There is a new mood sweeping goth TikTok this week, and it is not another lash length or another shade of black eyeliner. It is restraint. Creators are calling it monochromatic makeup: one colour family, worn from lid to lip to cheek, with nothing else competing for attention. Think of it as your whole face speaking a single dialect. It is quieter than trad goth, moodier than a basic smoky eye, and honestly, it might be the most flattering thing to happen to alt makeup all year. 🖤
The appeal is simple. When every product on your face lives in the same colour family, your features blend into one cohesive, almost painterly look rather than reading as "eyes, then cheeks, then lips" as separate decisions. It photographs beautifully, it takes ten minutes once you know the order of operations, and it is endlessly adaptable: go rust and terracotta for autumn energy, or cocoa and berry if you want something moodier for evening. Here is how we would build it.
Step 1: Start with a clean, even base
Monochrome only works if your skin is doing the quiet, even thing underneath it. Buff your usual base into skin with the BASEBLEND Pro Makeup Sponge, dampened first so it presses product in rather than sitting on top. You want a soft, blurred canvas, not a mask, because the colour is going to do all the talking.
Step 2: Pick your one shade family
This is the only real decision you need to make. For a warmer, autumnal take, we reached for terracotta. For something moodier and more nocturnal, cocoa works just as well. Both live in our Smoulder Eyeliner Pencil in Terracotta and Smoulder Eyeliner Pencil in Cocoa, and both are soft enough to double as cream shadow once you smudge them with a fingertip.
Step 3: Build the eye first
Line as close to the lash line as you can, then immediately smudge outward with a fingertip or a small brush before it sets. Keep pushing the pencil up into a soft, low smoke rather than a sharp wing. There is no need for precision here. The whole point of this trend is that it looks a little undone, like the colour arrived on its own rather than being applied with a brush plan.
Step 4: Let the same tone flush your cheeks
Sweep a powder blush in the same family high on the cheekbones and blend it down and out, almost as if the colour from your eyes has bled downward. Our Second Skin Powder Blush in Dusty Rose sits beautifully alongside the terracotta liner without fighting it. If you went cocoa on the eyes, a slightly deeper flush keeps everything reading as one continuous story.
Step 5: Finish the lips in the same universe
This is where the whole look clicks into place. Swipe on a tinted lip oil in a shade that sits right next to your eye and cheek colour rather than matching it exactly. Our Embalming Lip Oil in Mortician gives a deep, brownish berry wash with a glassy finish that keeps the whole face from feeling too matte or too flat.
Step 6: One point of light
Monochrome does not mean matte and lifeless. Sweep a single duochrome shade from our Moonchild Highlighter Palette along the very top of the cheekbone, just enough to catch candlelight or a ring light. It is the one moment of shimmer allowed in an otherwise deliberately restrained look.
Step 7: Lock it in
Because so much of this look relies on smudged, blended edges, a good setting spray matters more than usual. A few mists of Mosh Proof Setting Spray will keep the whole tonal effect exactly where you put it, whether you are heading to a gig, a graveyard picnic, or just your local coffee shop for an iced americano and a moody selfie.
As ever, every product mentioned here is vegan and cruelty free, made for creatures of the night who still care where their makeup comes from. Try it in rust, try it in cocoa, try it in whatever moody little corner of the colour wheel calls to you this week, and tag us when you do. We would love to see your version of one colour, worn beautifully. 🦇