You open your feed and realize your makeup look is already outdated. Douyin makeup was the thing—until “toasted makeup” took over. By the time you figure out what that even means, the internet has moved on to something that sounds like a café menu Latte, strawberry, glazed donut.. What else?
This cycle doesn’t just live in the beauty scene. It’s everywhere. The viral salt bread stall you queued two hours for? The oddly specific Y2K keychains on your tote bag? The color palette of your recent Pinterest board? They’re all symptoms of the same thing: micro-trends engineered to make you feel like your identity expires every few weeks.
Our so-called “unique” self-branding isn’t that unique when the algorithm is serving the same template to millions of others. What’s meant to be self-expression has quietly turned into the commodification of “personal” style—repackaged and resold until every niche starts to look performative.
And no, it’s not your fault. You’re not weak for wanting to keep up. The system is designed to make you feel like you’ll miss out if you don’t. The constant flow of new aesthetics, “holy grail” dupes, and “you need this” hauls is engineered FOMO at its finest. Combine that with an overload of information and an unstable sense of self, and you’ve got what we call beauty fatigue.
You buy things because they’re trending, not because they make you feel good. You swap out perfectly fine products for something newer, shinier, trendier You hoard dupes of things you never really liked in the first place. Your drawers get fuller, but you don’t necessarily find contentment in them.
Maybe it’s time to stop running. Maybe it’s okay to not be “on trend” every season. Beauty, after all, was supposed to be about contentment — not anxiety. Before you overhaul your skincare shelf or wardrobe again, pause. Ask yourself: what do I actually like? What do I want to keep? What can I let go of?
Curate, not consume. Try new things, sure—but make sure you do it with intention. And if you really want in on a micro-trend, do it because it speaks to you, not because it’s trending.
At the end of the day, it’s your call to decide what kind of consumer you want to become. Micro-trends aren’t the villain here. The real problem is unexamined chasing, when following the hype becomes a habit instead of a choice.
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