Mark My Words: These 6 Makeup Trends Are Poised to Dominate 2026
From suede bronzer to blurred lips, these are the makeup trends that will dominate spring 2026.
As a beauty editor, it's my job to spot beauty trends for a living. And this week, my eyes have been firmly on the emerging spring makeup trends we're going to see for the season ahead. As I write, we're in the middle of both fashion month and awards season, and both the runways and red carpets have been full to the brim with beauty moments that I just know are going to shape spring 2026. And don't get me started on the Spring/Summer 2026 beauty trends from the past season. In short, there is inspiration aplenty.
However, it's not just the trends on the runways, red carpets or on our feeds that shape the emerging makeup trends. Many beauty trends are born out of product launches themselves. As a beauty editor, hundreds of new beauty launches land on my desk each month, and, behind each launch, brands dedicate huge resources to finding out what consumers like you and I really want in our makeup bags. And so they can often be quite telling about the emerging makeup trends we'll see in the coming months.
After hours of scrolling through celebrity beauty moments and testing new products, I'm ready to share my findings. Ahead, I've rounded up the spring makeup trends that you'll absolutely want to try for yourself this year. This is all makeup inspiration you'll need for the season.
1. Leading Lady Blush
After consistent years of placing blusher high on the cheeks to sculpt the cheeks, blush is returning to where it's actually meant to be placed: on the apples of your cheeks. Bold blush has been dominating for a while now, but we're instead seeing more natural-looking flushes that look like you're naturally blushing. It's also impossible to ignore the influence thatWuthering Heights has had on our blush application in recent months, and a glance at the recent red carpets reveals that this lower blush placement is returning once again. Worn lower and centralised on the apples of the cheeks, it emulates the natural flush of spending time outside, and we can expect to see more Brontë blush-inspired looks as we head into spring, perfectly timed with the rise of matte and powder blushers that deliver a second-skin hint of colour to your complexion.
Shop the Trend:
2. Blurred Lips
For a long time, lipstick has often felt far too fussy and high-maintenance. But for spring, beauty brands have been ushering in a new era of sheer matte lipsticks and lip liners that softly sculpt and deliver a soft-focused, blurred finish to the lips. Celebrity makeup artist Nina Park has pioneered the blurred lip look, where she artfully sculpts her clients' lips with various shades of lip liners. However, you needn't have the artistic hand of a makeup artist to get in on the look. Merit's Signature Lip Blush and Violette_FR's Bisou Balm come in sheer, matte finishes that add a tint of colour that gives a just-bitten effect, whilst Rhode's Peptide Lip Shade effortlessly contours the lips for an effortlessly blurred result.
Shop the Trend:
3. Skincare Hybrids
With the promise of warmer days ahead, it's only natural that we want to trade in the heavier foundations of winter for lighter bases come spring. And, thankfully, skin tint, tinted SPF and concealer formulations are harder-working than ever before. This new wave of skincare-makeup hybrids does so much more than conceal. Take Outside In's Silk Serum Foundation, which applies like a weightless serum but self-sets into a light-diffusing base, whilst delivering hyaluronic acid and niacinamide to the skin to hydrate and strengthen the skin barrier. Or Merit's The Uniform, which has become our beauty team's go-to tinted SPF of choice as the temperatures rise.
Shop the Trend:
4. Suede Bronzer
Just like cream blushers, cream bronzers have dominated our makeup bags for seasons now. However, it's impossible to ignore the flurry of baked bronzers launching for spring 2026. Powder bronzers often get a bad rap for being heavy or glitzy, but newer formulations are more buttery and softer than ever before. Rather than looking flat on the skin, they instead lend the skin a matte, suede-like texture and soft-focus finish. The best part? Once the weather warms up, they won't melt off your skin!
Shop the Trend:
5. Au Natural Brows
Between the rise in brow lamination and fluctuating brow trends of the past decade (we've had 2016 dip-brows, bleached brows and the return of the skinny '90s brow), it seems we're finally leaving our brows well and truly alone this season. Going hand-in-hand with the continuation of "no makeup" makeup or undone waves, I'm seeing more and more brows looking seemingly untouched, both on the red carpets and the runways. Besides having a great brow tech on speed dial, there are now plenty of brow pencils and brow gels that neatly groom and shape your arches to a naturally enhanced effect. Glossier's Boy Brow Arch and Merit's Brow 1990 brow pencils have some of the smallest nibs I've ever seen to mimic a microbladed effect, and L'Oréal Paris' Infallible Brow Lamination Gel coaxes even the most stubborn of hairs into place with lasting hold.
Shop the Trend:
6. Charred Eyeliner
As I write, Gucci's Autumn/Winter 2026 show is still firmly in my mind, where lead makeup artist Sam Visser sent models down the runway with heavy smouldering kohl-rimmed eyes that would be the envy of any party girl. After seasons of barely-there eye makeup, no mascara and next to no eyeshadow on the eyes, you can take this as your sign to pick up an eyeliner and have fun with eye makeup again. Is it the most spring-like makeup trend? Perhaps not. But it does feel like a refreshing eye makeup trend. If you find black too harsh, why not try a brown eyeliner instead? And you can't go wrong with a Victoria Beckham Beauty Satin Kajal Liner.
Shop the Trend:
