Beauty Campaigns Are Finally Letting Us Breathe
Photo via © Glossier
For years, beauty ads have felt suffocating: perfect skin, sculpted cheekbones, and filters so heavy you forget what real faces look like. But lately, that script is breaking.
Texture Is Coming Back
You see more freckles, pores, and brows that aren’t perfectly shaped. Brands are embracing natural light and softer edits that don’t flatten the face. Showing skin with all its texture reveals its true character and history.
This change isn’t limited to indie brands. Major beauty companies are starting to loosen their grip on perfection, making the change hard to miss.
Who’s Leading the Change?
You don’t have to dig far to see brands shifting gears. Glossier made a name for itself by celebrating natural skin and minimal makeup, putting real faces front and center. Fenty Beauty pushed the conversation further by offering diverse shades and spotlighting models with unique features, freckles, scars, and all.
Even legacy brands are paying attention. Dove’s campaigns have long embraced real bodies and faces, and recently, Estée Lauder has started showing models with visible pores and softer lighting in their ads. Brands like Pat McGrath and Milk Makeup mix high glam with a fresh, less-polished edge, making space for beauty that feels alive and unfiltered.
The shift toward honest beauty is gaining ground fast and here to stay.
Gen Z’s Quiet Push
Gen Z grew up online, watching everyone chase the perfect selfie. But that shiny, filtered world has started to wear thin. They want more honesty, more texture. More of the “real” behind the gloss.
And brands, always quick to spot shifts, are responding. While polished Instagram faces remain popular, there’s growing interest in beauty that feels authentic.
Real Isn’t About Being “Relatable”
For years, fashion and beauty brands wanted models to feel “relatable” to the average person. So they tried to tone down the makeup or soften features to look more like “real people”, but it was still a carefully controlled version of “normal.”
Now, the new movement in beauty isn’t about pretending models look like everyday people. Instead, it celebrates unique traits, like asymmetry, unusual features, or quirks, that make each person stand out. It’s about showing real, imperfect, and interesting faces rather than trying to fit a watered-down “relatable” mold.
What’s Next?
This is not a revolution, not yet. But the cracks in the old system are clear. The smooth, hyper-glam ideal isn’t as dominant as it once was. People are hungry for something slower, more human, a beauty that breathes and feels honest.
Truthfully, that feels like a breath of fresh air.
Photos below via © Glossier
