By: Soraya Herbert

With the new ways of communicating information, whether it be through news, email, or the most powerful one of all, social media, every day, there is a new beauty term or trend popping up on the internet.

Try decoding this passage:

While putting on my makeup this morning, I used my contour palette to snatch my cheeks, sandbag my jawlines, and added some strobing so my highlight would be just as fleek as my eyebrows. After beating my face, I was looking like a dime piece with my hair laid, and everyone kept telling me how I slayed my look. 

If that passage made perfect sense, then you must be a part of the beauty industry. If that passage had you considering everyone in the dictionary, then you, like the other 90% of people in the world, are not consumed by my beauty.

With the new ways of communicating information, whether it be through news, email, or the most powerful one of all, social media, every day, there is a new beauty term or trend popping up on the internet. It can be hard to keep up with all the new terminology out there. Though some words come and go, like the majority of the bobby pins in our life, some of these words just need some explaining.

We should start with the term that started it all, “fleek,” or, some may say, “on fleek.” The term fleek means to be “on point.”

• “Beat,” “beat to capacity,” and “beat my face” is when your makeup application is absolutely flawless. The makeup application process is also referred to “the beatdown.”

• “Crispy” means to be fresh out of the salon with fresh, sprayed-looking hair.

• “Snatched” can be referred to as shaping your face or body in a good way. To use this term, you could say to your friend: “Have you seen Amy’s eyebrows? She snatched in those eyebrows.”

Kim Kardashian-West had a big part to play in the spread of the terms “sandbagging” and “strobing.” Sandbagging is when you use a loose powder to sop up the grease that is left behind by the foundation. You should place the powder under your eyes and under your cheekbones.

• “Strobing,” on the other hand, is when you pull out all of your illuminators­­–powder or cream– to highlight certain regions of your face or décolletage where the light would naturally hit.

• “Serving face” or “Giving face” is referred to as the face that is usually made when you put on a serious face while posing for a photograph (most times, an eyebrow is raised or eyes are squinted).

• “Dime piece” is a term used when someone wants you to know that you look like a perfect 10 out of 10.

• “Laid” is a term most commonly used to describe one’s hairstyle when it is styled to perfection.

• A “Lob” is a term used to describe someone’s hair styled in a longer version of the trendy “bob” hairstyle.

With all of these terms, there is always one that means some type of negativity. The term “dusty” describes someone who is ugly or badly dressed (this can also be used when describing one’s makeup application).

When using the word “slay” in the beauty world, it is not when you kill a dragon; it is when you kill your outfit or when you succeed in something amazing.

For example, Beyoncé’s new album “Lemonade” was slain.

When life gives you lemons, you “bake” some lemon bars. The term “baking” has been around for years, but with the rise in the beauty industry, it has taken over the makeup application process. The process of setting your translucent loose powder by letting it sit or “bake” on your face for anywhere between 5-10 minutes. When you let the powder sit on your face, the heat from your skin sets your foundation and concealer for a crease-free finish.

No poo is one that definitely needs some explanation. To go “no poo” (or no shampoo) is a term for washing one’s hair without using shampoo and instead using a conditioner.

Makeup is a type of art form that people can manipulate into a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. To cut your crease, or “cut-crease”, is a technique when the crease above one’s eyelid is “cut” sharply to add depth to enhance the overall eye shape.

After reviewing all terms that have consumed the internet for the past few months, 15 new terms are now added to your personal beauty dictionary.

xoxo,