Over the past decade and a half, the world seems to have forgotten how to have fun, and everything became so serious and dull, like the saturation filters in our eyes just got lowered to -100. Minimalism started trending, and suddenly words such as “effortless”, “clean girl” and “nonchalant” became the new standard.
From Pinterest boards to Instagram reels, tips and ways to look effortless with soap brows, dull neutral colour palettes and matte everything: lips, eyeshadow, face. Plain. Everything dry and so two-dimensional. The Sahara Desert would have more colour and whimsy than this level of dullness.
Hours spent perfecting that no-makeup makeup look, all while wondering: if you’re going to put in so much effort anyway, why not look like you did?
Luckily, though, it seems sparkly and shimmery are back this season. We are finally rejecting modernity and embracing tradition—maximalism.
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Bedazzling is in, neutrals are out
In April, Allure officially declared, “We’re in a sparkle revival”.
As the era of maximalism is revived, sparkles are slowly visible anywhere and everywhere. Pop star Zara Larsson is bringing back the trend hard with her glamorous, sparkly, and colourful makeup, outfits and body rhinestones. Tyla, too, is adorning herself in body glitter, rhinestones and sequins, while Sabrina Carpenter paired her multiple rhinestone-filled outfits with shiny leggings for her Short n’ Sweet tour. It is now literally impossible to have a hot girl summer without at least a little bit of sparkle.
But the biggest inspiration for this season has been the McBling aesthetic from the Y2K era. Apart from the typical phones and hats, bedazzling now includes random objects like coffee machines, Vaseline bottles, and keychains. This includes shimmery eyes, frosty lips, Euphoria-inspired rhinestone makeup, glitter highlights in the hair, and body glitter to sequin outfits. Even bedazzled books are gaining popularity on Bookstagram and BookTok.
Gen Z wasn’t around to witness the original glamour and sparkle era, but that doesn’t mean the youth of today aren’t making it their entire personalities. Fashion icons like Britney Spears, Kimora Lee Simmons, Paris Hilton and Kareena Kapoor were covered in bling from head to toe, and it was THE moment.
Don’t get me wrong, Gen Z kids definitely participated in our own ways with sparkly makeup from local stores that were definitely not kid-friendly. I shudder even thinking about the chemical burns Disney-themed lipglosses resulted in. Rocking glitter nail polish on school holidays, scribbling with glitter pens and dressing up Barbie dolls in all things sparkling and shimmering, even raiding our mothers’ closets to play dress-up. Gen Z was just old enough to see all the adults decked up in shine and shimmer, having fun, but not old enough to participate. It didn’t help that in movies and shows like Cinderella, Winx Club and Barbie, the dresses literally shone and sparkled with every movement. All things good, magical and whimsical were associated with sparkles.
Finally, Gen Z is dictating the fashion scene; we’re not yet thirty, flirty and thriving. For me, adulthood was always about getting my main-character moment, dressed up as a baddie in chatpata, shimmery, sparkly outfits that my childhood icons and divas wore. No shade to the minimalistic “clean girls” out there, but I’m so over all that panic room coded colour scheme and pray that we remain chalant and full of effort forever. All hail maximalism!
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(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)