Sharing is caring: @cosme’s top 3 Japanese beauty trends for 2019
For finding Japanese cosmetics and beauty products that really work, @cosme is the review site you trust. If an item’s not rated high enough there by other users, may as well save your cash.
As well as revealing the top-rated product lists in every category, @cosme tells us what trended each year… and makes predictions for next year’s big hits. (Which we’ll go buy, obvs.)
2018’s main trends in Japan included: ‘blue base’/’yellow base’ skin correction, beautiful butt training, lavender-coloured everything, and makeup-fixing face mist. It’s been an interesting year from head to toe.
So what are the 2019 ‘Trending Next Three’?
Men’s beauty
‘Makeup for men’ was slowly, officially becoming a thing in Japan during 2018. We covered it a little with our blog post on FIVEISM x THREE. Clean design, bold naming, and more shades than some women’s brands.
Other brands on the bandwagon: Bulk Homme, Zigen, Aqua Moix, Aesop, and Proud Men. And that’s not counting all the ones that just shoved ‘for men’ on the end of their name. Looking at you, Nivea and Clinique.
If 2018 marked the emergence of this trend, @cosme says 2019’s gonna be the peak. ‘Manscara’ and ‘guyliner’ could become old, seriously uncool words we never use any more.
Sounds good to us. In an ideal world, there wouldn’t still be ‘makeup for men’ and ‘makeup for women’. But these ideas and new companies are inventive, and progressive, and so (for now) we’ll take it.
Which brings us to…
Shared cosmetics
Can you imagine sharing foundation and mascara with your partner, or your family? Japanese makeup brands want you to start doing that in 2019.
This trend started when people finally realised that the basics – moisturiser, toner, sunblock, hairspray – are universal. And it’ll keep on trending til every product’s treated that way, even nail polish and brow pencils.
Unisex shareable cosmetics make so much sense for cost-conscious couples. Save money on makeup by buying 1 item instead of 2, and enhance kawaii pair looks with matching (identical) lipstick or blush.
But you’ve got to agree on which cosmetics to get, and how to use them fairly and effectively. We… we can see this going badly otherwise.
Muscle training glamour
Also known as ‘making workouts look way less sweaty on Instagram’. (And Twitter, where the ‘筋トレグラマー‘ hashtag‘s in constant use.)
Those post-gym pics of ripped bods are getting more artsy by the day. Fitness buffs now make clever use of photography angles and filters, to add sculpting, definition, shadows and contour to their flex selfies.
The name’s a smart combi of ‘glamour’ (classy pics) and the ‘-grammer’ in Instagrammer. Oh yeah, and ‘glamour’ is Japanese slang for ‘big chest’ too… what a coincidence.
We can get behind a a trend that inspires people to get fit and share body positivity. Is it gonna inspire us to finally sign up for gym memberships? Ask us again at the end of January.
New Year’s (makeup) revolution
Which beauty and makeup trends from Japan caught your eye in 2018?
DEJAPAN helps you keep up with on-trend styles and new cosmetics releases. Bid and buy online, with our proxy shopping services for Japanese websites and Yahoo! Auctions Japan.
