Trend #1: Hazy Peachy Eyes
This is a much softer version of the warm smoky eye that still dominates Western Insta-beauty. In most iterations of this look, one or two light peachy shades are blown out all over the lid and the lower lashline, with a thin brown or black liner on the upper lashline. Sometimes the peach or orange accents are concentrated on the outer corners of the eyes, with a more neutral shadow on the rest of the lid. Belly’s recent look with Suqqu’s new Kisui palette is a great everyday version of this look; here are some non-everyday versions, complete with face stickers!1. Twice, “Knock Knock”
Twice is the Korean girl group of the moment, which means that several groups have already copied the makeup in this video and more will probably copy it before long. In keeping with their young, fresh image, the members of Twice are wearing very delicate monochrome peach looks, like this one on Nayeon. If you look closely, the peachy color is concentrated at the outer corners and winged out slightly.
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| HOW IS NAYEON SO CUTE THO. |
A closer look at the peachy eye:
This is all very subtle, though. Let’s progress to something a bit bolder:
2. Lovelyz, “WoW!”
Here the diffused peach is darker and rustier, and it surrounds the entire eye, with an accent of thin black liner on the upper lashline. To be fair, there’s an orangey filter on the shot below; the actual makeup is probably more subtle than it looks here.
Even zoomed out, though, you can see a slight smoky effect:
3. Pristin, “Wee Woo”
K-pop newcomers Pristin deliver the boldest of these three peachy looks. Here the peach verges on orange, and is packed onto the lid with a thicker black liner:
Like the peach shadow in the Twice video, this orange shade is winged out:
Again, there’s a warm peachy filter that could be influencing the look of the makeup, but whatever, I wanted to include a photo of my two favorite members, Yuha (left) and Roa:
I recently saw some tweet along the lines of “straight people will never experience the emotion of ‘oh god I’m so gay.'” Although I’m bisexual, I’d like to thank k-pop for inducing that emotion in me on a regular basis.
Trend #2: Warm Cheeks, Cool Lips
Like most makeup wearers, I match the undertones of my blush to the undertones of my lipstick, so I was taken aback this spring to see multiple k-pop groups pairing peachy cheeks with fuchsia or berry lips. It’s such a simple twist, but counterintuitive enough to make an impression. My first example is relatively subtle:
EXID has a more ~adult concept than most girl groups (though Junghwa, the youngest member, is only twenty-one), and the makeup in this video is accordingly sultry and edgy. Junghwa is wearing a bronzey smoky eye with winged liner, and her peach blush is concentrated in a horizontal lozenge shape level with the tip of her nose and stretching the length of each eye. This is the igari look, meant to give a “hungover” effect—which makes sense, considering that she’s drinking wine fully clothed in an empty bathtub. (Hence her wine-stained lips, too.)
LE’s look doesn’t fit into this trend at all, but I’m going to include it because I can:
Trend #3: Messy Waves
K-pop usually tries to project an image of sleek perfection, so the mussed hair I’ve been seeing in videos and photoshoots is a welcome change, even if it’s just as calculated as anything else in the industry. Here’s another screenshot from the Lovelyz video; Jiae’s hairstyle (left) is ’80s in an ungood way, but I love Kei’s messy pigtails.
Jessica Jung, formerly of Girls’ Generation (that scandal will send you down an Internet rabbit hole, be warned):
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I’m not sure how many of my readers are at all interested in k-pop, but I hope you enjoyed this post nonetheless! I’d like this to become a semi-regular feature on my blog, with a few more installments throughout the year. For now, here’s what I’ll be up to this weekend:
Auxiliary Beauty 
I'm basically striving for the inverse of trend #2 at the moment, cool cheeks and warm lips. while i have so many warm lipsticks, not close to finding the perfect cool cheeks yet! what i currently work with now is a cool-toned barbie pink blush, like just a pop of that colour on my cheeks. sometimes it can look weird over all the warmth i have (i also wear warm bronzer on a daily basis) but i love it!also, i hope this is not creepy at all, but is there any way we can stalk your music-listening habits? spotify playlist, for eg., if you're comfortable with sharing that? i used to listen to kpop exclusively but stopped a couple of years ago. I feel like… an irrelevant ahjumma. i need guidance to get back into listening kpop.
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The inverse would be beautiful, too. I remember pairing Revlon Fire & Ice lipstick with Tony Moly Milky Violet blush and liking how it looked. And no, that's not creepy at all! I've never used Spotify, though; I'll have to look into it. I feel like an ahjumma too, simply because 95% of active k-idols are younger than I am. (I'm closest in age to TOP, who's a mere two days younger. Clearly this means we're meant to be together.)
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I don't really keep up with kpop at all, but it was fun to see it in this post – it was awesome 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed! 😀 I got into k-pop through someone else's beauty blog three years ago, so I'm happy to spread the good word.
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I love reading about Korean and Japanese trends, which often seem to translate better to real life than those you see in North American sources. I'm kind of fascinated by K-pop culture, although I don't like the music itself.
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Yes, I love how Korean and Japanese makeup focuses on subtle modifications of color and placement, but you can absolutely tell that the makeup is there. North American makeup these days seems to be divided between Instagram maximalism and Glossier I'm-too-cool-for-makeup-ism, neither of which I find particularly inspiring.K-pop is certainly not for everybody! Honestly, one of the reasons I find it so fascinating is that the odds of making it as a k-pop star are similar to the odds of getting a tenure-track job in the humanities, i.e. very slim. Makes me feel less alone, I think.
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Haha, this is like how Kate used to do it…I most of the time I am chicken that I only wear the sheer Japanese ones. Your post reminded me that I forgot to add a visee orange crayon in my cart when I was hoarding Canmake. Hopefully it will still be in stock next e-trip…
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Thank you for this fun post! I love seeing the new K beauty trends (via K-pop) even though I'm probably not the right demographic for the looks. 🙂 Even still, very pretty and fun to look at.
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Wow, looks like I've been following Korean trends without knowing. Yesterday, I wore a warm nude blush (Too Faced Baby Love) with a pink/purple lipstick (Urban Decay Bittersweet). I also have messy hair… hopefully, the messy trend catches on in the U.S., hehe.
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I definitely thought about Kate while writing this post, but I can never be more than a pale imitation of her! I miss her blog so much. 😥
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Haha, I doubt I'm the right demographic either! I love the color/placement inspiration, though.
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I'm hoping perpetually frizzy hair catches on as well, because from March to September, that's what I'm dealing with. I like wearing nude blush with cool-toned lips, too!
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