8 TikTok Makeup Trends That Actually Deliver, According to Makeup Artists

TikTok has a gift for making you feel like your entire makeup routine is wrong. Every week there is a new technique, a new placement, a new way to apply blush that supposedly changes everything. Most of it is noise. Some of it, though, is actually worth your time, and not just for influencers with ring lights and a lot of patience. The eight trends below work because there is a real reason behind the technique, and knowing what that reason is also happens to be what stops you from overdoing it.

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1. High Blush Placement

You know the look: blush swept across the nose and up under the eyes, instead of just on the apples of the cheeks. It goes by a few names on TikTok, cold girl makeup being the most common, but the underlying technique has been used by makeup artists for years. The idea is to place color where the sun would actually hit your face, which is not the apples of your cheeks. It is the bridge of your nose, the tops of your cheekbones, and the inner corner of the under-eye area.

The reason it works is that high placement creates the illusion of lift. When blush sits lower on the face, it can visually pull features downward. Moving it up and across draws the eye upward, making the face look more awake and naturally flushed rather than contoured. The key to not overdoing it is keeping the product sheer. A small amount on the bridge of the nose, blended upward and outward at the edges until it disappears, is enough. The second you can see a defined stripe, you have gone too far.

Try it with: Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in any rosy or berry shade (one dot per cheek and one on the nose tip, blended fast). Rhode Pocket Blush in Toasted Teddy for a sun-kissed, warm version of the placement. NARS Orgasm Blush for the cooler, more flushed interpretation.

2. Underpainting

This is the one that sounds the most counterintuitive: applying your blush and contour before foundation instead of after. The idea is that a thin layer of foundation goes on last, diffusing everything underneath so that your color looks like it is coming from within your skin rather than sitting on top of it. Makeup artists have been doing this for decades, but TikTok turned it into a tutorial format that finally made it accessible.

It works especially well if you have ever ended up with blush that looks patchy, or contour that looks like a stripe no matter how much you blend. Because the foundation sheers everything out in one step, the finish tends to be softer and more natural-looking with less overall product. The one adjustment: apply your blush and contour more intensely than you think you need to before putting foundation over it, because the coverage will mute everything slightly. Trust the process, as every tutorial says, and it delivers.

Try it with: Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush for the color layer underneath. NYX Wonder Stick Contour for the sculpting step. Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation on top, because light-to-medium coverage is what you want here. A heavy foundation will cover everything you just did.

3. Butter Skin Base

Butter skin is what happens when you stop thinking of your skincare and your makeup as two separate steps. The premise is a base that looks soft, velvety, and hydrated rather than shiny or matte. It is not glass skin, which reads as wet. It is not matte, which reads as flat. It is that warm, plump, lit-from-within finish that makes someone look like they slept eight hours and drank a lot of water, even if neither of those things is true.

The technique comes down to prep: hydrating serum, moisturizer while your skin is still slightly damp, and then a skin tint or light foundation applied with a damp sponge while the moisturizer is still tacky. The product melts into the skin rather than sitting on top of it. Everything after that needs to be cream-based. Powder products will immediately flatten the finish you just created, so blush, bronzer, and highlight should all be cream or liquid. This works particularly well for drier or more mature skin because it does not settle into lines the way heavier formulas can.

Try it with: Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Skin Tint for a very skin-like base that comes in a wide range of shades. Summer Fridays Sheer Skin Tint for a slightly more glowy version. Charlotte Tilbury Unreal Skin Sheer Glow Tint if you want a little more coverage without losing the dewy finish.

4. Cushion Lips

Sharp lip liner and a precisely filled-in lip is not what 2025 is doing. The cushion lip, sometimes called a blurred or pillowy lip, involves dabbing color onto the center of the lips and blending it outward with a finger or brush, so the edges fade instead of stopping sharply. The effect looks soft, almost like a stain, and much more wearable for everyday because it does not require precision or constant upkeep.

What makes this technique flattering rather than just trendy is that it draws attention to the center of the mouth, where lips are naturally fullest, and lets color fade toward the edges rather than defining the outer lip line. On lips that have naturally lost some definition over time, this is actually a more flattering approach than a sharp liner, which can draw attention to the edges rather than the fullness. The only trick is to use a product with enough pigment to hold in the center even after blending. A too-sheer formula will disappear before you have finished applying it.

Try it with: Milk Makeup Cooling Water Jelly Tint, which gives enough pigment to hold in the center without staining everything it touches. Rhode Pocket Blush doubled on the lips in a warm berry or pink shade. Merit Flush Balm tapped onto the lip center and blended outward, which also has the benefit of adding hydration.

5. Latte Makeup

Latte makeup is warm, monochromatic browns from eyes to lips, anchored by bronzed skin and no competing color anywhere on the face. It sounds limiting, but in practice it is one of the most forgiving palettes to work with because warm brown tones work with almost every skin tone when you find the right depth for yours. Lighter complexions look for softer, milkier caramels. Deeper complexions can go richer and more saturated with the same look.

The thing that makes it flattering rather than just cohesive is the warmth. Cool-toned neutral looks can flatten the face, especially in low light. Warm browns add dimension by mimicking the tones of sun on skin, which is why a latte look tends to photograph well and read as healthy without being heavy. The key to keeping it from looking muddy is using at least one slightly lighter and one slightly darker shade rather than the exact same brown everywhere. A touch of shimmer on the lid or the center of the lip also keeps it from going flat.

