Gen Z Says is a bimonthly column chronicling the latest trends in the fashion-and-beauty space through the lens of Who What Wear's own Gen Z editors. Expect a download on the upcoming class of tastemakers, emerging designers, and shopping and style choices straight from the generation setting the trends.
Living a stone's throw from one of the most highly revered encyclopedic art museums in the world is never something I thought I would be able to boast about, but it's influenced my approach to beauty greatly. If I'm running low on inspiration, I can take advantage of The Met's pay-what-you-wish admission and spend a few hours haunting its pristine, marbleled halls in hopes of channeling the beauty reflected in the familiar faces of painting subjects and chiselled in the curves of classical sculptures. So it's not surprising that much of what I love in those unique pieces of art is mirrored in the timeless beauty trends I've been gravitating toward lately.
I use the term “timeless trends” a little loosely here since I believe that a trend is something meant to come back around through constant reinvention and smart marketing. The words timeless and trends are so frequently used to offset each other, but how else would you define the revival of beauty practices captured in a painting's strokes? When I see Pre-Raphaelite works such as John William Waterhouse's “The Lady of Shalott” or John Everett Millais “Ophelia,” I see the flushed cheeks, long wavy tendrils, and just-bitten lips of their lovelorn subjects, and it's clear to me why a number of current red carpet beauty looks echo the same romantic touches.
This spring, I'll be embracing my romantic, whimsical side with makeup and hair inspired by their legacy. I see it as an ode to the same ideals our beauty-loving ancestors enthused over (which are just as applicable to the iGeneration as they were to Pre-Raphaelite art admirers over hundreds of years ago). Picking and choosing which beauty trends to lean into can help you land on your personal approach to beauty, and Gen Z social media users are still looking to history for a hint as to which trends could be coming next.
(Image credit: Â Gilbert Flores/Getty Images; Noam Galai/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Getty Images/The Print Collector)
Beauty in Movement
If you're unfamiliar with the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, here's a quick rundown. Founded in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics. They celebrated unconventional methods of composition such as nature scenes, vivid colors, and sharp-focus painting techniques, and romanticism drawn from medieval imagery.
Two of its most famous members, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, penned the brotherhood's early doctrines and “List of Immortals,” which included real and fictional figures (such as heroes from the literary works of Keats and Tennyson) that would be featured as subjects in the PRB's art. An easy way to understand how “Immortals” played into these artworks is by comparing them to our modern-day, social media–driven aesthetics. “Ophelia” and “The Lady of Shalott,” while fictional, are still heavily referenced as two of the most romantic directions of Pre-Raphaelite women.
While they recall an era long before that of Rossetti and Hunt, their ethereal appearance has leapt off the canvas and onto our For You pages. I started sensing tremors of throwback beauty trends when Anitta, Lisa, and Chappell Roan attended the 2024 VMAs wearing Renaissance and medieval-inspired makeup looks that took the internet by a storm. While Roan wore a soft and diffused metallic eye shadow look with a matte burgundy lip to complement her sheer Y/Project gown, green velvet robe, and sword, Anitta and Lisa opted for angelic, diffused complexions framed by floaty veils. At its heart, Pre-Raphaelite beauty is a reflection of both—combining deep earth tones with soft details.
Right now, we're experiencing the blend of multiple history-inspired beauty trends, resulting in the modernized versions of “old” beauty practices. This generation's enchantment with the beauty of yesteryear doesn't propel us backward; it gives us more ways to reinterpret throwback beauty trends. The circulation of beauty-centered “core” culture provides an easy way for users to access these trends without relying entirely on history books and art museum docents for guidance. It's more proof that the same generation that loved the Y2K beauty revival welcomes the return of trends from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
(Image credit: Revolve; Sephora; Ulta)
The Makeup
As we head into spring, my goal is to try my hand at Pre-Raphaelite beauty. I want to accentuate my natural features without adding too many steps to my beauty routine. When actress and painter Elizabeth Siddal accepted her role as Millais's muse by modeling for his “Ophelia” painting, she had no idea her face would become synonymous with the notorious Shakespeare tale. And yet, it's Siddal's longing eyes, flushed cheeks, and pink lips as she descends beneath the water's surface that helped define the art movement's prescription of beauty.
