2023 LOOKS
*gta voice* oh shit, here we go again!! This is the seventh (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017) installment of my yearly series. So as tradition dictates, I'm back with my 2023 moodboards.
MOB WIFE MOOD
Listen- I love a good editorial, edgy makeup look, but recently, I’ve been feeling like revisiting a classic. Honestly, the way that this look is like a time capsule sometimes feels cooler than trying to reinvent the wheel with makeup. It's not exactly tasteful and subtle, but the mob wife look definitely carries with it an aura of glamour. It’s the sound of jangly jewelry and snapping gum, a wave of perfume that announces your arrival before you even enter the room. It’s kind of amazing how the way you apply a product can transport you to a time and place and culture, that a look can evoke such a specific feeling. I think this type of makeup hasn’t become an overdone cliche like 60’s or 90’s makeup… it’s cool, and it adds a certain…. je ne sais quoi… to a look. It’s so specific, yet such minor details make it so. It's edgy because of its connotation. The key to this look is not to try and modernize it too much- it’s a defined, neutral eye, matte skin, sharp brows, and defined lips. There’s an inherent angularity in this look that seems to mimic their dangerous lives. or something. I’m probably just really deep in the rabbit hole with this one, but you get the picture. Turn on some sopranos reruns and get inspired.
A SILVERTONE MOMENT
One thing i feel like we’ve definitely noticed in the past year is the increasing popularity of cool tones and silver jewelry over warm tones and golds. It’s definitely related to the gothification and ed hardyssance of mainstream fashion that’s going on right now, and it’s really being hammered home that gold=happy and silver=morose. In this way, i’m really interested in the resurgence of silver tones in makeup and using this mental connection to add emotional nuance to a look. Although silver tones are being used more so as a nod to y2k/90s fashion, the more interesting (imo) way to use them would be to add a sort of ethereal mystery to a look. I love the look of textural contrasts, like a silver rhinestone or paintbrush strokes, or a gloss. This concept us fairly versatile and cool. If you’re worried about it looking dull or ashy, making sure you use a silver that’s opaque and very saturated is the difference between it reading as silver and it reading as dusty.
ETHEREAL WATERCOLORS
On the other side of the spectrum from the defined nature of the mob wife look, we have this feathery, diffused, watercolor look. It’s always really cool to see the skin treated like a canvas rather than a face, per se. This look relies on seeing features in a vague, general sense when looking at the placement of color on the skin. I especially like when complimentary colors are used; it definitely presents a challenge to try and merge them without creating muddiness, but when done successfully, each color seems that much more vibrant. I love a full shimmer look, or a literal watercolor texture with residual water stains. One way to wear this look on the regular is to do a full shimmer gradient eye or a really intense, multicolor draped blush look.
So anyways, like always, these are just my two cents; feel free to disregard all of this, take bits and pieces you like, etc etc.