Try it with: Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk’r Bronzer to warm the base, in a shade one step deeper than your skin tone. Rhode Pocket Blush in Toasted Teddy for a blush that reads both warm and bronzed, so you can use it on cheeks instead of a separate blush. A brown kohl pencil smudged along the upper lash line ties the eye into the palette without requiring shadow.

6. Smudged Liner

Perfect, precise liner is out. The TikTok smudged liner trend, sometimes called messy liner or slept-in liner, is about applying a soft, kohl-style pencil along the lash line and then deliberately blending it with a fingertip or small brush so the edges diffuse. The result is somewhere between a smoky eye and a bare face: defined but not harsh, with a slightly undone quality that actually looks more deliberate the less you try to perfect it.

What is surprising about this look is how flattering it is across ages and eye shapes. Precise liner, particularly a sharp wing, requires a very specific set of conditions to be flattering, and any variation in lid shape, lash density, or skin texture can make it look uneven. A smudged pencil, on the other hand, blends into those variations rather than fighting them. The key is that the rest of your face needs to be cleaner and more minimal to let the eye read as intentional. Heavy blush or lip at the same time and the whole thing tips toward messy rather than editorial.

Try it with: MAC Eye Kohl Pencil, which glides without dragging and smudges easily in the first minute before setting. Huda Beauty Creamy Kohl Eyeliner Pencil for deeper pigment and the same soft, blendable formula. Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Pencil if you want a drugstore option that performs surprisingly close to the higher-end versions.

7. Cream Blush Over Powder

Celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta made this technique famous, and TikTok ran with it: apply a cream blush first, then set it with a powder blush in the same or a slightly deeper shade on top. The cream gives the flush and the glow. The powder sets it, extends the wear, and adds depth. Together they create a dimension that either product alone cannot quite achieve.

The reason cream blush alone can look sheer or patchy by midday is that it has nothing to anchor it, especially on oily skin or in warm weather. The powder on top solves that problem without flattening the finish, because you are using a small enough amount that the cream’s luminosity still shows through. Going the other direction, powder blush alone can look dry or sit on top of the skin rather than melting into it, particularly on drier or more textured skin. The combination addresses both problems at once. You do not need much of either product. A light hand with both is what makes it look natural rather than layered.

Try it with: Patrick Ta Major Headlines Double-Take Crème and Powder Blush Duo, which was literally designed for this technique and comes with both formulas in one compact. Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush as the cream layer underneath any powder blush you already own. Milk Makeup Lip and Cheek stick as a multitasking cream base if you want a drugstore-adjacent option.

8. Blonzing

Blonzing is exactly what it sounds like: using blush in the places you would normally use bronzer, specifically in warm, earthy shades that do both jobs at once. The shades that make it work are not the bright pinks or corals of traditional blush. They are sun-baked mauves, terracottas, and golden apricots that warm the face and add flush simultaneously, which means you can skip a separate bronzer step entirely and still get dimension.

What makes this technique interesting beyond saving a step is that a warm blush in bronzer placement actually reads as more natural than bronzer alone, because it adds both warmth and color rather than just warmth. Bronzer without blush can make the face look contoured rather than healthy. Blonzing keeps the finish looking alive. The placement is the same as you would use for bronzer: along the temples, the top of the cheekbones, and lightly under the jawline. The key is keeping the shade warm enough that it registers as warmth rather than pink, which is where the product choice matters.

Try it with: Rhode Pocket Blush in Toasted Teddy, which has the warmth of a bronzer and the finish of a blush and was basically made for this technique. Rhode Pocket Blush in Sun Soak for a slightly deeper, spiced orange version that works especially well on medium and deeper skin tones. Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk’r Bronzer in a medium shade can also be used in reverse, as a warm blush on the cheeks, if you already own it.

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See These Trends in Action

Here is the beauty community demonstrating these techniques:

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do these TikTok makeup trends work on mature skin?

Most of them work especially well on mature skin, actually. The butter skin base, cushion lip, and cream blush techniques are all designed around hydration and avoiding the kind of heavy layering that settles into lines. The one adjustment worth making is to lean on cream and liquid products more than powder, since powder can emphasize texture on more mature skin. High blush placement is also particularly flattering because it lifts the eye upward rather than weighing the face down.

Is underpainting hard to learn?

It looks more complicated than it is. The main adjustment is applying your blush and contour more intensely than feels comfortable before you put foundation on, because the foundation will mute them significantly. If you go in with your usual amount of product, the result will look like you are barely wearing anything. That can be a good thing, but if you want to actually see the color, you need to build it up first. A few attempts and the technique becomes second nature.

What is the difference between blonzing and just using a bronzer?

Bronzer adds warmth and depth but no real flush, which can look more like shadow than sun depending on your skin tone. Blonzing uses a warm-toned blush in bronzer placement, so you get warmth plus a hint of rosy color at the same time. The result reads as more alive than bronzer alone, and you can skip a separate blush step since the color is already there. The product choice matters: you need a shade with warm, earthy undertones rather than a bright or cool pink.

Do all of these techniques require buying new products?

Not necessarily. Underpainting, high blush placement, and smudged liner all work with products you probably already own. It is the technique that changes, not the products. Butter skin requires cream-based blush and bronzer, which you may or may not have. Blonzing requires finding the right shade of blush for the technique, which is the one case where trying something new is probably worth it. Rhode Pocket Blush in Toasted Teddy has become the go-to specifically because the shade hits both warm and flushed at once, and nothing already in most makeup bags quite replicates it.