Over the past year,TikTok usersand beauty lovers everywhere have been introduced to several social media–dominating trends centered around creating makeup looks inspired by food and drink. If you have yet to cross paths withlatte makeup, the tomato girl, and Hailey Bieber’s viral strawberry-girl look, here’s what you need to know about them: A majority of the tutorials that explore the subject matter are based on sentimental experiences and imagery surrounding them rather than re-creating the appearance of the food itself.
In truth, no one wants to walk around with a face resembling the texture of a bulbous fruit—do we? Recently, we came across the emerging martini-makeup trend. Indulging in martinis exudes an undeniable air of sophistication, making them a top-tier choice among cocktails. This refined and luxurious essence has sparked one of TikTok’s latest viral beauty trends, courtesy of makeup artist Claudia Neacsu. Since its debut on August 9, her martini makeup tutorial has garnered a staggering 610k views and counting. As anticipated, this trend draws direct inspiration from the iconic olive-accented cocktail, infusing captivating shades of green into mesmerizing eye makeup. Whether you are a devoted martini aficionado or captivated by striking aesthetics, there’s unanimous agreement – this look is sensational. Brace yourself for a martini-infused transformation, as we unveil every intricate detail on how to recreate this alluring makeup masterpiece.
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What Is Martini Makeup?
“When I created my martini-makeup look, I had no idea it was a trend created around it, so I would say, for me, martini makeup stands for that feminine, luxurious feel and energy that you have when enjoying a dirty martini cocktail at the bar with your friends,” says makeup artistClaudia Neacsu, whose TikTok makeup tutorial received over 594k views since was posted on August 9. “My model has such beautiful hazel, almost golden eyes, and this is what inspired me to create the look in the first place.” Neacsu understands the sudden rise in popularity of the trend as offering the opportunity to try a new look for celebratory moments.
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“Most makeup trends that got popular recently are a bit more approachable and easy to create, whereas martini makeup can get a bit more technical from a makeup technique perspective,” she continues. “It’s also a bit more of a dramatic look—not so much for everyday wear like the strawberry makeup look.” Makeup artist and content creator Zoe Kim Kenealy, who released a TikTok makeup tutorial with her take on the look last fall titled “Dirty Martini Makeup,” offered a similar point of view.
“I think the looks that do the best tell some sort of story. All of the cocktail-makeup looks have that quality,” explains Kenealy. Following the aforementioned video, she released a series of drink-inspired makeup looks that evolved into a series. “For a lot of the series that I do, I like to personalize to my followers. … Whatever your favorite cocktail is [may] be the one you want to watch, save, or re-create.” She also highlights the role character creation plays in the popularity of these videos, as “it’s trying to emulate the vibe of the person that would wear that look.”
Admittedly, this makeup look is slightly more advanced than the strawberry and tomato girl makeup that also made waves this summer. However, with the right amount of blending and a little bit of practice, you can nail the martini makeup in no time. Claudia starts with a Natasha Denona crayon in willow green to carefully sculpt a defined crease, focusing on the outer corner of the eye and creating the elongated eye shape while also bringing some contrast to the eyes. To soften the edges, gently blur these lines with a brush. Afterward, take the same green eye pencil to tightline both the upper and lower lash lines, following up with the blurring technique once again.
Next, reach for an eye shadow palette featuring olive tones. Remember, this look is inspired by a boozy cocktail. Claudia uses Natasha Denona’s Yucca eyeshadow palette to mix Willow and Acacia to add to the outer corners. However, any emerald green and matte brown combination should do the trick. To make your eyes pop, use a metallic olive pop on the center of the eyelids, grab a chunky gold glitter eyeshadow and apply it on the lower inner corner.
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Before applying eye shadow on top of your eye makeup base, Neacsu recommends making sure the eyeliner is well blended. Otherwise, the eye shadow will apply patchy,” she says. Her advice for smooth and seamless eye makeup application? It’s all about taking your time to blend the product. Work step by step for each eye.
Primp tip: Spritz a bit of setting spray on top of your metallic pigments to ensure long-lasting intensity and shine.
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As a last touch, she uses volumizing mascara (she prefers black or dark green) to open up the eyes and add even more eye-catching drama. And voilà! You have the perfect olive-inspired eye makeup look for your next night out. Finally, add a few final touches by reapplying the green pencil to the lash line, followed by a few sweeps of mascara.
