1. THE LOOK: Matte softly-powdered skin straight out of Making Faces, or take it one step further with an exaggerated theatrical look à la balletcore or clowncore
    
2. WHO’S DOING IT? Julia Fox, kids on TikTok, clowns, Pamela Anderson never stopped
3. HOW CAN I GET IT? Put down the vaseline, dewy primers, glowy foundations and all highlighters. Powder is a must. Foundation a shade or two paler than your skin tone if you happen to are ready for the advance level. 

As a former teenage greebo, something concerning the glazed donut and glass skin trends never sat right with me. Not only does leaving the home with my face engulfed in a gloopy texture make me query whether particles of pollution and debris from the London Underground are sitting trapped on my face all day, but I used to be convinced that it also made me appear like a sweaty mess – as if I’d just missed the train but still made a run for it. Even though it looks gorgeous on seemingly everyone else, perhaps it simply isn’t one for the girl who already has oily skin. Luckily for those of us who couldn’t fully make the leap, matte skin is making a well-received comeback. 

We will thank Pamela Anderson and her trademark 90s make-up for this reappearance of the matte look. During the last yr, the blonde bombshell ex-Playboy superstar, animal rights activist and actress has enjoyed a return to the highlight, first due to Pam & Tommy miniseries which, just like the sex tape whose distribution she didn’t give permission for, she didn’t log out on. Nonetheless, she handled the situation by releasing her own tell-all Netflix documentary series Pamela, a Love Story and an accompanying memoir Love, Pamela – thus finally taking her narrative back, and leaving us all in awe of her strength and sweetness.

The Pamaissance has been slowly taking on our make-up routines since then. Last yr saw the return of the thin brow as people said goodbye to their fluffy soap brows and dusted off those long-forgotten tweezers. At the start of 2023, Google searches for Pamela Anderson were at the best they’d been since 2008 and the TikTok hashtag #pamelaandersonmakeup has 50m views alone as users recreate her iconic 90s looks courtesy of make-up artist Alexis Vogel. Earlier this month, make-up artist Erin Parsons bought the entire Alexis Vogel Makeup Kit (priced at $499) to pass on the knowledge of Pam’s signature smokey eye and matte complexion. 

“I prefer matte because I’m almost 45 and I find anything with a shimmer accentuates texture,” Parsons tells Dazed. “Especially when filming, powdered skin looks velvety and for me gives a vintage effect.” As fans of her content know, parsons is a large fan of Old Hollywood glamour and is an avid vintage collector, recently posting a video winning certainly one of Marilyn Munroe’s lipsticks in auction. Nevertheless it’s not only admirers of Old Hollywood make-up who’re adopting this look. Why is it so appealing to beauty fans across the board? “People appear to have an aversion to what they’re labelling as ‘2016’ make-up, the Instagram beauty guru era,” says Parsons. “What I’m seeing is less of the overly highlighted cheekbones and more radiant skin, matte, velvet and subtly highlighted with creams and liquids vs intense sparkling shimmer and glitter.”

It was the recognition of the “clean girl” aesthetic over recent years, alongside the slugging technique and K-Beauty trends like dolphin skin, that pushed glossy glass skin to the mainstream. Looking like a “glazed donut”, as Hailey Bieber has taken for her brand’s slogan, showed off your commitment to your stringent (often expensive) skincare routines and signified a healthy glow. But recently, the mood has turned and appears that require obvious levels of effort are starting to feel irrelevant. As make-up artist and Polyester Zine beauty editor Grace Ellington wrote in a recent piece concerning the end of the snatched look, “it telegraphs an intense commitment to looking perfect which not chimes with a population experiencing a price of living crisis.” The hyper-aspirational social media aesthetic feels drained nowadays. “Where once the extent of perfection felt empowering, now it feels inconceivable.”

@erinparsonsmakeup I purchased the complete Alexis Vogel Makeup Kit, the book and the DVD to create authentic Pamela Anderson Signature Smokey Eyes #makeuptutorial #smokeyeye #pamelaanderson #alexisvogel #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Erin Parsons

Recent countercultural nostalgia, which has manifested in trends like indie sleaze, also has Gen Z pondering fondly of the era where millennials had Dream Matte Mousse reigning supreme of their messy make-up bags. Minimalism is making way for maximalism to the purpose where it’s becoming theatrical. Microtrends including clowncore and balletcore each explore exaggerated styles centering skin overpowdered to resist the recent stage lights. Think Gabbriette’s recent tribute to Vivienne Westwod and Julia Fox rocking matte white clowncore-esque skin to the White House.   

The sweetness type of Fox and Gabbriette, in addition to trend-setters like Alexa Demie, are hugely indebted to Kevyn Aucoin who, together with Vogel, was liable for the matte skin and neutral color palette of the 90s. Aucoin’s legacy has left a long-lasting impact on glam beauty looks, within the work of the make-up artists who’re setting the trends today – people like Sam Visser and Mary Phillips – and on TikTok where users have been references and recreating his editorial make-up. 

“I’ve been watching a lot Charmed and all three sisters have this Kevyn Aucoin-esque soft velvet beat,” says TikToK beauty creator August. Of their circle of creatives, they’ve been seeing a renaissance of powdered 90s make-up which they attribute partly to Aucoin, in addition to trends like clowncore and balletcore. “In [Aucoin’s book] Making Faces, he details this system of applying an initial powder base on each the face and eyelids that permits for pigments that you simply apply on after to mix in easily.”

In a tutorial on the way to create this latest theatrical matte look, August mixes white base with their very own foundation to create a pale look that’s “like a cloud, almost” with latest romantic style pastel blush placed high on the cheekbones. While they don’t imagine dewy skin, within the skincare sense, is over – “I feel we’ll at all times want hydrated skin as a canvas” – with regards to make-up, August says the matte look is on its way back. “We’re slowly coming off the height of when everyone was doing a glossy cheek and colored lid.”

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