2023: The Year of Bleached Brows
The eyes are the windows to the soul, are they not? But what about what’s above them?
It’s an indisputable fact that eyebrows can make or break your appearance. The makeup and beauty industry has definitely seen its fair share of trends with eyebrows, ranging from 90s thin to thick brows with a pointed arch, which we saw back over a decade ago. But the latest—and arguably most noticeable trend—has been the bleached brow look.
Dominating every look on the runway from Versace to Marc Jacobs and resurfacing anywhere and everywhere on social media, the trend is definitely one of the most unique we’ve seen in a while.
With an enormous spike in Google and Pinterest searches, and over a hundred million views on TikTok, where did the trend come from and how did it become so popular?
The alienesque look’s origins trace back centuries ago. While bleaching eyebrows wasn’t an emerging trend until the 90s, it was a pretty common beauty standard during the Middle Ages in Europe to remove the eyebrow completely for an elevated forehead look.
“They saw this as resembling a child, innocent and pure,” says Gabriela Hernandez, author of Classic Beauty: The History of Makeup.
But at the same time that models and actresses like Chloë Sevigny and Linda Evangelista were soft-launching the trend, New York City club kids took it to a whole other level. Their beauty routine would involve bleaching or more commonly shaving their eyebrows entirely in order to have more creative leeway with their makeup looks for the night.
This would range from forehead-length sparkly eyeshadow to abstract geometric shapes and colors, and everything in between.
The 90s were arguably the biggest era in making bold fashion and beauty statements, so it makes sense that the trends we see today are heavily influenced by previous decades and continue to resurface. It was a time when gender fluidity was being more commonly accepted in multiple aspects of life, not just the club scene.
Despite the epidemic of this trend, bleaching your brows takes time. While it can be a pretty long and stressful process, luckily for those who wouldn't want to commit entirely, makeup brands are releasing more and more products you can apply over the brows that give the exact same effect.
There’s one product in specific that’s been highly recommended all over social media, called the Brow Engineer Intense Pigment Paint by Sensorium Beauty. You can also always apply your go-to concealer if you’re on a budget!
While there’s no telling what exactly the next trend with eyebrows is going to be, there isn’t a better time than now to experiment with lightening them, whether it’s permanent or temporary. If you’re bold enough, head over to your nearest beauty supply store and go crazy!
Will you be trying out this new brow trend? Leave a comment down below!