Fall’s Makeup Trends Are All About Raging Against the Machine

22.08.2025, 21:55 allure.com

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For many of us, this fall will probably be unlike any other we’ve experienced. The world seems to be dishing out unprecedented events, and though we’re here to talk about makeup—don’t worry, we’ll get to that—we can’t deny that the uncertainty we’re experiencing is impacting our beauty-related decisions. “I find myself between extremes at the moment,” says makeup artist Alex Levy. “Clients either want to feel comfortable with themselves—polished but without straying from their established beauty norms—or want to completely push the boundaries and transform.”

What does this look like in practice? First, it means the minimalist, no-makeup makeup aesthetic isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “Most of my clients just want to feel like themselves, but enhanced,” says makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell. “They don’t want to be overly sculpted or contoured.” The industry’s obsession with skin care has also shifted makeup preferences in a major way, explains makeup artist Jaleesa Jaikaran, with skin prep taking precedence and skin tints and concealers continuing to replace full-coverage foundation for many beauty lovers.

However, makeup artist after makeup artist has told us that while the so-called clean girl aesthetic is here to stay a while longer, the look is also evolving. “There’s more intentional color, interesting shapes, and overall, more fun being had,” says Jaikaran. “They want to express themselves but still feel like themselves, whatever that may mean for them.” This can be as simple as adding a sparkling blue in the water lines, or as bold as a full-on burgundy lip—all on a base of fresh, radiant skin, with subtle contours and naturally groomed brows.

On the other end of the spectrum, pros are seeing a resurgence of goth and grunge makeup. With the rise in tightlining, smudged and smoky eyes, oxblood lips, and spiky lashes, it appears many of us are trying to express an underlying feeling of angst, assertion, and defiance. “I think politically and socially, makeup is being used more to provoke and unify—either as a middle finger to social norms or a way to connect with other like-minded folks who see beauty in a similar way,” says Levy. “It’s really become a way of connecting people with similar inspirations, rather than something solitary.”

So, grab your eyeliner pencils and check out all the ways we can (cosmetically) come together and rage against the machine this fall.

Meet the experts:

It’s tricky to call tightlining a trend because, for makeup artists, it’s Eye Makeup 101. But a new generation of beauty lovers has discovered the technique, at least the angsty, early-aughts version of it, and they’re embracing it with abandon. They’re also adapting it to today’s more refined makeup aesthetic: less indie-sleaze, more mainstream chaos.

Tightlining has always been a way to signify rebelliousness through makeup, whether you’re pulling inspiration from Debbie Harry’s punky, feline line or Avril Lavigne’s inky, emo, smoky eyes. But remove the heavy eye makeup around the lids, and it’s simply a way to define the eyes by intensifying the lash lines. “If you look at beautifully applied eye makeup, you’ll always see this shaping of the inside of the eye,” says makeup artist Todd Harris. “It’s a way of getting definition on camera. If your eyes are tightlined, when someone takes a photo, even if it’s from farther back, they still stand out.”

For fall, people are taking inspiration from the grunge era of messy, undone eyeliner and filtering it through a 2025 lens, when less is more and makeup formulas are more refined. They’re ditching super-smudgy liner and cloggy mascara and keeping the pigment along the water lines crisp and sharp. Makeup artist Vincent Oquendo has even been leaving the bottom lash lines completely bare on clients like Jurnee Smollett. “It gives this sexy, sleepy-eyed effect,” he explains, “a bit like Marilyn Monroe.”

The secret to a crisp tightline is using a waterproof eyeliner formula that’s been okayed for use in the water line. We have a list of our favorites, but Oquendo keeps Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal Liner and L’Oréal Paris Infallible Grip Mechanical Gel Eyeliner in his kit. After you’ve applied it along your top and bottom water lines, the trick is not to blink. “Normally, when you do a rock-and-roll eye, you apply your liner in the water lines and squeeze your eyes shut,” says Oquendo. To keep it tidy, you have to resist the urge to blink right away. If that’s tricky, he suggests working in small sections, allowing yourself to blink in between each one. When you’ve finished tracing the water lines, then go back and wiggle the point of your liner gently between each lash to fill in the gaps, says Harris: “If you do this on one eye and look in the mirror, you won’t believe the difference.”

Cool tones continue to captivate makeup lovers. Just look at MAC’s disruptive “nudes” campaign featuring Martha Stewart and Julia Fox, or Dakota Johnson’s character in The Materialists, where makeup artist Emma Strachman stuck to ’90s-inspired, cool-toned hues throughout the film. While there are plenty of ways to wear the trend, makeup artists are particularly loving gray and gunmetal eye shadows for this fall.

