We’ve really been feeling the need to keep things clean this year—from our diets and skincare to makeup. Apart from makeup minimalism, which we practice now and then, there’s another trend we turn to when we want a modern, clean, effortless and fashion forward look. No points for guessing, we are talking about Monochrome.
We're sure you are familiar with the trend already but here’s us helping you hit refresh - Monochrome involves keeping all the colour on the face (lips, cheeks and eyes) restricted to one shade. While the supermodels of the 90s exemplified this aesthetic, they were partial to one tone—brown. Now it’s time to expand your palette to hues like pink, purple, coral, beige, bronze, terracotta, and even rust or red.
For a masterclass on this look, watch Malvika Sitlani champion the trend, and read our tips on how to perfect it.
Here are a few tricks to help you nail this trend:
- The key to pulling off this trend is to vary textures. If you’re using matte shadows on the eyes, make sure your lips are glossy. If the lips and cheeks feature only a stain, use a pearl or shimmery shadow on the eyes. This interplay of textures works as a great contrast.
- Equally important is to vary the transparency and intensity of colour for each feature. In case the lips are going to be a solid, opaque colour, the eyes and cheeks should be a translucent or milder wash of the same shade. If all three features are a solid block of colour, the application will be too heavy. The trick is to go light on one feature if you’re going heavy on the other.
- Just because you have a set colour code, that doesn’t mean you can’t paint outside the lines. To save the look from being too one-note, you can bring in other neutral colours in small ways. For instance, to keep an all-pink look from seeming too saccharine, you could softly smoke out your pink eyeshadow using a brown or black eyeshadow at the corners of the eye. Another way to make things interesting is by adding a highlight to cheekbones, or shimmer to the inner corner of the eyes. When using shimmer on the eye, or even in the case of highlighter, choose one with a neutral shimmer (not a product that’s either too gold or silver). That will help keep the tones in the same colour family.
- Think outside the box for staples like mascara, eye pencil and kohl. They don’t always need to be black. A brown eyeliner or kohl pencil, and brown mascara would meld beautifully and seamlessly with a bronzed look.
- Multi-use products make it easy to pull off a monochrome look. You can build sheer layers on lips and cheeks with Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge. Benefit Cosmetics Benetint Rose-Tinted Lip & Cheek Stain gives you a subtle flush that you always crave. M.A.C’s Cream Colour Base is a one-pot-stop for lids, lips and cheeks, with intensities that can be varied from the palest wash to more opaque finishes. Clinique’s Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight can be doubled up for your cheeks and eyelids.
Nykaa recommends: Huda Beauty Easy Bake Loose Powder - Cupcake, O.P.I Lisbon Nail Lacquer Collection - A Red-Vival City, Smashbox Photo Finish Radiance Primer - Travel Size, M.A.C Studio Fix 24-Hour Smooth Wear Concealer - NC15, Clinique Id Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, Benefit Cosmetics Theyre Real! Beyond Mascara - Jet Black Mini and M.A.C Dazzleshadow Liquid - Love Yourself
