How the Internet Turned Beauty Into a Hobby

Beauty Hobbies You Can Try at Home

Create a Full Glam Look Just for Fun

Whenever we’re itching to play with a new makeup stash, or want to test out looks for a big upcoming event, our experimentation no longer goes to waste. Thanks to the rise of transitional before-and-after videos, our “full glam with nowhere to go” has a home on the internet. We start out bare-faced, and then use a TikTok transition sound to reveal our dramatic makeover.

Film a Get Ready With Me (GRWM)

In the heyday of YouTube, beauty gurus dominated the app by taking viewers through unfiltered, organic makeup tutorials. Whether it was tips and tricks or product reviews, subscribers watched as their favorite creators experimented with makeup and techniques. Nowadays, GRWM videos have transitioned into more casual storytimes and chit-chats, with makeup application serving as a visual accompaniment to the conversation. We really saw this shift in 2023, when Alix Earle brought the new beauty hobby mainstream. Now, the product details themselves are often totally eliminated from the chat altogether.

Organize Your Beauty Collection

Some call it overconsumption, others call it content. Either way, stacking products in color-coded order, or by brand or product type has led to a whole new level of beauty hobbies. In the earlier days of the pandemic, users showed flatlays of beauty products they had in excess. But now, they’ve taken that vision in a more dimensional direction with ASMR-driven organizational videos (and a lot more stuff).

Make ASMR Beauty Videos

Click, clack, tap, snap. Those are the sounds you’re likely to hear if you scroll the #beautytok section of TikTok. Applying makeup and skincare today is equal parts about sensorial satisfaction as it is efficacy.

“Every squeeze, swipe, pump, peel, twist, and tap has the potential to become content,” Cherry Bomb Creative founder Sam Kantrow recently told us. “We are paying more attention, but brands are paying attention, too. They know the product is no longer experienced only in someone’s bathroom. It’s experienced in a feed, in a hand, on camera, under a ring light, with the sound turned way up. The unboxing is the first impression, texture is the proof, and the applicator is the performance.”

Swatch Your Makeup Collection

Makeup swatches used to be limited to the inside of a clear arm. They were typically used to determine pigment or how a color appeared outside of its packaging—often stenciled in for a fun visual element. Now, content creators of color are using them to determine shade inclusivity, acne-prone users create them to see how makeup appears on textured skin, and everyday users swatch to determine how a product dries down.

Why Beauty Has Become More Than Just a Routine

Skincare and makeup routines are no longer limited to functionality. The rise of social media has made way for far more creativity, experimentation, and unique opportunities to make use of our beauty products. Instead of waiting around to dive into a new Sephora haul, all we have to do is pop onto the internet and join a beauty-loving content community.