Makeup artist and Sephora beauty director David Razzano thinks the fascination with cool, gray tones comes as a response “to the oversaturated, warm eye shadow palettes that dominated the beauty landscape for almost a decade.” The return of gray shadow feels “elevated and chic,” he adds, “creating more of a natural 'shadowed' look.”

Looking to the fall/winter runways for inspiration, there are no limits on how you can play with gray shadow, from the shade you choose to how you apply it. Deeper gunmetal hues were smudged across lids at Altuzarra (Bobbi Brown Cream Eye Shadow Stick in Stone) and Roberto Cavalli (Kiko Milano Long Lasting Eyeshadow Stick in Dark Taupe and Anthracite) to create a rock-and-roll vibe. At Luar, makeup artist Terry Barber used two shades of gray—MAC eye shadows in Print and Scene—and white to craft a graphic, maximalist eye look he described as “late-’80s supermodel meets Stonewall-era drag.”

At Tory Burch, makeup artist Diane Kendal blended a vintage-y, dove gray color (Nars Total Seduction Eyeshadow Stick in Don’t Touch) from the lash lines all the way to the brows for a look that felt fresh and sporty. It’s a color that seems like it wouldn’t work for deeper skin tones, but makeup artist Raisa Flowers explains, it’s all in how you apply it. “If you want a pale, cool color to not look ashy or washed out, start with an eye shadow primer so the color sits boldly on the skin,” she says, “or intensify the color with a darker hue.” (Kendal bumped up the shadow at Tory Burch with the Nars Koh Rong Quad Eyeshadow.)

It’s been a huge year for lashes: Brown and colored mascaras made a comeback, and people have been having fun with false lashes again. This fall, though, the focus isn’t on tone or fullness but shape, in the form of graphic, spiky lashes. “Spiky lashes are a personal favorite of mine,” says Razzano. “For me, the look feels like a nod to iconic ’70s divas like Cher, Diana Ross, Marisa Berenson, and Liza Minnelli. It’s sexy and a bit camp, which is so fun.”

But spiky lashes don’t have to go full-disco decadence. Add extreme length and lots of eyeliner, like at Harris Reed’s fall 2025 show, and you get a subversive, goth effect. Pair a set of spiky strips with gold shadow and a dark lip, like Tems wore for the 2025 Met Gala, and the look takes on a glamorous edge.

It probably goes without saying, but you’ll need false lash strips to achieve dramatic looks like these. Razanno recommends Lilly Lashes Everyday Faux Mink Lashes in Miami, and Flowers loves the dramatic look of Katiely Beauty Dream Lash FX19 strips.

The spiky-lash trend might seem over-the-top off the runway, but if you substitute lash strips for individual clusters and mascara, you can get a similar effect in a subtler way—which is how makeup artist Allan Avendaño interpreted the trend on actor Isabela Merced. You can even achieve this effect with just mascara, using the tip of the wand to clump lashes together into thick spikes (the trick is not to deposit too much pigment—you want spikes, not spidery clumps). The results are striking however you do it. “It allows the lashes to be a major statement in your look,” says Razzano, “but it doesn’t swallow your entire lid space, so the eye doesn’t look weighed down.”

“The laminated brow look is on the decline, for sure,” says Harris, adding that “people are getting back into a more natural-looking, structured brow instead of that look where the hairs are groomed to sit straight up.” Vanita Parti, founder of the Blink Brow Bar salons chain in London, is also seeing fewer requests for lamination: “People have returned to fuller and softer brows,” she says.

To achieve a natural, soft-brow effect, Oquendo is currently obsessed with the 3-in-1 brow products entering the market. His favorite is the Valentino Brow Trio Eyebrow Liner, a product that many professional makeup artists hoard in their kits, and one that Oquendo has been using on all his red carpet clients. This product is one of the only multitaskers on the market to include a mechanical pencil, a spoolie brush, and a felt-tip marker, which has just the right amount of pigment to allow you to build up your brows in a very natural-looking way.

Oquendo also turned us onto the stackable Subtl Beauty 3-in-1 Brow Pencil, which features a stubby pencil and a clear brow gel that is revealed when you twist off the spoolie brush on the other end. Having multiple components is great, but the pencil is especially good because its thicker point and powdery finish enable you to draw hair on and fill in empty patches.

Whether matte or gl