Lace Makeup Is Autumn 2026's Defining Beauty Trend

A scrap of lace, a dark eyeshadow, and a few minutes in front of the mirror: that is the entire kit behind autumn 2026's defining beauty trend. Lace makeup is the look of pressing pigment through an openwork pattern so the fabric's imprint stays on the skin, like embroidery without the thread. According to Pinterest's annual trends report, the aesthetic has moved well past editorial photo shoots and into everyday bathroom routines.

The search numbers behind the lace craze

Pinterest named "Laced Up" one of its defining trends for 2026, and the search data shows lace spreading across categories. Searches for lace makeup climbed 120% year over year, while lace nails jumped 215%, lace bandanas rose 150%, lace doilies gained 105%, and lace belts were up 55%. The beauty trade press has been covering the trend all year: BeautyMatter broke down the Pinterest Predicts 2026 beauty forecast in detail, and Professional Beauty flagged the look as one to watch for makeup artists and nail technicians, who can expect demand for lace imprints, applique detailing, and delicate line work.

Pinterest's global head of trends and insights, Sydney Stanback, said in the company's release that people will make the trends their own and put unique spins on each one, making sure that what is trending never comes at the cost of personal expression. That sums up why lace makeup works as a trend: the pattern is a template, and everyone stamps a different version.

How lace makeup actually works

Despite the name, lace makeup does not usually involve gluing real fabric to the face. As Paris Select Book explained in its September breakdown, the most widespread method relies on a visual trick: hold a piece of openwork lace against the skin, press pigment or eyeshadow through it, and lift it away. The lace design stays behind as an imprint. The only tools needed are a dark eyeshadow, a brush or a sponge.

The placement changes the mood of the look. On the eyelids, lace makeup stays delicate and can turn a smoky eye into something more structured. Moved to the temples, it becomes theatrical. Around the mouth it edges into lip art territory, which is where the trend gets its most extreme and most photographed iterations. The same principle scales from an everyday selfie to a runway photograph.

Meredith Duxbury and the creators behind it

Model and makeup creator Meredith Duxbury played a central role in popularizing lace makeup. Her handcrafted, lace-inspired eye looks spread widely across social platforms, making her one of the Gen Z beauty creators to watch this season. Before her, creator Charlotte Roberts had already turned the look into a full experimentation space, testing how far the lace imprint could go.

Both creators sit inside the broader "Laced Up" moment, which is not only a makeup story. The same Pinterest data shows lace moving onto bomber jackets with lacy collars, softly stitched bandanas, crocheted phone cases, and lace-trimmed accessories. The look is driven by Gen Z and millennials, according to trend coverage, and it reads as maximalist but gentle: expressive, tactile, and a little romantic rather than precious.

From Givenchy 2016 to Gaultier's lace lips

The idea has a runway lineage. At the Givenchy spring-summer 2016 show, under Riccardo Tisci's creative direction, Pat McGrath created lace masks that covered the models' faces and necks, deliberately blurring the line between makeup, accessory, and garment. A decade later, the same intuition has returned with far less ceremony. At the autumn-winter 2026 haute couture shows, Jean Paul Gaultier introduced lace lips: a look in which the mouth itself becomes a lace surface. Paris Select Book singled it out as one of the season's most singular beauty propositions.

That arc explains the timing. Couture planted the image, creators made it reproducible at a vanity mirror, and search data caught the wave. When Paris Fashion Week opened this week, the runways were already leaning into dark romanticism, the mood lace makeup rides on. This season's shows confirm how fast that romantic streak is moving from the catwalk into everyday routines.

Why it breaks with the clean girl era

Lace makeup says something precise about where makeup is headed after the clean girl era. That aesthetic spent years convincing people they were wearing nothing at all: perfectly even skin, near-invisible finishes, effortlessness as the point. Lace makeup openly claims the opposite. It decorates the face, demands drawing and texture, and treats the skin as a surface worth ornamenting.

It also fits the season's wider mood. Autumn 2026 already has its undone counterpoint in the smudged, skin-first look of tired girl makeup, and lace makeup is the ornate answer to that same impulse: less concealment, more personality.

The technique itself is simple, which is why the trend has legs. Paris Select Book's full breakdown walks through the stamping method, BeautyMatter's coverage details the Pinterest Predicts 2026 forecast behind the "Laced Up" wave, and Professional Beauty's report explains what it means for working makeup artists and nail technicians.