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History of  Makeup The Evolution of Beauty Through TimeHistory of Makeup
The 2010s Era

2010s Makeup: The Face in the Feed

A camera in every pocket and a feed to fill, a palette of twelve neutrals, a contour kit sold out in minutes, brands with no counter — and, in Europe, a law that closed the market to cosmetics tested on animals.

The essayThe Face in the Feed

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A 2010s collage: a selfie on a smartphone screen, drawn in fine pencil and soft watercolour, shows a young woman with long smooth hair, sculpted and highlighted cheekbones, softly shaded neutral lids, long full lashes and a matte nude-brown mouth, surrounded by an open palette of twelve neutral eyeshadows, a contour kit and its angled brush, a liquid lipstick and its applicator, a lip pencil, a strip of false lashes, a teardrop sponge and a torn fashion sketch.
Commissioned illustration
2010 – 2019Feeds & Founders
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The 2010s Era: The Chronology

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In short

The 2010s opened with Instagram and Urban Decay’s twelve-shade Naked palette, sold contour kits and matte lip kits straight from their founders’ feeds, closed the European market to cosmetics tested on animals in 2013, and turned a forty-shade foundation launch into the decade’s argument about range.

The 2010s Era at a Glance

  • The FeedInstagram from 2010; beauty videos watched by the billion.
  • Palette & ContourTwelve neutrals in a case; light and shadow in a kit.
  • FoundersBrands sold from a following before they reached a shelf.
  • Settled in LawThe EU’s marketing ban on animal testing takes full effect in 2013.

In the 2010s Era

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Ingredients

What the face was made of