Tips To Bring Your Favorite Tumblr Makeup Looks Into 2023

Former angsty teens, your favorite social media platform is once again trending. In the early 2010s, teens flocked to the popular microblogging and social media site Tumblr to share their deepest feelings, favorite photos, and "underground" music. Tumblr curated an environment that made anxious teens feel comfortable enough to share the creative parts of themselves. As expected, the platform became a place for other people to gain inspiration for their art, fashion, music, and, most importantly, makeup.

Starting with celebrities like Kylie Jenner and influencers such as Acacia Brinley Clark, sharing selfies with a full face of makeup became a trend on the social media platform. These makeup looks were far from what we know as the "clean girl" aesthetic. When speaking on the renaissance of the Tumblr makeup trend, Instagram makeup influencer @victorialyn tells us that "the clean girl has traded in her lip oil and mascara for smudgy eyeliner and lipstick." The indie-sleaze Tumblr look is back for 2023 and we are ready to incorporate the aesthetic into our everyday makeup routine.

Contradicting the very prominent eye and lip looks, the traditional Tumblr girl focused very little on foundation or concealer. Instead, she let her other features shine. When it came to face makeup, bronzer on the hollows of the cheek and minimal highlighter often were all that was necessary.

Tumblr girls often had an obsession with appearing fresh and young. In order to gain this appearance, many allowed their freckles to show or drew on faux freckles to create the same look. This gave the overall feel that the makeup was perfectly imperfect because the wearer was carefree or perhaps "not like other girls."

The most important part of a true grunge Tumblr look is the smudgy black eyeliner. Perfection and straight lines are unnecessary when it comes to the prominent eye look among Tumblr girls. Instead, they used an eye pencil across the lash line and continued to smudge it upwards with a brush for a consciously worn-in look.

Before Kylie Lip Kits ever hit the market, Kylie Jenner was the lip queen on Tumblr. She loved to show off her grunge makeup look complete with a bold lip. This bold lip style became prominent across makeup looks posted on Tumblr in the early 2010s. It is still a signature part of the Tumblr makeup style today.

Fluffy, bold brows were another way the Tumblr girls contrasted their bold lips and eyes with a natural element. Yet, many times their fluffy brows were far from natural at all. The dawn of the Tumblr era brought upon many women filling in their brows and using brow gel in order to make their eyebrows appear fuller.