Cold Is the New Hot: Why Beauty Is (Literally) Cooling Down

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For the better part of the last five years, the beauty industry leaned hard into heat as an aesthetic choice — think sunburn blush and post-workout dewy glows. But it appears that the fever pitch of warm color palettes and molten bronziness may have finally peaked and is now heading into a cooling cycle. Icy metallics are replacing gold-flecked shimmers, facials boast cold therapy instead of steam, and at-home cryo devices have surged. And considering it hit 98 degrees in Los Angeles in March, I have never been more interested in putting frozen things on my face.

“Cold” beauty isn’t new, of course. There’s a long lineage of women rolling ice cubes across their cheekbones before an event — Gwyneth Paltrow made this particular pre-red-carpet ritual aspirational in the early aughts, and backstage makeup artists like Charlotte Tilbury have been icing models before shows for decades. Meanwhile, the Y2K era gave us frosted everything from lips to lids and the tips of your favorite boy band’s spiky hairstyle.

But for the first time, the visual trend and functional one are arriving together — and maybe they share a root cause. Global temperatures set records in nine consecutive months through early 2026 and because of this, climate-adaptive products are some of the fastest-growing categories in beauty and fashion. Whether we’re adapting to rising temperatures or wistfully reviving old trends because we miss when things felt simpler (probably both), the reaction is popping up on Sephora and Ulta shelves everywhere.

Esthetician Sofie Pavitt — known in New York as “the acne whisperer,” with clients including Zendaya and Lorde — has built a cryo-inspired product line to help clients achieve the results they got in the treatment room. “When someone comes in with that red, sensitive-to-the-touch acne, we usually try to tackle the inflammation first, so cold therapy was a natural step,” Pavitt says. “Cold constricts vessels and reduces blood flow to the area, which is why most people see a reduction in redness and swelling after applying cold therapy.” Given that heat alone can trigger hyperpigmentation, as Pavitt notes, cooling the skin is both sensorial and protective. In fact, a 2025 meta-analysis in Scientific Reports found that cryotherapy reduces systemic inflammatory markers in healthy adults.

On the makeup side, a similar shift is happening in pigments with Pinterest searches for “frosted makeup” up 150% heading into 2026. “It’s been a while since cooler metallic and frosty tones have been used because they sort of went out of style and started to feel outdated. There was a collective preference toward warmer tones for a while” says Donni Davy — the Emmy-winning makeup artist behind HBO’s Euphoria and founder of Half Magic Beauty. “Now that preference is swinging in the other direction back toward cool and frosty. Powdery mattes as well.”

To get the 2.0 take on frosted makeup, Davy says to go softer and blend more. “I recommend starting by applying color to your lids, extending up beyond your crease, and then diffusing outwards toward your brow bone,” she says. “Pair with a clean airy brow, a tight-lined waterline, a generous application of mascara, a glowy cheek moment, and a rosy brown lip.” Another easy combo is a frosty lipstick with grungy metallic lids. Davy recommends opting for an eyeshadow texture that “feels almost wet to the touch and spreads on with super high pigment and opacity.”

Your Beauty Cool-Down Kit

Some of these lower your actual skin temperature; others just look like they do. Here’s what we’d add to cart, organized by color, skincare, and tools — so you can enter wherever makes sense for your routine.

Makeup