As we step into 2025, the beauty industry no longer revolves around rigid standards of beauty. Instead, the trend is shifting strongly towards celebrating personal beauty, emphasizing naturalness, individuality, and inner emotions. Makeup is now not just a tool for “concealing imperfections” but also a way for individuals to express their moods, personalities, and confidence through each layer of foundation, lipstick, or blush.
Moist-glow skin: Beauty from a healthy skin
The moist-glow foundation continues to be the “star” of 2025, with dewy, radiant skin becoming the symbol of youth and vitality. Instead of matte powders, beauty enthusiasts now prefer lightweight foundations that provide a good glow and allow the skin to “breathe”. This trend not only brightens the face but also offers a natural, fresh look with minimal makeup. On major fashion runways like Dior, Chanel, and Valentino Spring-Summer 2025, models are all seen with translucent foundations that gently reflect light, as if they’ve just stepped out of a morning mist.
Serum foundation products, moisturizing cushions, and foundations with skin-care ingredients (like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, peptides, etc.) are becoming highly popular. The moist-glow skin not only makes the face look bright and vibrant but also gives off a friendly, approachable vibe, making it perfect for both work environments and daily activities. Moreover, this trend encourages users to pay more attention to their skincare routine rather than just focusing on the external makeup layer.
Berry lipstick: Elegant, confident, and charming
The year 2025 marks the spectacular return of berry-colored lipsticks, with shades inspired by berries like raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. With a rich depth of color and cool or neutral undertones, berry shades easily compliment Asian skin tones, offering a mature, seductive look while remaining elegant and understated.
The interesting aspect of this trend is its versatility. For a soft and delicate look, you can apply the lipstick with a blurred lip technique, creating a gradient effect. When you want to make a statement, applying the lipstick fully with a light layer of gloss will result in a striking overall effect. Additionally, major cosmetic brands have begun launching a range of berry-colored lipsticks in new textures like matte velvet, gloss stain, and satin glow to meet a variety of user preferences.
Makeup Aura: Reflect personal energy through colors
Makeup Aura is a trend inspired by light, emotions, and personal energy, creating a strong wave on global runways and social media. Unlike traditional highlighters, Makeup Aura uses shades like lavender purple, pastel blue, champagne gold, and pearl pink to create a dreamy, glowing effect on the face, as if enveloped by a unique halo of personality.
This trend is considered the “artistic” approach to makeup, focusing not only on enhancing facial features but also on helping individuals convey positive energy outward. Common areas to apply the aura effect are the cheekbones, nose bridge, forehead, and eyelids, creating a reflective effect under both natural and artificial light. This style of makeup is particularly suited for those who want to create a subtle difference without being too flashy.
Fake freckles: Natural and stylish beauty
If freckles used to be something many people tried to conceal with thick foundation, now fake freckles have become a unique highlight, showcasing a love for natural, rustic beauty and personality. This style is particularly favored by Gen Z as it evokes youth, playfulness, and a beauty that, while imperfect, is authentic.
To create natural-looking fake freckles, many makeup artists recommend using a fine-tipped pencil or a brush with a light brown shade, gently dotting it onto the cheeks and nose in an irregular pattern. Some people even combine it with cream blush and glossy lipstick to achieve a radiant, sun-kissed look. This trend is perfect for everyday makeup or photo concepts like casual, vintage, or retro styles.
Personal color makeup: Apex personalization
Along with the slow-living trend and a deeper understanding of oneself, the Personal Color makeup trend — customizing your makeup palette according to skin tone, eye color, hair color, and personality — is becoming more popular. Instead of chasing after hot trends, today’s youth are more focused on selecting colors that complement their natural tones, enhancing their freshness, harmony, and versatility.
The most common classification method is based on the four seasonal groups: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, with each group having its own dominant color palette. For example, Spring tones suit warm, bright shades like coral, peach, and lemon yellow, while Winter tones favor cool, sharp hues such as burgundy, berry purple, and navy blue. Beauty influencers and cosmetics brands from South Korea and Japan have quickly embraced this trend by releasing “diagnosed” color palettes for each skin tone, making it easier and more accurate for users to choose the right shades.
The most important aspect of makeup according to Personal Color is not just choosing the right colors, but also the feeling of “being yourself” when you feel more comfortable, confident, and radiant with the color palette tailored just for you.
The makeup trends of 2025 are not just a change in techniques or colors, but also reflect a shift in beauty ideology, from hiding flaws to celebrating personal identity. This is an era where beauty is no longer confined to a mold, but is understood as the freedom to express and connect with oneself. Whether you follow a minimalist, bold, or sweet style, 2025 is the perfect time to embrace being your true self: radiant, authentic, and unique.
Wendy | Cameron Truong
