LIGHTS UP

Devoted makeup minimalist Mattie Kahn plays with the latest full-glitter glam.

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SPARKLE IN THE EYE After more than a decade of no-makeup makeup, the revolt has set in.

I am someone who believes olive green can serve as a “pop of color” and that a full face of makeup takes blush, mascara, brow gel, and three minutes. I have not owned a bottle of foundation since I was 22. The idea of having to double-cleanse fills me with dread. I have never even streamed the Brat album in full.

So when I realize that the club-kid makeup aesthetic I most associate with Paris Hilton circa 2002 (silver dress, smudged black shadow—you know the photo) seems to have captured the divided attention of the TikTok generation, and that brands like Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, and Christian Siriano have championed the look at recent shows, I almost panic. But then I shrug.

How nice, I think. For them.

I’m 33. I have a child. Trends—low-rise jeans, Labubu dolls—come and go as I observe at a Buddhist-like remove! Let Gen Z tear up while attempting to ink their waterlines. Let them stain their hand towels with the remnants of YSL Extreme Volume mascara and dip their faces in shallow pools of crushed mica. I had a turn. Now it’s theirs.

That serene posture holds until I’m seated at dinner in the East Village in New York City and notice two women with shellacked, maroon-colored lips gossiping over a plate of lasagna. The effect is vampy and captivating. I instantly resent the peach-colored salve I have on. It seems dutiful. Anemic. I resist the urge to throw it out in the restaurant bathroom.