00s Beauty Trends Worth Reviving
Gloss, shimmer and one strong eye colour have come back properly, and the formulas are far better than they were.
The 00s trends worth bringing back are the ones that were fun rather than fiddly: proper lip gloss, a bit of shimmer on the collarbones, smudged liner, and one strong eye colour worn on its own. The formulas have improved enormously in twenty years, so all four hold up in a way they never quite did at the time.
You do not need the history. You were there. What is useful now is picking the two or three things that genuinely suited you, wearing them over a modern base, and leaving the rest where you found them.
The Ones That Aged Well
Gloss is the big one. Shimmer on skin is the second. The third is colour on the eye, one shade, no blending diagram, worn with almost nothing else on the face.
All three were good ideas held back by the products of the day. Gloss was sticky, shimmer was chunky, and eyeshadow was dry and patchy. None of that is true any more, which is why they work now.
What It Costs
This is a cheap revival. You are buying two or three small things rather than rebuilding a kit, and you can expect to spend somewhere in the region of fifteen to thirty pounds from a high street chemist for the lot.
- A gloss with actual pigment in it. Non-sticky formulas are the norm now and cost no more than the sticky ones did.
- A liquid or balm shimmer rather than a loose powder. Loose powder is where this goes wrong.
- One eyeshadow in a colour you like. A single pot beats a palette of twelve you will never open.
Everything else you already own. If you buy one thing, buy the gloss, because it is the trend that changed the most and the one you will get the most wear out of.
Gloss, Done Properly Now
Wear it over a lip pencil rather than on bare lips. Line and fill the whole lip in something close to your own colour, then put the gloss on top. That gives you the shine without the constant reapplying, and if the gloss wears off in a room as warm as a Dreamworx afternoon you are left with a finished lip rather than a bare one.
Skip the very pale, almost white gloss. That was the bit of the look that dated, and it is unforgiving now in a way it was not when you were twenty two.
Shimmer, and Where To Stop
Collarbones, shoulders and the front of the shins. That is the whole map. Shimmer reads as expensive on those three places and as an accident everywhere else.
Use a liquid or a cream and press it on with your fingers, then stop. One pass, blended at the edges so there is no line where it starts. If you can see individual flecks from across a room, it is too much for a grown-up version of the look.
Keep it off your face if you are wearing shimmer on your body. Pick one or the other.
Smudged Liner Suits You More Now
Soft, blurred, slightly-fallen liner was an accident in 2002 and is a deliberate choice now. It is also considerably kinder than a sharp line, because a smudged edge sits on the lash line rather than drawing attention to the skin above it.
Pencil, straight along the lashes, then smudge it with a cotton bud within about thirty seconds while it is still movable. Set it with a matching powder shadow patted over the top and it will stay put all evening.
One Bold Eye, Nothing Else
A single strong colour on the lid, mascara, and a bare face otherwise. Blue, green, bronze, whatever you liked then. It looks intentional and modern precisely because it is not blended into four other shades.
The rule that makes it work is restraint everywhere else. No heavy contour, no glitter, no bold lip. One statement, then stop.
What To Leave in 2003
Some of it was not good and does not become good by coming back around.
- Very thin brows. Brows do not always return once you have taken them down that far.
- Dark liner with a pale lip. It ages a face and always did.
- Frosted, almost silver eyeshadow across the whole lid.
- Crunchy gel in the hair. Nostalgia has limits.
Wearing It Now Without Looking In Costume
Pick one 00s element per outfit, not four. Gloss with a plain face. Shimmer with clean hair and simple makeup. The look dates when you stack them.
Keep the base current. Modern skin-like foundation under an old-school eye is what stops it reading as fancy dress, and it is the single biggest difference between how this looks now and how it looked then.
And enjoy it. These trends came back at the same time the music did, and if a flashback (our word for an older track) can fill a Dreamworx floor twenty years on, a good gloss can survive the trip too.