The Rise of the Unicorn Trend in Beauty and Why We All Love It ...

By Rotem โ€ข

The Rise  of the Unicorn  Trend in Beauty and Why We All Love It ...

The trend that has taken over the beauty industry, coming in all shapes and sizes, makeup palettes, home decor, and lip colors - Unicorns in Beauty. Elle.com provides a timeline of the famous unicorn, and how it has gotten to where it is today in the beauty industry. Here's why we love the unicorn trend in beauty!

Unicorns aren't real, but for beauty brands, they're still a great investment. Witness the glitter trail of sold-out products inspired by the equine myth: Lush's rainbow bath bombs, Tarte's horn-shaped brushes, a pink face serum that Sephora can't keep in stock. (Once-free samples have hit eBay for $20 each. They've been sold more than 50 times.)

Unicorns frolic through fashion, tooโ€”notably on Alexander McQueen's exquisite beaded gownsโ€”but it's those who make makeup that seem the most horny. "There's a big resurgence of the '90s fashion, including pastels and crayon-like colors coming back around," says Jerrod Blandino of Too Faced, which makes a best-selling shiny lipstick called Unicorn Tears, made "for women who love to dream and have fun." They're also made for bloggers to kvetch: after a Unicorn Latte hit the New York Times, Jezebel proclaimed the trend a "beauty industry problem" while Racked called the fad a "borderline hysteria."

Thanks in part to Kim K's strobing, makeup labels have definitely hit peak hologramโ€”but this lacquered legend has been nearly ten years in the making. Unicorns became cash cows around

Unicorns became cash cows around 2010โ€”the same year Instagram was born.

2010โ€”the same year Instagram was born. Just as #tbt became a mandatory Thursday activity, niche beauty brands began mining the nostalgic vibes with small lines of cult hits. Lime Crime's Airborne Unicorn Lipsticks were a pastel favorite, while A Beautiful Life launched its I Heart Unicorns perfume the same year. "I Heart Unicorns isโ€ฏan ode to your teenage years," said founder Anthony Arthur,โ€ฏ"inspired by myth and the power of belief. It's where Barbie dolls and blacklight posters co-existed in your boudoir."โ€ฏIt smelled like Sweet Tarts, and Urban Outfitters couldn't keep the $54 bottles in stock. At the time, PopSugar's beauty blog was incredulous, musing, "I <3 Unicorns may not seem like the winningest handle for a perfume, especially given the fact that most fragrances trade on exclusivity or sexiness to sell." That lack of sexiness was kind of the whole pointโ€”by harnessing memories of childhood play, instead of abstract (and probably unfulfilled) adult desire, pro-pony beauty hauls allowed young women to explore ideas of girlhood and fantasy separate from sex and the traditional male gazeโ€”and more on their own terms.

But Millennial American girls had unicorns in their lives way before 2010. The phenomenon really started for us (and our Gen X babysitters) back in the '80s, when an animated movie called The Last Unicorn hit theaters, and later, Saturday morning cartoon screens. Starring Mia Farrow and Alan Alda, the cartoon followed a hapless wizard named Schmendrick as he tried to rescue the last unicorn in the world. To protect her from an evil male demon called The Red Bull, Schmendrick turns her (without consent) into an unreasonably beautiful human womanโ€”a totally naked one scrambling to cover her unwanted new breasts with a mane of white-blonde hair. Film critic Britt Hayes likened the scene to sexual assault, and droves of web stories affirm the movie both fascinated and fucked up pre-K girls nationwide. (Several years ago, Soho House LA had a daytime screening of the movie. Ostensibly for children, the event drew dozens of 20-something women trying to confirm the movie really was as bizarre as we remembered. The consensus, as well as the bar tab, was unusually high.)

Unicorns are beautiful and strong and cool with it all, like the women we're told we can be, but never feel like we are.

Then there was My Little Pony, the cartoon show and toy series that galloped through the '80s and '90s with dozens of unicorns in its stable of protagonistsโ€”and, as sociologist Ellen Reiter notes, "[a] fictional world in which females are dominant." In fact, My Little Pony was essentially the first TV show created exclusively for girls, with Rainbow Brite, Jem, and She-Ra coming after its success. And while the original Equestria may have been pastel-shaded and crammed with giggles, Reiter notes its problem-solving strategies were remarkably progressive. Instead of "vanquishing" bad guys, the heroines dealt with their villains (most of whom were also female) by empathizing, aiding, and reforming the pissy pony in question, essentially welcoming her as part of their group. In Reiter's words, "Rather than reinforcing [violence], My Little Pony emphasizes the importance of a loyal community of females." Culture critic Peggy Orenstein says unicorns and ponies represent agency for little girls ("they're active; they're all sources of power and motion and inspiration") and, lest we forget, the unicorns in Harry Potter would only allow themselves to be touched by witches. (Sorry, Draco!)

Could those cartoon unicorns and their pro-girl, anti-bully messagingโ€”along with the Last Unicorn's unintended, but very much felt, sexual undertonesโ€”still be lodged into our collective conscious today? "Obviously," says designer Lyz Olko, when I ask her about it over drinks. "I mean, that movie is part of the reason I have white-blonde hair down to my butt." And the other part of the reason would beโ€ฆ? "I like unicorns because they own and appreciate their femaleness, but they're also very powerful. They're not afraid to fight or defend themselves, and they're seen as pretty in a very traditionally female way. They won't apologize for being girly or beautiful. They just are." Unicorns are beautiful and strong and cool with it all, like the women we're told we can be, but never feel like we are. They give no fucks, and it makes them flawless. For a woman buying beauty products, is there anything more mythical than that?

UNICORN WORSHIP: A TIMELINE

401 BC
fish, brand, illustration, logo, Ancient medical scholar Ctesias travels to India and buys "unicorn horn" (probably from a rhino). He claims it keeps the wives of his royal clients "eternally young." He's wrong.

1577
pink, head, organ, magenta, album cover, Queen Elizabeth I receives a "unicorn horn," really an ivory narwhal tusk, from a sea captain. She decides it's her ultimate status accessory and stores it with the crown jewels. It's destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's cronies in 1660, due to its association with witchcraft. (Read: female power.)

1860
unicorn, animal figure, fictional character, figurine, horse like mammal, Due to their association with purity and maidenhood, unicorns are popular motifs on Victorian-era accessories like jewelry boxes, brooches, and rings.

1940
cartoon, illustration, Fantasia debuts pastel unicorns in their Pastoral Suite vignette, alongside nude cartoon nymphs inspired by starlets like Jean Harlow.

1984
cartoon, play, illustration, My Little Pony introduces unicorns to their toy line. Each comes with a sparkly plastic brush for manes, tails, and pre-school girl braids.

1991
balloon, toy, circle, easter egg, Lisa Frank unicorns stampede across barrettes, sweatshirts, notebooks, andโ€”eventuallyโ€”lip gloss and nail polish tubes.

2008
pink, lip, product, lipstick, cosmetics, Lime Crime introduces its Born Unicorn lipstick, which becomes a cult best seller and helps spark the indie beauty movement.

2010
product, cosmetics, brand, logo, hand, I Heart Unicorns perfume launches at A Beautiful Life.

2010
hair, face, clothing, pink, purple, Bleach London opens its first salon, offering "unicorn hair" (aka pastel dip-dyes) to early adopters like Alexa Chung and Georgia May Jagger.

2011
pink, cartoon, organ, human body, illustration, Lady Gaga chooses sparkly unicorns for her Born This Way album art.

2013
clothing, head, hairstyle, toy, costume, Sophia Webster dresses up all her models as glitter-covered unicorns during London Fashion Week; Lulu Kennedy launches a sold-out line of $600 unicorn sweaters the same season.

2014
text, logo, font, product, diagram, The New York Times calls hard-to-find beauty products "unicorn pee." The story goes viral, mostly because the NYT printed the word "pee."

2014
face, hair, blond, clothing, nose, Aura Friedman calls platinum blondes like Soo Joo Park and Sky Ferreira "unicorns;" both become Saint Laurent muses for the season.

2015
face, hair, nose, eyelash, lip, Jeffrey Starr launches Unicorn Blood lipstick, a deep red matte shade that doesn't sparkle or glow. Suddenly, anything / everything can be named unicornโ€”not just holographic tints.

2016
pink, product, cosmetics, organ, eye, Tarte, Too Faced, and Lush are among the dozens of beauty brands with sold-out unicorn beauty products, and a unicorn latte appears in (where else?) Brooklyn.

2017
product, BioBelle creates a holographic unicorn face mask;; Starbucks creates the unicorn frappuccino; we officially give up.

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