According to countless makeup tutorials posted under TikTok's #Pre-Raphaelite Makeup the key for achieving a Pre-Raphaelite-worthy flush is applying more product than you would by modern standards and blending from the apples of the cheeks upward to the temples. The goal? Creating a look that resembles someone who's just run through a field of flowers to a star-crossed lover. It's all about giving in to romantic sensibilities and enhancing your natural features without worrying about being overly precise.
Round faces, rejoice! This blush placement is made to enhance soft, gamine facial features. “You figure out that modern blush trends aren't flattering on round faces, so you start stealing blush placements from paintings instead,” reads the text overlaid on one TikTok video by makeup artist Bronte-Marie Wesson. Viewed over 7.2 million times, the minute-long tutorial features Wesson applying Pat McGrath Labs Divine Cream Blush: Legendary Glow Color Balm ($29) over the Nars Blush ($34) with the caption, “The Pre-Raphaelite flush, the love of my life.”
Pat McGrath Labs
Divine Cream Blush: Legendary Glow Color Balm in Peach Lotus
Flower Knows
Butterfly Cloud Collar Angled Powder Brush
In another TikTok video, visual artist Chloé Crane-Leroux models unique blush placement, applying it to her cheeks, forehead, and eyelids. She then contours her face to further enhance her Roman nose and high cheekbones with Stila Blush & Bronze Hydro-Blur Cheek Duo ($32). After she finishes her makeup base with the help of a paint brush, she completes the look with a berry-toned lip, winged eyeliner, and hair swept into a tousled half-updo.
Crane-Leroux's take on the makeup look requires minimal complexion products but still delivers a look that's so timeless it could have been taken straight from an oil painting (which, by the way, is another social media hashtag commonly applied to the beauty trend). I don't have a Roman nose, but I do have a broad, wide nose that I usually contour to give the illusion of a higher bridge. However, in attempting Pre-Raphaelite makeup, I'll contour to enhance the tip of my nose.
Stila
Blush & Bronze Hydro-Blur Cheek Duo in Cranberry & Mahogany
Stila
Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner
The Hair
To re-create the long, luscious tendrils of the Pre-Raphaelite ladies with my tight coils, I'll be wearing my hair in knotless goddess braids (a protective hairstyle that involves braiding hair with loose curls for a full and textured look). While I've worn goddess braids frequently in the past, I've yet to explore decorating them with flora and fauna like the painting subjects. Since I don't have anything to go off of for coily hairstyles straight from the art, I'll be playing into the softness and volume of my natural texture.
For heatless curls, try using a bathrobe belt. In a TikTok video posted under the name Molly Belle, the content creator models the process—parting hair into four sections, beginning behind the ears and down the center back. She then places a bathrobe belt on top of her head and pins it securely into place before braiding a small portion of hair from a front section over and under the belt, repeating with hair from one of the back sections. From there, she adds in more hair until the braid is finished. She repeats the process on the second side and then uses a second belt to do the same for the remaining back sections before wrapping them in a scarf and sleeping in them.
The video then reveals the result: bouncy and full curls that look worthy of a painting. To create a similar look without a bathrobe belt, consider opting for a satin-lined heatless curling set with small-medium flexi rods, or a silk curling ribbon or curling scrunchie to minimize friction against your strands and protect against frizz.
Sleepy Tie
The Sleepy Tie
Sleepy Tie
The Original Sway Heatless Curling Velour Ribbon
Silke London
Heatless Curler
Now that you know exactly how I plan on incorporating art-inspired beauty practices into my routine just in time for spring, keep scrolling to discover a few more of the products I'll be using and recommending to anyone who compliments me. Who knows? Maybe by this summer, I will have moved on to rococo lip colors and hairstyles bound to reach new heights.
Discover More Pre-Raphaelite Beauty Must-Haves
Lelet Sadoughi
Peony Flower Claw Clip
Lelet NY
Freshwater Pearl Spine Comb
Merit
Signature Lip Sheer Lip Liner in Coupé
Westman Atelier
Lip + Cheek Cream Blush Stick in Dou Dou
Clinique
Pop Lip + Cheek Oil in Black Honey
Explore More:
