Spot the fake! While many women around the world use full-coverage foundation to look #Flawless like Beyoncé, others are taking serious steps to add freckles to their skin.
Unlike other extreme beauty fads that shine quickly and fade just as fast, this trend will literally stay with you forever. “Freckling,” as it’s professionally called, is a process in which a cosmetic tattoo artist inks natural looking dots onto the face that will eventually blend in with the person’s skin tone.
Montreal-based cosmetic tattoo artist Gabrielle Rainbow has spearheaded the trend based out of Canadian shop Imperial Tatoo Connexion. In a February 16 interview, Rainbow told Newbeauty she was inspired by her friend who was tired of drawing her fake freckles on with makeup.
After experimenting on herself, Rainbow now has a range of clients who typically tend to “get some in the summertime with sun exposure, but want them yearlong.”
Freckling requires a one-hour-long session, and they will generally last up to three years, Rainbow said, and added that “over the course of a few months, the color will soften dramatically and look more natural.”
It’s hard to pinpoint who exactly started the freckle trend, but Kylie Jenner, whose everyday makeup routine consists of a whopping 15 steps, started to embrace her natural freckles on social media last year, despite initial self-consciousness.
First posting a freckles appreciation picture on Instagram March 8, the makeup mogul posted another fresh-faced photo on May 13, writing, “when everyone is drawing on freckles, but you’re always covering yours.” While vacationing in Turks and Caicos on August 16, Jenner proudly displayed her natural complexion again in another no-makeup shot.