NYFW Introduced A New Spin On TikTok's Clean Girl Aesthetic

You glow, girl. That seems to be the motto on the runways during New York Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2023 shows, where, when it comes to beauty, the dewy skin is taking center stage. Seemingly ripping a page from the TikTok beauty playbook, the Clean Girl aesthetic and its signature luminous skin was the foundation point for a bevy of beauty looks this season. And this isn’t just a slight glow — we’re talking shiny, dewy, lit-from-within visages. In other words? Put your face powder into early retirement.

Glowing skin is always a mainstay on the Spring/Summer runways, especially during NYFW, where “model off-duty” beauty reigns supreme. But there’s a different thing happening this season. The shine is intentional and anything but subtle. You know how your skin looks after a bike ride on a humid day? Yeah, it’s that level of dew at the NYFW S/S ‘23 shows.

Shows like Alice + Olivia, Eckhaus Latta, PatBo, and Altuzzara have all sent shiny-faced models down their runway, bringing that Clean Girl aesthetic to high fashion. It’s not just with makeup, either. Skin care sponsors have been cropping up backstage, offering models mini hydration treatments before makeup application. That provides a gorgeous base to the makeup, allowing the skin itself to shine through.

So focus on your skin care routine and skip your mattifying products— ultra glowy skin is in. Scroll on to see how to nail the look, straight from the S/S ‘23 runways.

Altuzzara

Diane Kendal is the queen of shiny, glowy, lit-from-within skin, so it makes sense that she was the lead makeup artist at Altuzzara this season. Working with MERIT makeup, Kendal created the this fresh-faced look with minimal products. She started with a base of the brand’s The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick to give a natural-looking foundation to the skin.

But the hero products were MERIT’s Day Glow Balmy Highlighter and Bronze Balm Sheer Bronzer. Those two products worked together to get that gorgeous, summery sheen to the skin. A dash of Merit Shade Slick Lip Oil offered shine to the lips, too.

Eckhaus Latta

The shine was on steroids over at Eckhaus Latta, where models seemed to have a smear of Vaseline across their faces — and not much else. According to Vogue, makeup artist Fara Homidi swept multiple layers of Freeman Beauty Infusion Revitalizing Peel-Off Mask across certain models’ faces, giving a NYFW-meets-American-Psycho look to the beauty this season. So...permission to wear face masks out to the bar?

For the models who didn’t have this masking look, Homidi still opted for some glow. She used Saie Beauty’s Hydrabeam concealer and Sun Melt bronzer to add shine, albeit not the caked-on kind.

Alice + Olivia

Skin care was the foundation of the look over at Alice + Olivia, where models were treated to some pampering from Arbonne ahead of their makeup application. Esthetician Krystal Vigo gave the girls the Arbonne express glow facial, using the brand’s new DermResults Glow Cream to add a ton of hydration.

For the makeup, lead artist Elyse Reneau gave each girl a different eye or lip look. The one consistency, however, was the skin. “We wanted [the skin] to look really dewy and youthful,” she told TZR. The best way to do that is to start with the base. In this case, that meant applying Too Faced’s Hangover Replenishing Face Primer, which she also mixed with the brand’s Born This Way Super Coverage Concealer for a fresh-faced glow.

PatBo

Skin care and makeup also came together at PatBo, where models’ skin was prepped with Mario Badescu’s Hyaluronic Dew Drops for extra hydration. This provided a glass-like base for the makeup, which was heavy on the highlighter.

Lead makeup artist Charlie Riddle wanted a simple, glowing, youthful look to the skin (notice a theme here?) so he relied on the Stila’s Heaven’s Hue Highlighter in Kitten and Bronze, as well as the Heaven’s Dew All Over Glimmer for extra shine. The rest of the look had glow, too, from the smudged-out cat-eye to the liquid lipstick.

Brandon Maxwell

For the beautifully bare and dewy complexions at Brandon Maxwell, skin care brand Ourself prepped the models to ensure their skin looked radiant without any makeup at all — and judging by the runway photos, they succeeded.

So here’s to stocking up on highlighter next season...and wearing face masks to the function.