As you may have already noticed 2016 has welcomed all kinds of never-before-seen beauty trends and techniques. These unique crazes include things like colored eyelashes, detail oriented lip art, eyebrow tattoos, galaxy hair, and embellished hair parts just to name a few. Most unexpectedly, the latest beauty trend that is taking the industry by storm doesn’t involve one’s face or hair, rather it draws the attention to your ears. Nope, there’s no typo there, ear makeup is making its debut everywhere from high fashion runways to beauty guru Instagram accounts. Admittedly, we here at Lionesse were a bit apprehensive when we heard about the distinctive trend, but when numerous beauty media outlets began shedding light on the trend we knew we had to test it out for ourselves.

After some investigation, we discovered that ear makeup isn’t as new as we thought! In fact, the not-yet-trend was first presented by fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello in 2014 when he sent his models down the runway during none other than Paris Fashion Week. Models dawned bold colored graphic lobes which Tom Pecheux (makeup artist working the Anthony Vaccarello set) says were inspired by the ever-popular ear cuff. That was the first and last we saw of the ear decoration until now; that’s right, fast forward two years and Fashion House Louis Vuitton collaborated with makeup artist Pat McGrath to give the models ultra-glittery ear art for The Spring 2016 Opening Ceremony Fashion Show. Now a few months out from the show metallic colored earlobes and glitter kissed inner and outer ears are showing all over beauty forums and social media outlets. According to beauty and style experts, ear makeup is on its way to being the next big thing. That’s right ladies, going are the days of chunky chandelier earrings that weigh down and stretch your ears out, coming are evenings on the town of small gold hoop accentuated ear art.

Naturally, it might seem a bit, well, unnatural to apply makeup to anyplace other than your face, especially your ear! Luckily, the great thing about this trend is that you have total creative freedom over the look – you can apply as much or as little makeup as you’d like and still be on trend. When you’re ready to try and probably fall in like – because love is a word of commitment, and no one needs that in this era of ever-changing trends – with this about-to-blow-up trend check out the three suggestions below!

1. A slightly subtle way of testing ear makeup out for yourself is by outlining the propionate structures of your outer ear with a metallic colored face or body paint. If you have light skin and want subtle ear art then you should go with a silver paint, likewise if you have darker skin and want to lean on the subtle side, choose a gold paint. That said if you like the outlined look and want a bolder look than choose the opposite color.
2. If you’re one of the gals who love glitter, then you must give this hi-glam look a chance. Simply dip a large eyeshadow brush into a pot of finely milled body glitter and dust it all around the upper and lower parts of the ear. Don’t worry about symmetry here, the dusted-on the glitter looks the better.
3. For a geometric flare, use a dark colored body paint OR liquid eyeliner (i.e. black, brown, navy, etc.) and give your earlobes a “dipped” look. The end result should look as if you literally dipped the bottom ¼ to ½ inch of your lobe into a pot of paint…imagine the way chocolate dipped pretzel rods look. Once the paint dries, give your ear art some edge by wearing simple gold or silver colored balls or hoops.