This sultry, green martini makeup look is sure to make a splash wherever you go.
Leap into the past with the latest beauty sensation sweeping the globe. The rise of nostalgic fashion has paved the way for a certain inevitability – the resurgence of the 90s lip trend. Evolving from Y2K styles, today’s trendsetters are embracing a deeper dive into the 90s, rekindling the allure of the dark lip liner for a plumper pout. A throwback to the glamorous red-carpet moments of yore, celebrities flaunted this vampy, grunge-inspired makeup, and now, it is poised for a triumphant comeback in the realm of mainstream beauty.
But before we get into the 90s lip trend, let us get into the history:
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Pre-Runway Origins
The simple, slim colored pencil is one of the tools the world’s best-known makeup artists have been using since the 1920s to etch out the American Beauty standard. And that standard, naturally, was very white.
But by the 1990s, a lip liner aesthetic emerged that was, to its core, quite the opposite. Those of us who were around remember it clearly: deep, rich dark brown liner, contrasted by a lighter lip. Sometimes the lipstick was a neutral hue. Other times, it was a glossy red or even a shimmery metallic that looked like liquid when you swiped it on. But one thing it always had to be was stark. Instead of gently blending the lipstick into the liner to create a seamless ombré, the edges are left bold, existing in sharp contrast to the lip color. It was the defining look of the decade, worn by everyone from Naomi Campbell to Naomi in HR. Like many things beloved by mainstream America, this iconic makeup style has roots in communities of color.
Black and brown women had to be the creators of their beauty with so few references and tools. They did so out of necessity — at the time, there were few brands making lip liners in shades that worked for melanin-rich complexions. “Shades of brown” weren’t even considered in the makeup industry. This style of lip liner was part of a beauty tradition Black women had no choice but to create in a society that intentionally excluded them. It was a cultural makeup staple at home, a trick to achieve definition in the lips. But it was more than just a simple makeup hack.
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The Origins of the Chola Aesthetic
Black women weren’t the only ones who embraced dark liner with light lips. Latinas living in urban areas were also early adopters of the look. In Los Angeles’s Mexican neighborhoods, the liner style was a marker of the Chola subculture. Cholo (the masculine form of the word) culture emerged in poor L.A. neighborhoods densely populated by Mexican-American youths, whose circumstances steered them into gang activity. They were the manifestation of the other: poor, brown, and ethnic — the opposite of mainstream white America’s idea of “good” kids. And they looked the part in their loosely-fitted Dickies pants, oversized button-front shirts layered over white tank tops, dramatic eye makeup, and, of course, that trademark lip liner.
But before there were cholos and cholas, there were zoot suit-wearing pachucos and pachucas. This generation of Mexican-American youths living in 1940s Los Angeles are considered the predecessors to their ’90s counterparts. They were the targets of racially motivated violence, most notably in 1943 during the “zoot suit riots” that happened in the area. Zoot suits initially became popular in Harlem, America’s most famous Black neighborhood, during the 1930s. The ensemble, which at the time was a variation of a “drape suit,” consisted of oversized trousers that ballooned out past the waist and through the legs, tapering in at the ankle. Denizens of the day would pair that with equally roomy, extra-long suit jackets with exaggerated lapels. The suits were in themselves a rebellion, transforming the “respectable” staple into something infinitely more fashionable and subversive.
Eventually, the zoot suit ministry of Black Harlem made its way to the West Coast, where it was embraced by young Mexican-American pachuco and Pachuca. Their flamboyant style of dress stood in stark contrast to the attire of white Americans in the area, but it wasn’t completely divorced from it — just re-imagined through a different lens. According to Jillian Hernandez, Ph.D., author of Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment, pachucas drew inspiration from the makeup popular women actors of the ’40s were wearing but turned the drama up to eleven. The eye shadow was heavier, the lipstick was darker, and the pompadours were higher. The effect of the drama they infused into their makeup was a declaration of pride in their heritage and a challenge to traditional notions of feminine beauty. The Pachuca aesthetic created the foundation for what would be the ’90s with the chola look with its dramatic eye makeup, baggy clothes, and bold lips.
