You can’t go wrong with soft glam makeup. This trend is a gorgeous middle ground between barely-there and Instagram baddie, polishing your makeup looks for an elevated version of yourself. No filter-like transformations or head-to-toe highlighter, just a few natural and versatile tones that enhance what you already have. We’re talking bronze eyeshadow to bring out your brown eyes, a soft nude lip to top off black-and-white attire, and so much more from the makeup hall of fame! Have no fear, (or shall we say, #BeFearless?) you’ll still get to have your full-face lineup and wear it too. However, it may take a hot minute to master this subdued and chic makeup technique... and Urban Decay is here to help.
Not to brag but, did you know that Urban Decay became soft glam pioneers back in 2010 with the launch of our Naked eyeshadow palettes? And the neutral eye makeup and glossy lips only went up from there. While we know you’re totally up for the task, just know that this makeup trend requires a steady hand and a whole lot of willpower. Since it’s defined by having no hard lines and expert levels of blending, you should know when to stop lining and defining and begin shading. Basically, how can you end up with a subtle champagne shimmer instead of going all in on a metallic halo eye? Or resist the urge to rock a blood red lipstick, and opt for a dusty rose instead? The method is simple but undeniably striking, and you’ll turn heads with every bronze, rose, plum, and earthy hue. Here are the best natural soft glam makeup looks and products you'll need — from eyeshadow, eyeliner, and brow gel to all the face makeup essentials.
Dewy skin
“Airbrushed” doesn’t have the same negative vibes as it used to when talking about skin, and we seriously love it. Modern makeup enthusiasts understand that a dewy, dreamy, and magazine-cover-worthy complexion is the best canvas for their soft glam essentials, and it’s only a few pumps away with the best face makeup from Urban Decay. First things first, there’s a big difference between a head-to-toe glow and a soft sparkle. The latter is a “lit from within” radiance that shouldn’t make any product too evident on your face. Instead, this type of glow can only come from a rigorous skincare routine and a touch of subtly luminous makeup. In the case of Hydromaniac Tinted Glow Hydrator, you’ll get both!
To get the dewy skin that soft glam dreams are made of, you’ll need to take care of your complexion with long-lasting hydration and sheer luminosity. That’s where Hydromaniac comes in, honey. This lightweight, glowy, medium-coverage foundation was made for your most sleek and chic makeup looks, leaving you with a fresh real-skin finish that lasts up to 24 hours. Yes, even when you fall asleep in your makeup after a night out (we’ve all been there!). The smoothing and blurring effect helps to minimize pores and imperfections, while the glow and hydration keep going for a full day. Are you obsessed yet? Start perfecting your glam makeup looks with this elegant, ultra-glowy, and gorgeous product… you deserve it!
Bronze eyeshadow
There’s no point in denying it; bronze is the holy grail of soft glam eyeshadow hues. The eyes are typically the main focus of this makeup trend, and a metallic brown makes nearly everybody look like a work of art. You know, that’s probably because art is exactly what you’re creating with a bronze glam eyeshadow effect. You sculpt, shade, define and paint with the Naked Half-Baked Mini Eyeshadow Palette, featuring six bronze-toned neutrals made for everybody. Of course, art is subjective, but you’ll rarely find a pro makeup artist who doesn’t sing the praises of a beautiful bronze. It works for everything from bridal makeup to work days to holiday parties and can be played up or down, depending on the occasion.
Want to master a sweet, sheer, and sparkling look for a first date? Use the shade Edible, a deep brown matte, from our Naked Half-Baked palette as a transition shade while you pack the gold to pink duochrome Rocky onto the lid. If you’re in the mood to sip pumpkin lattes and pay homage to fall in the middle of winter, the coppery glitter Breadwinner will give you a seasonal treat. There are plenty of ways to elevate or tone down your bronze eyeshadow look based on factors like your outer V, transition shade, eyeliner style, and the addition of Perversion Mascara. It’s overall subdued in true soft glam eyeshadow fashion but also customizable based on your comfort level… who doesn’t love that?
Cream blush, bronzer, and highlighter
If we had to come up with a tagline for soft glam makeup looks, it would be “upgrade, don’t erase.” Your features are already pretty fab, and you’re just trying to enhance them rather than going all-in on transformative techniques. You can still contour your jawline, nose, and cheekbones, don’t worry! You’ll just be doing it with cream bronzer for more under-the-radar sculpting. Unlike powder, cream products will melt into your skin instead of sitting on top of it, which helps to create a more natural contour. Remember how your boyfriend thought that celebrities weren’t wearing makeup on magazine covers or red carpets when in reality, they’ve just masted the art of soft glam makeup? It’s eye roll worthy, but also super impressive.
What if we told you that you could master the same makeup trickery with cream face products? Using tools like the UD Pro Contour Definition Brush or Ud Pro Diffusing Highlighter Brush, you can draw, blend, and bask in your newly chiseled but still natural-looking cheekbones. Layer them with a cream blush and highlighter for even sharper features and a fiercely glam (but still soft, of course) look!
Monochromatic makeup
We’ll tell you a secret — a monochromatic makeup look is the ultimate lazy girl hack masquerading as one of the most fab soft glam makeup looks, ever. Trust us when we tell you it’s a compliment, as the 10-minute technique is perfect for work or play. It looks elegant and intricate to the typical non-beauty-obsessed bystander but also allows you a few extra minutes of sleep in the mornings and stress-free day-to-day wear. You won’t have to worry nearly as much about fading, smudging, or melting when you can count the products you’re wearing on one hand, and it’s freaking incredible! Put the spotlight on every feature when you pick one chic shade of pink, brown, purple, and beyond, making a statement with monochromatic makeup.
