Viral #ColdGirlMakeup inspired by Kylie Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski

December 14, 2022

The season’s hottest beauty trend is looking cold — right down to the chapped lips.

“[It’s] the new aesthetic,” Sophia Ciabattoni, 19, told The Post.

But rather than waiting hours for frigid temperatures to transform her soft pout into a parched pucker, Ciabattoni, a finance major at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, uses makeup.

She first covers her lips in a matte foundation, dabs them with setting powder and lathers them in a layer of nude concealer to mask their natural rosiness. The brunette then places a dash of red lip tint only at the center of her mouth which she blends in with her finger in order to create the winter-withered look.

To achieve the #ColdGirlMakeup look, college student Sophia Ciabattoni first recreates her lips to appear chapped. — To achieve the #ColdGirlMakeup look, college student Sophia Ciabattoni first re-creates her lips to appear chapped.

Ciabattoni then uses blush to make her cheeks and nose look flushed, adds concealer, finishing powder and glossy eye makeup to complete the look.

“It’s all about taking something that’s not that attractive and making it beautiful,” she said.

“Cold Girl Makeup” is trending with Gen Zers and young millennials. On TikTok, #ColdGirlMakeup has over 52.5 million views with posts extolling the beauty of matte foundation, rosy cheeks and noses and lips that appear kissed by wind and frost.

Zoe Kim Kenealy, 26, claims to have invented the trend after seeing A-Listers like Emily Ratajkowski and Kylie Jenner looking icy hot.

Emily Ratajkowski served as inspiration to Cold Girl makeup creator Zoe Kim Kenealy. — Emily Ratajkowski served as inspiration to #ColdGirlMakeup creator Zoe Kim Kenealy.

Los Angeles beauty influencer Zoe Kim Kenealy first introduced the cold girl makeup trend to TikTok in October.

Celebrities like Kylie Jenner (pictured), Emily Ratajkowski and Hailey Bieber have inspired the cold glam fad.

“I was on Pinterest and I started coming across all these video of these girls in the snow looking flush with the pink cheeks, and I thought, ‘this is so cute,’ said Kenealy, who’s also responsible for popularizing the “#CryingMakeup” phenomenon that sparked on TikTok earlier this fall.

For Jessica Zhang, a 20-year-old business school student at Cornell University, the trend has a nostalgic appeal.

“When I do cold girl makeup, it takes me back to [my siblings and me] having rosy cheeks, a little bit of snowflakes on our eyelashes and chapped lips,” Zhang told The Post.

Cornell University student Jessica Zhang says the cold girl makeup glam reminds her of enjoying winter pastimes with her family as a child.

Her three-step how-to video on accomplishing the “snow princess” look has fetched 3.9 million views on TikTok.

“It’s not very complicated,” said Zhang. “First, it’s adding a cool-tone blush under your eyes, the tip of your nose, your chin and all over your lips.” She uses Makeup by Mario’s Soft Pop Powder Blush in “poppy pink” with a matte finish ($24).

Zhang's TikTok tutorial on achieving the cold girl makeup glow earned her a whopping 3.9 million views on social media. — Zhang’s TikTok tutorial on achieving the cold girl makeup glow earned her a whopping 3.9 million views on social media.

Zhang explained to The Post that one of her favorite features of the look is adding glitter under her eyes to resemble snowflakes on her face.

“Then I add a little matte pink lipstick to the inside of lips, and at the top and bottom [indents] of my lips and blend it out with my finger for contour,” continued Zhang, who gets the job done with her trusty Generation G blotted lipstick by Glossier in “crush” — a hot raspberry hue ($18).

Finally, she places “blossom glow” MegaGlo highlighting powder from Wet n Wild ($6.49) at the inner corners and underlining of her eyes and at the top of her nose. She also adds a swipe of 3CE Eye Switch glitter ($14.50) as eyeliner to imitate the shimmer of fresh snowflakes on her face.

“Anybody can do it,” said Zhang, an Asian American. “This looks good on everyone.”

Makeup and skincare trendsetter Suraqa Noor was motivated to re-create the cold girl look because she wanted to inspire others.

Noor, from Tornoto, says the cold girl look can be artfully accomplished by people of all color, shades and ethnicities.

Suraqa Noor, a Toronto skincare influencer of Bengali descent, agrees. She’s gotten over over 692,000 TikTok views with an instructional video showing that looking cold isn’t just for pale white women.

To brighten her face she uses Dior Forever skin concealer ($38) near her eyes, and on her cheeks and nose. And to reduce shine she pats her skin with Huda Beauty’s easy-bake setting powder ($35). Then she uses Merit Beauty’s Flush Balm cheek tint in color “cheeky” ($28) to falsify a wind-chilled mug.

“It is a little harder to show the ‘cold’ look on darker skin,” she said. “But it is universally doable and beautiful.”