Remember when outlining your lips a darker colour and wearing butterfly clips in 1996 was cool? Or when glitter dabbed on the inner corner of your eye was the done thing and dip dye was the new beauty trend of 2011? Time flies eh?! Like every year before it, this one’s had its fair share of product obsessions, viral trends and WTF flashes. So without further adieu, here’s what you’ll be remembering for years to come.
We became obsessed with...
Blurred Lines
It seemed we were all desperate to see a shrink - in our pore size that is. There was a boom for souped-up versions of pore refining serums, to make us appear airbrushed, with the 2014 launch of Kiehl’s Micro Blur Skin Perfector, Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch, Maybelline New York’s Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser, Lancome’s Visionnaire 1 Minute Blur, Garnier Skin Natural Perfect Blur, L’Oreal Paris’s Miracle Blur, Dior’s Capture Totale Dream Skin, just to name a few.
Beauty Drinks
We all got a little Alice in Wonderland with our beauty elixirs. Not content to simply whack on a few face creams, we turned to a plethora of liquids, including Fountain’s The Phyto-Collagen Molecule, Skinade and Rejuvenated Collagen Shots in the quest to look younger, healthier and plumper. The jury is still out.
Anti-ageing Haircare
The obsession with age prevention moved from our skin to our thinning tresses. Everyone ditched regular suds and mousse in favour of thick-boosting keratin creams, resulting in our bath corners being piled up with products like Pantene’s Age Defy Shampoo, Alterna’s Caviar CC Creme and Label M’s Age Defy Protein Cream. Our locks do look all the better for it though.
Kale, Kale, Kale
No longer confined to our occasional menu, this leafy green crept out of our salads and juices into everything! You could find it in Nourish’s Enzymatic Exfoliating Cream, Nails Inc’s NailKale, Eminence’s Citrus & Kale Potent C+E serum, even on Beyonce’s sweater! Like all good trends, it came to an end when the humble chia seed bumped it off the top of the popularity list later in the year. Chia eye serum in 2015? Why not.
Looks that went viral, reeeaally viral:
Bleached Brows
If 2013 was the year of hungry caterpillars perched above your eyes, 2014 is the year of bold brow backlash. Following on from the Autumn Winter 2014 shows of Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Alexander McQueen and Alexander Wang, blonde brows became a thing. Instagram went wild for the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ look with Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Rita Ora and Katy Perry all welcoming the invisibrow at some point during the year. Of course, Lady Gaga had already been there, done that.
Stuffed Buns
It seemed almost impossible to get off the tube without spotting a donut… and we’re not talking about the yummy type. This padded accessory might’ve been around for a while but it took the stardom of Kim Kardashian to literally lift it to the height of it’s 2014 popularity. Question is, will the hair-cronut take over in 2015? Scary thought.
A Cut Above the Rest
Not since the 90s ‘Rachel’ have we seen a haircut get so much air time. The LOB (long bob) took ladie’s locks by storm with everyone from Taylor, Karlie and Kate Upton to Jourdan, Beyonce and Rosamund Pike begging their hairstylist to get snippy. A low maintenance do that’s also covetable, erm, yes please.
Silver Foxes
Jared Leto’s hair had us swooning at pretty much every turn, but this year’s choice of colour was a far more granny chic. Women who regularly spent hundreds of pounds trying to cover up their pesky ash strands, rejoiced as instagram became filled with fifty shades of grey. Even Mark Ronson got in on the act.
Nosey Parkers
Remember when getting your ears pierced was a really, reeeaally big deal? Well, it ain't got nothing on a piercing smack bang in the middle of your nose. This year the bullring reigned supreme as the staple of every it chick we could think of and before long the trend had moved from the likes of Rihanna, FKA Twiggs and Jessica Biel to a slew of fashion bloggers and influencers.
Citrus Lips
Orange became the new black, well, the new red. Once the Spring 2014 shows were said and done, you couldn’t look at a gallery of celebs without spotting pouts in shades of apricot, carrot, peach, coral, salmon or tangerine.
The moments that made us say OMFG!
**SJP at the Met Gala **
We couldn’t quite work out whether she’d baked a massive pretzel to adorn her scalp, or if it was actually her hair.
Lupita Nyong’o at the MTV Movie Awards
She won us over time and time again with her style, but it was this quiff and disco-inspired smoky eye that bowled us over.
Natalie Dormer at the 2014 SAG Awards
Looking half cut on the red carpet is bound to turn a few heads, especially when it looks this good.
Nicole Richie on Good Morning America
Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and… blue. It seems Nicole is working her way through the rainbow. What next?
Angelina Jolie in Maleficient
Just when we thought Angie couldn’t give us more cheekbone envy, she goes and puts a prosthetic on! By the far the hottest villain we’ve ever seen.
Diane Kruger at Fx’s The Bridge Season Two Premiere
A braid within a braid. Sounds good in theory, not so sure in practice. Although, kudos to her for trying something new.
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Follow Natalie On Twitter: @nlukaitus
Illustration: Marina Esmeraldo
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.