement the masks needed to protect them.

While it’s not really our bag here at Araya Beauty, some of those taking part are creating looks that try to match the masks, others are going for much more wild and extreme imagery – with some even managing to produce a 3D look!

Clearly the lockdown that has been imposed around the world is really ramping up the trend for playful make-up experimentation to the absolute max.

2 – Dermaplaning for super-smooth skin

When it comes to ensuring that the skin stays youthful and healthy underneath all that make-up, dermaplaning is the treatment that is taking the Irish beauty industry by storm this year. It is a form of exfoliation that sees the outer layer of skin buffed away, complete with fine hairs and dead skin cells, to leave your skin smooth and peach fuzz-free.

We use dermapens and dermarollers as part of our microneedling processes and it’s taking the nation by storm. According to Treatwell, the number of bookings for dermaplaning treatments throughout Ireland have risen by 62% in comparison with last year, which suggests this is a definite 2020 trend to watch out for.

3 – Lashes are getting long and luscious

Long eyelashes are also hitting a peak of popularity that will make them one of the must-have looks of this year. Russian volume lashes see every individual natural lash you have augmented by eight artificial ones as part of a standard eyelash extension procedure – creating the sort of dark, dramatic eyelash effect that movie stars achieved in the Golden Age of Hollywood; who wouldn’t wanna look like Hedy Lamaar in all fairness?!

 

So far in 2020, Irish Tatler reports that there has been a 794% rise in the number of women who are seeking out this ultra-glamorous image for their eyes.

4 – Brushing up your brows is in

While the lashes are being beefed up, the brows are being brushed up and shaped, with eyebrow lamination is the current hot look in this area. Eyebrow lamination is a painless and long-lasting way of ensuring that your brows are kept in the right shape – whether you have full or slender ones to start with.

With a staggering 465% rise in the number of women booking appointments to have their brows laminated with a chemical formula, the trend towards this cannot be ignored. It’s blowing up on Instagram and we do offer it here in our salon, we’re still firmly in the microblading camp when it comes to longer-lasting, more natural-looking results for our clientele!

5 – Natty and batty nails

Thanks to coronavirus, 2020 is proving to be a very strange year and that is leading some beauty trends to take a surreal turn. As if make-up that goes with surgical masks wasn’t odd enough, professional nail artists have been taking to social media sites to show off nail designs directly inspired by the virus – we present you “Quarantine Nails“, we kid you not!

These colourful creations sometimes involve 3D representations of Covid-19 and they are leading followers to try their hand at making their nails go viral in every sense of the word.

 

Trends like this show that the top influencers are using the crisis to encourage their followers to explore fun and inventive approaches to beauty while they are stuck at home.

Let’s get through this lockdown together

While the industry is being affected by the coronavirus lockdown, this will not last forever and when it ends we are likely to see bookings for beauty treatments soar – with some of those mentioned here among the most popular. In the meantime, influencers are showing that quirky home beauty treatments can make lockdown more enjoyable!

If you’ve got news of some emerging trends, please drop a comment in the box below, we’d love to hear from you!