Written By: Danyelle V
Why are you scrolling through your Instagram feed and seeing people covering their eyebrows in soap? Can someone explain why people are dousing their faces with seemingly unhealthy amounts of powder? Were all of these women shaving their face, is that why they were rubbing aftershave all over their faces? And finally, for what reason are women dabbing silicone bra inserts on their faces!?! Have internet beauty gurus run out of creases to cut and shadows to blend or have they all just lost their minds?
I have also scrolled through my IG feed and explore page and found videos that I cannot explain. Like someone using a banana as a guide for their contour. While that banana thing is just a mess, some of the trends that have left you in confusion actually have some method to their madness. As someone who writes for a beauty, I often get that random Instagram DM from a friend who is just not understanding what the kids are up to. I have answers! Here were some of my favorites WTF Instagram moments from 2016!
Covering their eyebrows in soap?
Before it saturated your feed, using soap as a way of holding your brow hairs in place was a trick used by makeup artists of a different era. Late in the summer of 2016, Sam Chapman of the Pixiwoo sisters, the ladies who created the Real Techniques brush lines, posted a video on her YouTube channel teaching us how she transformed her thin sparse brows into thick, bushy brow that are completely on trend. She called it the Old Hollywood Brow. According to Sam and her sister, Nic, just by using some basic clear bar soap, water, and a spooly, was the secret to how makeup artists of the 50s and 60s for keeping their starlets’ brows looking groomed and luscious. It’s so simple, anyone could do it!
Why are they going crazy? Because it is an affordable alternative to more expensive brow gels. And it lasts longer. The real trick is finding the right balance between soap and water. If you test it out, be sure to create a gel texture that isn’t runny. The texture needs to be slightly thick to be effective. I’ve personally tested this one out and it’s worth giving it a try. You’ll give Cara Delevingne a run for her money.
Unhealthy amounts of powder?
I bet you’ve had hard time finding a new recipe lately without running into baking or cooking memes that have nothing to do with cookies and cakes.
Again, this isn’t anything new! I learned about baking from YouTube beauty guru, Patrickstarrr; but it isn’t h original trick either. I do have to say that I love the videos where he beats his face with a huge powder puff. After you apply a cream product, use a sponge to apply powder under your eyes, below your contour, and anywhere you see fit. Baking is useful if you need your cream products to be more long wearing. You can avoid under eye and smile line creasing. You can also brighten areas of your face you want to highlight. It’s helpful if you blended your contour too low, just swipe the powder under your contour line like an eraser for a cut cheekbone. Drag queens use it to conceal the texture on their skin from shaving. Kim K has posted pictures of her face striped in powder. For a full coverage, glam, beat to hell face, baking is your tool!
Caution! Hydrate your undereye area before baking your makeup to avoid looking super dry and after to keep your skin from drying out.
Rubbing aftershave all over their faces?
OK, I fibbed a little. this one is from 2015 but it was a craze I watched intently and wanted to share. NikkieTutorials told her over 6 million subscribers a story of how she had run out of moisturizer so she turned to her boyfriend's skincare products. She found his Nivea Post Shave Balm in for sensitive skin and rubbed it on her face. What was just a means to an end, turn into one of her essential products for making her makeup last. As she rubbed the balm onto her face, she noticed it became tacky. She noted that there was a high amount of glycerin in the product and tested as a primer for her makeup. She claimed the after shave product kept the oils of her skin from breaking down her makeup throughout the day. Beauty gurus all over the internet went crazy and how could you blame them? Ensuring your makeup lasts without needing a touchup is the ultimate goal!
I was tempted to test this one myself. However, every time I remembered to look for the Nivea Post Shave Balm, it was sold out. I'm sure Nivea never thought makeup enthusiasts would snatch up their aftershave products.
Dabbing silicone bra inserts on their faces!?!
The chicken cutlet bra insert being used to apply foundation caught me off guard too. I thought Instagrammers had truly lost their mind leaving me ready to deactivate my account the way I was ready to leave Facebook if I got just one more Candy Crush request from my mom’s coworker’s cousin. But don’t be fooled, Instgrammers are crafty! The craze comes after Molly Cosmetics launched the SiliSponge. A silicone makeup applicator whose biggest selling point is that the sponge doesn’t absorb any product. Because the surface is not porous, no cream or liquid product will go to waste.
Why not just buy the $10-ish dollar SiliSponge? It is constantly selling out! Molly Cosmetics is on its 9th restock! The internet went crazier for the SiliSponge than they did for the rainbow highlighter. So beauty lovers took scissors to their bra inserts to make their own silicone sponge in the same way they took a spatula to their eye shadow palettes to make their own rainbow highlight. A little thing like a ‘sold out’ sign is not going to stop Instagrammers from trying all things beauty. The hype surrounding the sponge has been so great that Molly Cosmetics has already expanded the SiliSponge line to include a new shape.
There will certainly be no shortage of WTF Instagram moments in 2017! Let's see what they come up with next!
Thanks for reading! If this is the type of article you want to see more of on meetpepperb.com, let us know! We can do other installments every few weeks? Tell us which Instagram crazes made you look at your phone sideways?