Remember back in 2013 when the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was at its absolute peak? For many of us who were teenagers at the time and susceptible to the beauty standards set, the VS Angels were the beauty standard. Candace, Adriana, Lily, Alessandra, Tyra and Doutzen were the ultimate bombshells, with their bombshell bras and their bombshell blowouts and their bombshell makeup, which was replicated in YouTube tutorials by the likes of Charlotte Tilbury so that we could follow along at home.
The bombshells of the early 2010s had a number of physical traits that were both wonderfully glamorous and, largely, unattainable for the average woman. The perfect tan, gazelle-like limbs, toned stomachs, bouncy blowouts, and faces of literal angels. Most of these are genetic predispositions coupled with the kind of athleticism that the general population doesn’t exactly have time to engage in. But the makeup! That was something we could use to feel even slightly closer to the Victoria’s Secret Angels who walked amongst us mortals.
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It was bronzed, glowy, skin with shimmery warm-toned shadows to open the eyes and glossy, perfectly-pink lips. Inner corner highlight was not optional. Then, sometime around the moment Victoria’s Secret’s ratings began to tank and Phoebe Philo’s understated, fashion-forward Celine woman entered the zeitgeist, a vibe shift began. New beauty icons emerged: Kim Kardashian for her triangular contouring method and Kylie Jenner for her matte lip kits. Skin was powdered down, eyebrows “carved out,” and sharp winged eyeliner became an everyday staple.
Fast forward to today, and the baddie—not the bombshell—is the new beauty standard. The term “baddie,” which finds its roots in Black American slang and has since crossed over to mainstream online vernacular, is more about a mindset and sense of confidence than a specific aesthetic, though it usually conjures up dark-haired women with defined brows, smudged eye makeup and overlined lips. The rise of the goth aesthetic and ‘90s makeup has also infiltrated the beauty discourse, and the cool girls now take their makeup inspiration from It-girls like JT, SZA, Gabbriette and Charli XCX, instead of the VS Angels we have so much nostalgia for. The bombshell was for the male gaze; the baddie freed herself from it.
After the rise and rise of “Instagram face” and an increase in women surgically modifying their faces to look sharper, lifted, and more “snatched,” the current beauty standard is a face that has angles, shadows, and a tight severity to it and shows no signs of changing. But with the Victoria’s Secret show back to regular programming, should we brace ourselves for the return of the bombshell beauty aesthetic?
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Getty Images
If you are to look at what’s going on in culture, the answer is not likely. There’s been a shift towards embracing pop icons like XCX, whose seminal “Brat” album became an entire movement celebrating a “messy” woman. The modern brat is not concerned with looking bombshell pretty and innocent like an angel; the modern brat is sleeping in her black eyeliner, barely covering her eye bags, and leaving her hair messy. The trend pendulum always swings the other way, so it makes sense that fresh off the heels of the “clean girl” aesthetic, a messier, purposely-imperfect look has emerged as the new beauty standard—a direct reflection of the liberation from being freed from such limited standards in the first place..
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So where does that leave the bombshell, who is neither makeup-free and “clean,” nor moody and messy? Last year, the VS show—in an attempt at keeping things modern—swapped the bombshell waves for flat-ironed strands and slicked back buns, which was poorly received. This year’s revival, led by Pat McGrath and Jawara, leaned back into nostalgia: glossy skin, soft curls, the kind of glamour that feels familiar, if not exactly radical. It makes sense for a brand built on mass appeal and fantasy. But as we continue attempts to emancipate ourselves from the male gaze and traditional beauty standards, we have to ask: will the bombshell ever be the same again, or has she been forever replaced by the baddie? Because in the end, beauty standards don’t disappear—they shapeshift, mirroring whoever’s holding the power at the moment.