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Diasporic Style Formations
Dr. Hernandez calls the popularization of this lip liner a “diasporic style formation,” born of the interaction between the Black, Afro-Latinx, and non-Black Latin-American communities living in low-income urban areas. Proximity in both location and socioeconomic class creates an environment that allows for cultural exchange. When groups of people interact, they tend to influence each other. When those groups experience similar (though not the same) degrees of marginalization, their expressions of rebellion against that are likely to overlap, intertwine, and ultimately develop alongside each other. Cholas employed dark liners to affirm their identities and establish their standards of beauty. At the same time, Black pop culture figures like Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott, and Mary J. Blige were bringing a beauty standard set by their community further into the mainstream.
Priscilla Ono has vivid memories of this moment. The makeup artist is a native Angeleno still based in the city. “Everyone thought the Cholas were cool,” she recalls. “I also grew up watching hip-hop music videos, admiring the makeup.” Ono, who is Mexican-American, was raised in a predominantly Black and Latinx community and directly recognizes the impact hip-hop culture had not only on the Chola look but her own lived experience. The two cultures, she says, felt like they “melted” together, which should be a shocker to no one. Hip-hop itself was created by Black and Latinx youths in the South Bronx during the 1970s — it makes sense that history would repeat itself in this way.
By the time Ono was in high school, everyone, regardless of racial or ethnic background, had fully embraced the dark-liner trend. “All my tias did it, my mom, my friends,” she says. “Lip liner and a lighter was in everyone’s makeup bag — that was the thing in the 90s.” The lighter, both Fine and Ono note, played an essential role in getting the look just right. It was used to melt the tip of the pencil just enough to draw some more pigment out of it. Back then, affordable, high-quality lip liners were few and far between, plus, finding a shade match for darker-skinned women of either ethnicity was a challenge. “I can smell it just talking about it,” Ono recalls.
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By the end of the ’90s, the dark liner/light lips style of makeup had spread far beyond the confines of the communities that created them. White celebrities like Pamela Anderson popped up wearing versions of the style, modified to fit their skin tones. But before it went mainstream, the lip liner look affirmed the femininity of women who, to varying degrees, had been stripped of it by a white hegemonic social structure.
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Redefining Femininity
Professor Bernadine Hernández, PhD, from the University of New Mexico sees this liner look as a “gender performance” of femininity, “but not a ‘proper’ femininity,” she tells BeautyLeeBar. Both Black and Latina women have been historically (again, to different degrees) marginalized in this country, and left out of the mainstream idea of womanhood. So they created their standard of beauty, one that centered them and their experiences and stood in stark contrast to what was deemed acceptable to white America. At the time, that particular liner style went against notions of what “tasteful” makeup looked like. “If you think about the lip liner that’s not blended — it’s not proper, it’s not ‘right,'” Dr. Hernández continues. “Even the outlining of the lips, it’s very symbolic of a type of gender performativity that is racialized.”
Of course, once the liner look went mainstream (when white women started wearing it), the negative connotations associated with the lower-class women of color who originated the style seemed to evaporate. It became chic and sophisticated, edgy and fashionable. Today, this type of liner is now a classic in the makeup world, and is still, in many ways, associated with the communities that pioneered the look. Younger Black and Latinx celebrities still carry on the tradition their predecessors put forth in the ’90s. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion quite frequently pairs dark liner with light, glossy lips. Euphoria star Alexa Demie, a native Angeleno of Mexican descent, still pops up on red carpets and social media feeds with extra dark chola-inspired liner. She most recently turned out to the Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2023 show with her lips lined in an inky eggplant hue and finished off with a glossy mauve in the center.
Their beauty choices reaffirm the beauty of Black and brown women and remind us how makeup has been used as a tool for progress and social change. The people in these marginalized communities unknowingly created a legacy that challenges Eurocentric standards of beauty and has ultimately, laid the foundation for the more inclusive beauty culture we enjoy today.
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Now that we have gone over the history of this dark lip liner look, here is your guide to mastering the iconic 90’s lip trend right from the comfort of your home.
While this overlined look can work with just about any shade, there’s no denying that brown/black and nude pink were the most prevalent back in the day. As always, start with a hydrated lip to prevent creasing and flaking. You can always go the extra mile and use a lip scrub when running through your usual skincare routine, but consider a lip balma must. From there, the most important task of recreating the 90’s lip trend is to find the ideal lip liner color. We recommend grabbing a shade that is about 3 times darker than your natural lip color for the best results. Natasha Denona’s I Need a Nude Lip Liner has the perfect range of neutrals to choose from. Lightly blend this line out for a more natural finish. Then, use a lighter shade of lipstickto add a bit of a pinkish hue to your lips.
