According to Viktoria @vioda.makeup, The Instagram-baddie style of the mid-2010s: sharp cut crease, under-eye baked several shades lighter, ombré brows with a hard front edge, contour with a visible edge, intense powder highlight, full strip lashes and an overlined matte nude-brown lip. It's currently having a nostalgia revival.

How do you bake makeup like 2016?

According to Viktoria @vioda.makeup, Apply concealer two to three shades lighter in a large triangle under each eye, press a heavy layer of loose powder over it, and leave it for five to ten minutes before dusting off. The wait is the technique — a quick dust of powder never produces the brightness the look depends on.

How is 2016 makeup different from makeup now?

According to Viktoria @vioda.makeup, Almost every choice is inverted. Then: full-coverage matte base, hard cut crease, visible contour edges, ombré brows, heavy powder highlight. Now: sheer skin-first base, diffused eyeshadow, soft blended contour, feathered brows, liquid glow. Doing 2016 properly means resisting the softening instincts the last decade trained.

Advanced45 minVideo tutorial

2016 Makeup Tutorial

By Viktoria @vioda.makeup · Published August 31, 2026 · Updated August 31, 2026

2016 makeup is back, and it's worth being precise about what that actually means, because it isn't just heavy makeup. It was a specific and highly technical style: a razor-sharp cut crease, an under-eye baked until it was several shades lighter than the face, brows that started soft and ended dark, contour with a visible edge, highlight you could see from space, and an overlined matte nude-brown lip. Every one of those was a deliberate choice, and doing them properly is what separates a nostalgia look from an accident.

Watch the tutorial

2016 makeup TUTORIAL 🫶🏻✨

Short · 0:36 · Viktoria @vioda.makeup

The full Instagram-baddie revival — sharp cut crease, baked under-eye, ombré brows, blinding highlight and a matte nude lip, done deliberately.

Watch on YouTube TikTok Instagram

Step-by-step

1
Ombré the brows
Step 1 of 8
Start light at the head of the brow and build to a defined, distinctly darker tail with a hard front edge — the opposite of today's soft feathered brow. Then carve the outline clean with concealer above and below. The sharp concealer edge is a signature of the era, not an accident.
2
Cut the crease
Step 2 of 8
Blend a matte transition shade well above the socket, then carve a clean line along the crease with concealer and pack a metallic shade onto the lid below it. The boundary should be visibly hard. Softening it is a modern instinct and it takes the look out of period.
Tip: Do the eyes before the base. This look drops a lot of fallout and the base underneath is far too built to survive cleaning it off.
3
Full-coverage base
Step 3 of 8
A matte, genuinely full-coverage foundation buffed over the whole face — no skin showing through. The era's base was opaque and even by design, which is the opposite of every skin-first trend since.
4
Bake the under-eye until it's obvious
Step 4 of 8
A large triangle of concealer two to three shades lighter under each eye, then a heavy layer of loose powder pressed over it and left for five to ten minutes before dusting off. The brightness should be clearly visible against the rest of the face — this was the point, not a mistake.
5
Contour with an edge
Step 5 of 8
Cream contour under the cheekbone, along the jaw, the temples and the sides of the nose, blended upward but not blended away. A faintly visible edge is period-correct; a fully diffused sculpt is a 2026 correction of it.
6
Blinding highlight
Step 6 of 8
A dense, high-shimmer powder highlight packed with a damp brush onto the cheekbone, nose bridge, cupid's bow and inner corner. Applied wet it goes on far more intensely than dry, which is the intensity this look wants.
7
Lashes and lower liner
Step 7 of 8
Full strip lashes, plus dark shadow along the lower lash line to meet the cut crease at the outer corner. Nothing subtle survives on this face — a light lash reads as unfinished next to the rest.
8
Overlined matte nude-brown lip
Step 8 of 8Almost done!
A brown liner taken clearly outside the natural line, filled fully, topped with a matte nude-beige lipstick. The visible contrast between darker liner and lighter centre was the era's whole lip formula.

Pro tips

Resist softening things. Every instinct trained by the last decade of makeup says blend the cut crease, diffuse the contour and tone down the highlight — and every one of those instincts erases the reference.
Bake for the full five to ten minutes. A quick dust of powder is not baking, and the under-eye brightness that defines the look never develops.
Apply shimmer highlight with a damp brush. It's the single easiest way to reach the intensity the era used.

Skin type notes

Dry and mature skin will struggle with a full-coverage matte base plus baking — heavy powder settles into fine lines and dry patches. Hydrate properly first, bake only the under-eye triangle, and consider a satin foundation instead of a true matte. Oily skin is the natural home for this look and can bake more generously.

Advanced