MAC Lollipop Lip and Other Backstage Makeup Trends for 2017

For MAC Cosmetics, 2017 is all about makeup that women want to wear. It is a year in which a strong touch of humanity underpins beauty, centering on a natural, human touch, which is never a forged mask of splendor. Through texture and color, MAC’s artists are giving life to makeup, to create genuine and believable looks. The idea is not to achieve one specific look, but to affirm your personal style.

“The codes of beauty have fundamentally changed in recent years,” says Lyne Desnoyers. “Reality is so enduring; it’s inherently part of our language as artists now. Credible, authentic makeup styling is what real women want; it’s built for modern life and style.”

The reason for this aesthetic shift lies in a number of factors. Firstly, because seeing makeup as a corrective tool is old-fashioned. Secondly, we live in the era of loud, expressive fashion, so makeup needs to be pared back.  And finally, as Alex Box points out, “You want to project realness when what you see all around you is unreality.” The call for authenticity is a contra-argument to the perfectionism prevalent in social media.  

The year 2017 will be marked by a certain realism in beauty, which underlines the appeal of the real. At the same time, the makeup is free and liberal, refreshingly unconventional, and individually expressive. A tendency toward the apparently nonchalant look is prevalent this season, ranging from the bare face look to stronger looks that are specifically finished to give the impression of belonging to the individual (as opposed to applied by a makeup artist).

The color palette focuses on warm colors, an organic palette inspired by the brighter side of beauty, the heat of the environment – the sun, the beach, petals, terracotta, crystals, the earth… The textures, inspired by sweat and humidity, interact with light from vinyl shine to emollient sheen.

The boundaries between these form main tendencies - Real, Free, Wet, and Warm – are distinctly blurred, meaning that there is no strict prescription to makeup today. There are no hard rules, so wear it  your way! As Gordon Espinet simply concludes: “To look modern it has to look easy and honest…and never too cosmetic.”

Lips are the focal point of this year's look, and they should not look highly perfected. It is all about how you apply the lipsticks, but more in a sense of the results and mood achieved rather than a specific application technique. For this upcoming season, it is perfectly OK to wear just a remnant of lipstick, a barely stained, slightly blurred lip that feels very easy and unforced.

You can even go one step further, and try looking hyper-real by rocking a lollipop lip, with lipstick smudging on the outside of the lip contour. Even though it may look like a lip challenge gone wrong, the lollipop lip trend actually underlines the fact that true beauty is all about style, and not about physical perfection. The makeup is playful and not serious, aimed to energize the face even if it means breaking all the rules of good taste.

This season, it is incredibly trendy to wear glosses, oils, and shines, as they look authentic and incredibly flattering. The goal is to accentuate your inner glow, as if the shine comes from within the skin. Instead of shimmers and powders, use balms, oils, and emollient textures that really can enrich and humanize makeup. Anti-perfection is very modern, so use glosses to enhance your bone structure and your makeup by breaking it down. Natural, #nofilter, less-is-more, no-makeup makeup is in vogue this spring, so ditch your matte or reflective foundations and replace them with a concealer, where necessary. 

The best tool to use this spring are your own fingers. The warmth of your skin should interact with the textures, helping the pigments and textures to become one with the skin. The makeup should look as massaged in, and not artificial or very precisely applied. The modern way to wear color is to see the skin through them. The colors are designed to enhance and mimic the look of well-conditioned skin, to bring life to the face, to heighten nature rather than cover.

Let us conclude with Tom Pecheux’s beauty advice: “It’s not about transforming the face, it’s simply about making it look more beautiful.”

Marina Milojević

Marina Milojević is a senior editor at Fragrantica. She’s been a member of the team since 2010. Marina writes for BeautyAlmanac and Luxois, ...(more)