Monochromatic makeup is a super-simple trend in which you wear the same color on your eyes, lips, and cheeks for a balanced and beautiful look. Your wrist gets a break from blending while you get to show off your lifelong obsession with lilac; what can go wrong? All jokes aside, whichever hue you choose to embellish your entire face is your call, but we can def give you a few pointers. Warmer tones typically define natural soft glam makeup eyeshadow — think bronze, burnt red, gold, lilac, and practically any shade of brown that you can imagine. Our best advice is only to choose an eyeshadow color that’s your ride-or-die, as this shade follows suit to enhance all of your favorite features.
Pink is probably the most common choice for monochromatic makeup, as it’s versatile and very chic as a lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush. A touch of color from our Naked Sin Mini Eyeshadow Palette, an assortment of six blush-toned neutrals, and Vice Lip Bond Glossy Liquid Lipstickin Text Em’, a decadent dusty rose, will definitely do the trick! Fun fact: Urban Decay revolutionized the soft glam game many years ago with our now-famous Naked collection. We knew from day one that there was nothing basic about bronze, ivory, and taupe eyeshadows, and released the best “NAKED, BUT NEVER BORING NEUTRALS” to prove it. Our brand has long blurred the lines between edge and elegance, and you can step into glam makeup history with your Naked Sin Mini Eyeshadow palette and more.
Brown winged eyeliner
Winged eyeliner is a timeless makeup trend that works for any setting — daytime lunch date, evening concert, or a natural glam makeup session that needs no excuse or introduction. Seriously, you can wear it anywhere. While you’ll still be rocking a fab wing that takes your eyes to new heights, the soft glam take on this technique has a few alterations. What are they, exactly? For one, you don’t need to use the blacker-than-black hue that’s been associated with edgy makeup looks for decades. Don’t get us wrong, you’re totally able to if you’d like, but we’d recommend that you experiment with other warm-toned eye essentials. Like brown eyeliner, perhaps? It’s the signature color of this beauty trend, and brown eyeliner helps to enhance your eyes like never before.
The versatility of brown eyeliner is unmatched, especially when our creamy, pigmented, and highly-blendable 24/7 Glide-On Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil are involved. These tools deliver incredible results with any technique, easily creating the best smokey winged eyeliner, siren eyes, brown graphic liner and more. Another great perk of this makeup must-have? It’s not just the brown eyeliner style that you can customize to your own routine, but also the shade. While black eyeliner is typically just that, you can choose endless brown eyeliners to bring out your eye color and skin tone. Mocha, wood, espresso, tawny… they all work wonders on your lash line to elevate your neutral eyeshadow!
By swapping out black for brown eyeliner, you’ll give your eyes extra dimension and intensity… and it looks freaking flawless with the bronze eyeshadow we already told you about. Grab your favorite brown shade of our 24/7 Glide-On Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil to start winging this natural soft glam, and don’t forget to tag UD on Instagram so we can comment a bunch of brown heart emojis!
Softly curved, never pointed brows
The brow goals for your favorite understated beauty trend are in a category all their own. There are no Instagram arches, laminated looks, fluffy brows, or any other beauty buzzwords you may know. Instead, like the concept of soft glam as a whole, it’s an insanely gorg middle ground between all these things that shows off your arches in a memorable way. As we told you earlier, overly sharp or hard lines are a major no-no in softer makeup. Instead, you’re meant to create smoother curves that come together in a subtle yet striking style. This rule is often enforced when it comes to soft glam eyeshadow, a tribute to both mattes and shimmers that takes your lewks to a new level of exquisite. Of course, it also applies to your brows, as the most important facial feature deserves proper recognition.
Eyebrows are what pull the rest of your look together, and you’ll need to take extra care to follow every curve. Simple and chic is the vibe, which we know that we’ve said a million times by now... but understatement is everything with this makeup technique! You can fill in and define your brows as you usually would with products like Brow Beater Micro Fine Brow Pencil and Brush and Inked Brow Longwear Brow Gel, with a few super important switch-ups in your routine. Don’t make your eyebrows too edgy, pointy, or blocklike. We know this is the go-to brow in the age of Instagram, but your arches should be more freestyled than on fleek. Trust us, you’ll get used to it! Shape them in an angled, but not rounded, manner that includes a slight curve at the highest point. If we had to choose a style that most resembles your soft glam makeup goals, it would be Ombré Brows… but you should still make them your own!
Glossy nude lips
Since soft glam makeup generally focuses more on the eyes than the lips, you may want to opt for a subtle yet sexy way to top off your look. Are you thinking of a glossy nude lip? Us too. This topper is equal parts magical, mysterious, and simply made for natural soft glam. The sheer color puts the entire spotlight on your bronze eyeshadow and winged brown eyeliner, as it should, yet still manages to turn heads in its own way. The sparkle of a nude gloss is beaming and beautiful, while the date night essential creates an air of mystery that may or may not make your date want to taste it. Love this for you. Add in the fact that a gloss takes about half the application time of your traditional lipstick, going on with a simple swipe instead of a full lining and shading ritual, and glossy lips will become your ultimate on-the-go favorite for soft glam.
Set your bright red and bubblegum pink lipstick to the side for now, and dip your wand into a sparkling favorite like the Vice Lip Bond Glossy Liquid Lipstick. This smudge-proof lipstick has a transfer-proof and food and water resistant formula to keep intense, saturated color for up to 16 hours... helping you avoid smudging due to eating, kissing, or other activities! It’s available in a variety of shade, including several nudes for any skin tone, to help you meet your quick and easy soft glam goals.
In This Article
Hydromaniac Hydrating Dewy Foundation
Vice Lip Bond Glossy Longwear Liquid Lipstick
24/7 Glide-On Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil
BROW BEATER MICRO FINE BROW PENCIL AND BRUSH
