7 Easy Ways To Achieve The Brat Summer Aesthetic Using Only Makeup
Two beauty pros share their best tips for practically instant brat-ification.
A smudge of eyeliner can go a long way. That much is true for anyone hoping to live their best brat summer.
Though originally started as an album (heyyy, Charli XCX), then a fashion trend, brat has morphed into an entire aesthetic, cultivating positive friendships and a carefree lifestyle filled with parties, frills, and sometimes confusing girl chats. Now, the viral movement has taken over makeup bags, with grunge at its core.
The brat summer beauty look is focused on lots of smudged eyeliner, glossy or undone lips, and plenty of mascara. It can easily be adapted based on the wearer and doesn’t have any routines or rules. The trend marks a moment in style that embraces unapologetic, IDGAF energy and focuses on the real (read: messy, chaotic, feral) you.
Brat girl summer makeup is like the end of the ‘90s and the beginning of the Y2K club girl colliding together to create this semi-grunge, party-girl aesthetic.
To help you perfect the brat summer aesthetic already in you, makeup artist Maxine Christians and Make Up For Ever’s senior manager of Pro Artistry and product co-creation, Eddie Duyos, share their top tips to achieving the trend using only beauty products — all for under $30 each, FYI — so you don’t even have to think about what you’re wearing (though, a white tee and biker shorts wouldn’t hurt).
Tip 1: Embrace The Combo Of ‘90s Grunge & ‘00s Party Scene
Nostalgia continues to propel beauty trends, dipping back into the fan-fave products and looks of years past, and it doesn’t stop at brat summer.
According to Duyos, “Brat girl summer makeup is like the end of the ‘90s and the beginning of the Y2K club girl colliding together to create this semi-grunge, party-girl aesthetic.” A vibe, if there ever was one.
Tip 2: Make Them ~GrEeN~ With Envy
If you can only master one factor of brat summer, make it the most eye-catching one yet by adding as much green (limes, neons, or sages preferable) to your makeup as possible.
“The brat girl is carefree,” says Christians, so if you’re feeling a way about a certain color, then go with it, but “bright acidic green” like Charli XCX’s album cover is the choice shade.
Duyos has similar sentiments about the hues, saying, “The makeup leans into messy looks, utilizing black and adding pops of off-color like lime green or acid yellow to liven up the look.”
Tip 3: Smear, Smear, Smear
Like Ashlee Simpson, Kesha, and all the electro-pop it girlies before Charli, any brat can rely on black eyeliner to be their go-to.
Duyos recommends investing in a waterproof black eye pencil that you can smear, smudge, and define, while Christians suggests arming yourself with lots of Q-Tips to clean up a snatched wing.
Tip 4: Keep Your Base Simple
Brat makeup is mostly focused on the eyes versus the face, so no-makeup makeup or lightly brushed-on foundation that highlights your peepers is the way to go.
“The base of the brat summer look stays the same throughout occasions, and should feature a neutral, hydrating foundation that lasts all day,” Duyos says.
Tip 5: Brat-ify Your Brows
If you enjoy trying eyebrow style trends, the brat summer aesthetic should be seamless for you. Brushed eyebrows, shaved-tail eyebrows, and Julia Fox-approved bleached brows are all fair play here.
Brush them up completely, lean a little into the grunge with some hairs going up, some going down; or go bold and dye ‘em all. Brat girls own all the style choices they make, so whatever you choose, do it with confidence.
Tip 6: Pout It Out
Whether you enjoy a bold lippie or sport more of an au naturel look, brat summer allows for both. Duyos suggests a satin to semi-matte format for the lipstick lover, or a lip liner and Chapstick for those who prefer the barely there vibe.
As a tribute to the ‘90s, line your lips (liquid eyeliner works!) with a dramatic color contrast to the base of your lip shade.
Tip 7: Feel Free To Color Outside The Lines
At its core, brat summer is about being true to yourself and not caring what other people think. Although these products can be helpful in nailing the foundation of the aesthetic, you can always switch out or add in any of your faves.
Remember, being brat is about expressing who you are and having fun with it, sans limits.
Shop Brat Summer Makeup Products
Sources:
Eddie Duyos, Make Up For Ever senior manager of Pro Artistry and product co-creation
Maxine Christians, makeup artist
