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To commemorate ten years of Kylie Cosmetics, Kylie Jenner recently announced the King Kylie collection, referencing the reality star’s 2016-era persona on Instagram. The rollout included references to the peak of Jenner’s reign as a makeup arbiter, signified by overlined lips and chalky powders. While a marketing gimmick, this nostalgia for mid-2010s-makeup begs the question: in an era where injectables and surgery are mainstream, what’s next for beauty?
Kylie Cosmetics launched in 2015, followed by Rihanna’s Fenty in 2017, and Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty in 2020. While Kylie’s hinged on colorful lipsticks, around the pandemic cosmetic trends began to shift from full coverage to the “clean girl” aesthetic, defined by natural finishes. No celebrity brand exemplifies this better than Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs, which launched in 2019 with glittery pigments defined by Gaga’s signature theatrics. After consumer interests realigned with less dramatic makeup, however, Haus Labs rebranded in 2022 to focus on infusing makeup with scientifically tested skin care.
While the era of celeb-owned makeup kicked off with Instagram sanctioned gaudiness, it’s this latter approach that has allowed pop stars to completely dominate the beauty industry (Fenty framed Rihanna as an innovator, and Rare Beauty’s blushes set off an industry-wide turn to more blendable products). This year, however, five years beyond the pandemic’s invigoration of the “clean girl,” Haus Labs’ newest campaign features Gaga slathering her whole body in foundation. Focusing less on innovation than on Gaga’s celebrity and her products’ practicality, does this mean 2016’s cake face is back in style?
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Making a Statement with Shadows
The short answer is no. Amidst Haus Labs’ launch of new contour products, the “We love foundation” campaign is less about covering up than it is about creating new faces, altogether. Providing the clearest picture of beauty trends post- late 2010s Instagram baddies and early 2020s clean-girl, new Haus Labs images fall squarely in-between: healthy, natural complexions with impossibly sculpted cheeks and striking, graphic accents. Returning to its original statement-making ethos, the brand—like Gaga’s own makeup—now uses makeup to render larger-than-life beauty ideals accessible to any consumer.
This speaks to a larger beauty industry of which makeup is now just a small part; the aspirational celebrity face is no longer just ornamented, but scientifically fine-tuned. Haus Labs is responding remarkably well to these aesthetic shifts, making the central spectacle an at-home version of surgical precision. Look no further than Gaga’s own makeup for her Mayhem era, somehow a goth costume with no colors or blacks, at all.
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Matte Is Back
Designed by Gaga’s MUA Sarah Tanno, the Mayhem look— hollows, exaggerated highlights, and velvet finishes—has become iconic. In many ways this recalls the content-forward, bombshell looks of beauty past. In promotion for Haus Labs new contour stick, models (and Tanno, herself) draw abstract, graphic lines, ostensibly to be blended into natural-yet-spectacular shadows. Does anyone remember when influencers instructed everyone to put an opaque triangle of concealer under our eyes?
Since triangle concealer and “eyebrows on fleek,” however, most civilians have refined their makeup skills. We now live in a world where kids spend billions at Sephora, and contouring is just as basic of a skill as using a spoolie. Dissecting faces is a normal part of discourse, and making them perfect a pretty universal ambition. Haus Labs—helmed by the queen of transformation—is the perfect brand to define the trends borne of this new beauty era.
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Haus Labs
Triclone™ Skin Tech Foundation Discovery Set
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Triclone™ Skin Tech Foundation Discovery Set
Makeup for Everyone
The fun part, however, is that Haus Labs earnestly offers some of the best products on the market. Its foundation, concealer, and new contour pen are no nonsense; they finish velvety and flawless, hardly oxidize, and last over twelve hours on oily skin (author tested). Blending mattability with blendability, the packaging is tidy and easy to use. You can tell there is some trust in these things from investors, too, because you can get a trial kit of three foundation trades straight from their website, which is free if it leads to a purchase of a full-sized bottle, and only $12 if it doesn’t. I took this gamble in 2022, which led to an unsponsored three-year loyalty to the base.
As someone who wears minimal makeup, it seems strange to religiously apply medium coverage foundation in lieu of something like a BB cream or pot concealer. But I’m not coating myself in it like Gaga in her new campaign—I only use it in places I really need it, blending it out to create a better-than-skin base.
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Bottled Expertise
This personal experience speaks to the ways everyday people now have access to expertise and the ideal products to achieve celebrity-level perfection. Haus Labs products stay put and don’t break me out, but they make my face look striking and angular in photographs. They are expensive but easy to use, widely accessible, and meant to make bare faces a canvas for creativity. In an era where images and spectacle continue to reign, but where faces become scientifically malleable, I find little opportunity to significantly experiment with other brands. Haus Labs sets a certain standard for marketing and product quality in the late 2020s, and I look forward to seeing how other pop moguls and reality stars might compete.
Triclone™ Skin Tech Foundation Discovery Set
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