The Most Extra Beauty Trends of 2016

2016 was quite the year, and whether you got through it with style, or hopped a ride on the hot mess express and never got off, I think it’s safe to say we’re all ready to put the year behind us. As we say our goodbyes to 2016, let’s not forget the lessons we learned and, more importantly, the beauty mistakes we made. In preparation for 2017, let’s look at some of the worst makeup and beauty trends we saw and pray that they don’t follow us into the New Year.

Lip Embellishments

In 2015 we had the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, which had girls physically bruising their mouths in order achieve a fuller pout. The 2016 trend of lip embellishments didn’t harm anyone physically, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t detrimental in its own ways. How people who embraced this trend ate food is a mystery to me, but as the saying goes, beauty is pain. Some of the more popular embellishments included glitter and rainbow sprinkle covered lips. Some even went that extra, extra mile and used fuzz to achieve a velvet texture and look.

Weird Nails

Certain people in 2016 clearly didn’t want to do much with their hands and so a string of new nail trends was born. Early on in 2016 we saw “bubble nails,” which is achieved by placing larger-than-normal acrylics on your actual nails. The result is something that looks like you super-glued 25 cent gumballs to your nails. Others took it a step further and stuck fur onto their nails, which made it look like they were in the early stages of morphing into a werewolf. Impracticality aside, these outrageous nails would definitely cause people to think twice about shaking your hand.

Cheetos Curlers

Who could forget when popular beauty blogger Grav3yardgirl posted a YouTube video curling her hair with everyone’s favorite artificially flavored cheese snack? After the results were surprisingly bouncy curls, the Internet went crazy as they tried to achieve the same look and a new fad was born. Although the result may be flawless curls, you’d definitely be sniffing that Cheetos residue on your hair for the rest of the day. Very extra.

Rainbow Everything

People in 2016 really went that extra mile to look like a unicorn had pooped on them. First we saw rainbow hair, which eventually migrated into rainbow eyebrows, and soon rainbow makeup. People on the Internet spent hours painstakingly applying eyeshadows and drawing colored eyeliners on their upper lash lines in ROYGBIV order, which made for a look that definitely had everyone tasting the rainbow.

Unconventional Contouring

Unless you’re a Kardashian and have a personal makeup artist that spends hours contouring your face to perfection while you choose which one of 250+ selfies to post on Instagram, contouring in itself can be a little extra. On top of that, if not done properly, you risk giving off serious clown vibes. In 2016, sculpting your face became serious business, as some used their contour colors to create works of art on their faces before blending everything out. Though the process was definitely cool, we’d still label it extra as hell.