Weirdly Pretty Trend Alert: Sticking Things All Over Your Face
All you need to know you learned in kindergarten.
Amongst the indignities one must suffer as a student, having your creativity quashed by "maintaining order in the classroom" and "not distracting the other children" has to be in the top-five worst. (Being pants-ed in front of the whole cafeteria is definitely up there too.)
But your first-grade teacher and her ilk can shove it, because now, gluing things to your face is not only cool—it is Fashion.
The history of this *serious* and *legitimate* old-new trend begins even before you were in smocked dresses with matching shorts underneath—here's the TBT-est TBT, featuring famed soul singer Nina Simone having rhinestones affixed to her brows and lids back in the day:
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So the modern question is this: If you're already using makeup to add angles and depth to your face, why not just bring some actual sticky-outty objects to the party? Especially when they're so easy to apply and so fun to look at? (And you'll be right on the sweet spot of a makeup trend that straddles editorial and Instagram and now, real life?)
Our advice: Experiment with pearls arranged in a graphic wing (seen above), fresh buds in a haphazard design, or even just holographic paillettes strewn everywhere. (Clear lash glue, tweezers, and a Zen mindset are your friends here.)
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But you know, and I know, and both our juvenile-delinquent former selves know that the most elegant solution of all: slap on some stickers, just like the ones you kept in your cubby.
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Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at Marie Claire. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.
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