When I look back over 2025, I estimate I painted around 450–500 faces. Between weddings, special occasions, events, and lessons, it’s kind of wild to even comprehend that number. As always, I loved every single minute and every person who brought their energy to my chair.
What I adore most is seeing what people are drawn to, how requests differ across age groups, and the overall trends that seem to define a particular year. With that in mind, here’s what I saw again and again throughout 2025.
What I heard over and over..
“I’m looking for a natural finish, but with full coverage. Makeup that lasts but with skin still looking like skin. Mattified but with a glowy lift and I’d like my eyes to pop without being over the top”
No Problem!!!! Polished, Skin-First, Effortless.
So how do we achieve this. Here’s your break down of techniques, approaches and how 2025 looked through the eyes of a makeup artist
The Skin - Glow tox (Not Botox)
Prepping your skin pre makeup with lifting techniques such a facial massage, using a gua sha, micro current or EMS at home machines give a youthful movement to facial features. You can create a natural lift and contour to your features, enhance blood flow giving a gorgeous glow to your makeup that looks fresh and youthful.
Makeup should enhance expression, not freeze it. Avoid heavy baking or overly matte finishes that age the skin. Keep foundations and Concealor application light. Only cover what needs covering.
The Base - Glass Skin 2.0
Not greasy, not flat. Hydrated, plump, healthy looking skin. Think layered skincare, light-reflective bases with real skin texture showing.
How to achieve: Glass skin is essentially non textured, even toned luminous skin. Using lightweight skin tints or fluid foundations and contour with liquids as opposed to powders or creams. Super lightweight textures layered with stipple brushes as opposed to dense brushes or sponges that give fuller coverage.
Nima recommends: Et Al Radiant Foundation or Genosys Blemish Balm foundation. Liquid blush - Rodial Blush Drops or Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue Highlighting blush balm
Keep it light but Make it Last
How to Achieve: Apply your primer, foundation and Concealor and leave to settle. Move onto eyes while your base mixes and meshes with your skins natural oils. When eyes are finished move back to base, this is when you’ll set with powders and move onto creams. This ‘settling’ period allows makeup to dry down, to assess how it works with skin and once you set, it won’t budge. Apply your setting powder to fix, powder bronzer to contour and powder blush to accentuate cheekbones.
Once the skin is powdered and makeup is set, you can finish with liquid highlighters and glazes to give that dewy glowy finish. This approach is like building a solid structure to keep everything in place.
The liquid glaze at the end gives that ‘just had a facial’ glow but on a base that won’t budge. Spritz with any facial spritz to keep skin hydrated and help makeup to last.
You can spritz any hydration spray over your makeup and it will revive your skin immediately.
Nima Recommends: Poco Universal Glow Treatment to prep and prime skin before foundation. Finish with poco skin glaze in Rose Dew. Use Nima Brush ‘Smart Stipple’ to apply
Natural features… but with Pow
Soft sculpting with liquid blushes and highlighters, brushed brows, subtle lash definition and lightly elevated details like a glossy lip, soft liner and illuminated glowy cheeks.
How to achieve:
Keep the base sheer and perfected, then add structure softly. Soft cream contour blended high and diffused. Brows brushed, lifted and softly filled. Lashes defined but separated (never clumpy). Choose soft elevation to each feature of the face and keep everything calm and balanced.
Nima Recommends: Brow Aid Browtox for lifted brows that won’t drop. Kiko Maxi Mod Mascara for buildable, defined lashes that won’t clump.
Dewy Smokey
Paired with luminous skin you can never go wrong with a beautifully blended smokey eye.
The matte Smokey look is definitely back but done softly with Diffused shadows, lived-in liner as opposed to defined flicks and finished with glossy lids creates a soft natural looking defined eye.
How to achieve:
Use soft creams or satin powders and blend into the crease and up for a worn-in effect. Keep edges blurred, never sharp. Balance the eye with fresh skin and soft base so the smokey element feels modern, not dramatic.
Nima recommends: Hildun liner in chocolate or pecan. Shimmer shadows from Hildun Eye palettes give that glossy, grown up glitter effect. Hourglass scattered light glittered eyeshadow. Personal fave - shade ‘reflects’
Full Face but Fresh
Everything is there - base, blush, eyes, lips - just blended to perfection. No harsh edges, no layers of concealer, no cakiness, no over-baking.
How to achieve:
Layer lightly, hydrating primers, blend thoroughly and step back often. Each product should melt into the next. The blending of one product with the next should be seamless. Powder only where needed and keep finishes mixed. Soft matte meets glow for a face that looks polished but alive.
Nima recommends: Charlotte T Unreal Blush in ‘Rosy Glow’. Trinny London miracle halo illuminator in ‘Candlelight’ AYU cream highlighter in Radiance
Overall Vibe of Makeup Trends 2025
Soft-focus. Skin-forward. Youthful glow with grown-up technique. A very natural approach and a far cry from the triangle concealor trend or full angry bird brows we were seeing circa 2016. A stronger eye is definitely coming back from the barely there eyes we’ve seen since covid. Skin is definitely still the main event with peoples knowledge of their skin type and needs really being at the forefront, and long may this last. An emphasis on glow but with a bit more go! Beauty with a bit of pow. Exactly how I like it!
What were your thoughts on beauty in 2025. How do you think it might change going into 2026? Has your makeup application techniques changed this year?