You can stop here for a matte take on the look or go a step further and add a touch of gloss. Focus this on the center of your lips for a little bit of dimension and you’ll be left with a statement-making, 90’s nude lip.
Another day, another TikTok trend emerges. This time, the main focus is on the lips. Users of the app are obsessed with cherry cola lips, with the hashtag already amassing well over 12.8M views. As you might deduct, cherry cola lips are created by blending shades of brown and red to create a juicy, coke-inspired pucker. For those who have been intimidated by sporting a darker lip color, this trend is a great way to dip your toes into bolder hues. And as a certified Lana Del Rey girlie myself: The overall vibe is very much giving big Born To Die energy.
In short? The look — which has been around for decades — is no doubt reminiscent of red-tinted, brown-hued cola drinks. In line with its memorable name, the buzzy lip combo uses a deep brown lip liner on the outer edges of one’s pout, before going in with red lipsticks and glosses fora blended ’90s-era effect. To dive into this fizzy, cherry cola lip trend, scroll ahead to discover how you can recreate this look.
Before applying any product, we recommend you start with a moisturizinglip balm to prep for all of the products to follow. Start by applying a layer of Benefit’s Benetint to infuse your natural lip color with a rosy tint. Now, it’s time to add the cola in the cherry cola lip trend by utilizing a brown lip liner. MAKEUP BY MARIO Ultra Suede® Sculpting Lip Pencil in the shade Chris – cinnamon brown is the ideal brown shade, reminiscent of the soft drink, but any warm, saturated color will do. For a fuller appearance, slightly overline your lips, focusing on the cupid’s bow. If you want to ensure a seamless transition between brown and red, blend it with alip brush – but note that this step is optional.
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Finally, top off your lips with Kylie Cosmetics tinted butter balm in the shade moving on. This has a beautiful deep red hue that will round out the look. Like a two-in-one lipstick and soft gloss, the most impressive thing about this formula is just how full-coverage and pigmented they are. The balms are very, very moisturizing, and creamy and apply so smoothly without any stickiness.
Now if the goal is to balance out the brown and red tones, use Hourglass Phantom Glossy Lip Balm in the shade Lure. This has a beautiful deep purple hue that will round out the look. It kind of feels like glossy lipstick even though it’s technically a glossy balm. Either way, the color payoff is perfect—it’s not as intense as lipstick but has more of an impact than a tinted balm. It’s shockingly smooth and creamy and glides onto the lips, leaving such a nice high-shine finish. It feels incredibly luxe—it comes in gold packaging, max hydration, and buildable color and it has an immediate cooling sensation, which feels amazing.
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If you’re not so much a red lipstick lover, you can tone down the vibe with a more terracotta or pinkish red instead of a more traditional hue either way the viral cherry cola lip trend is certainly one for the books. We’re positive this vampy lip trend is going to be recreated now and into the next season to accent autumnal ensembles.
For adventurous beauty enthusiasts, bold graphic eyeliner and latte-inspired bronzer steal the spotlight, but most of us prefer a more evergreen approach with minimal makeup for daywear. Embracing your natural beauty is timeless, but achieving the flawless no-makeup look requires the right products and techniques – let us guide you through it all.
To achieve a filter-like finish in real life, it all comes down to the right choice of products. From the get-go, we recommend Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint which provides an effortless, natural finish. Note that you don’t have to apply this all over your face. You can choose to spot treat where necessary. For extra coverage under the eyes, Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Positive Light Under Eye Brightener is an immaculate option for an organic finish. Step three of our go-to minimal makeup routine requires a brow gel to gently fluff up your brows. To wrap up the eyes, simply sweep on your favorite mascara for wispy lashes.
If you’re in a crunch for time, you can certainly stop here, but these next few products will give you that long-lasting glow. Add some flush to your cheeks with a sheer cream-based blush. You can further accent this with a touch ofhighlighter. As the penultimate step to this natural look, lock in your base with a featherlight powder. Laura Mercier’s setting powder is a cult favorite for a reason but ONE/SIZE by Patrick Starrr Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder has been the go-to for weeks now and hasn’t disappointed us. Lastly, seal the deal with a tinted oil or lip balm to enhance your lips.
This quick and easy minimal makeup routine is a great way to boost your confidence and celebrate your natural beauty.
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