The 'Butter Skin' Trend Is The Fast Track To Smoother, More Radiant Skin - Here's How To Create It
If you're on social media, you'll be familiar with the term 'butter skin'. For the uninitiated the trend, which depicts a smooth, butter-like skin finish, has been making waves online, with TikTokers showing how to recreate the soft-focus look via certain make-up techniques, smooth application and skincare steps, and experts now predicting it to supersede the 'glass skin', glossy and donut-esque finishes which have long been monopolising our feeds.
And with Google searches on the rise (there have been over 300k searches in the last month alone, according to Google Trends), and the videos multiplying, it seems butter skin is poised to become our latest skincare-make-up fascination.
Case in point: the fledgling trend made its way onto the red carpet, where soft-focused skin dominated at the 2025 Oscars. Everyone from Elle Fanning and Margaret Qualley to Anok Yai and Mikey Madison were all embracing the softer aesthetic, eschewing the high-shine skin that is often reminiscent of red-carpet beauty.
Instead, the stars opted for natural radiance – the result wasn't overly matte and one-dimensional nor illuminating and glossy but rather hydrated, fresh and smooth. Since then, famous faces such as Daisy Edgar-Jones and Dakota Johnson have also been making a case for eschewing the supernatural glow in favour of a softer finish.
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'The butter skin make-up trend is all about achieving a smooth, creamy, and radiant complexion that looks as soft and even as butter,' shares Chanel make-up artist, Anna Payne. 'Unlike the ultra-dewy glass skin trend, butter skin has a more natural, satin-like finish – it's hydrated and glowing but never overly shiny,' she adds.
How to create butter skin
As with everything, skincare is the first port of call for recreating the trend. 'To achieve this look, use a rich, nourishing moisturiser, such as SUBLIMAGE La Crème Texture Supreme, which provides the perfect base for a buttery soft complexion, applying concealer only where needed to maintain a fresh, skin-like effect,' shares Payne.
You want your skin to look nourished but not overly dewy, so be sure to use a sensitive toner to exfoliate the skin and avoid oil-based formulas or those that are too mattifying. Instead, opt for a hydrating serum and rich moisturiser.
Make-up wise, eschew glosses, highlighter and dewy finishes as well as any matte powders and opt for lighter, serum-like textures, such as skin tints, tinted moisturisers or foundation with a soft-focus or velvet finish, before using an invisible setting powder, such as the Hourglass Vanish Pressed Powder.
Chanel Sublimage La Creme
Multi-Peptide Rich Cream
Chanel Les Beiges Bronzing Cream
The Brightening Serum
Seamless Skin Enhancing Tint
Revealer Extra Bright Serum Powered Color Corrector
CC Water
True Skin Serum Foundation
A cream bronzer will also help mimic the soft finish too. 'Warm up the face with a cream bronzer, blending it into the high points where the sun naturally hits and softening the edges with your foundation brush for a seamless look,' shares Payne, adding that you can finish with a tinted lip balm and cream blush.
Butter skin has also started to appear on the runway – see Giorgio Armani's AW25 show, where models' skin looked buttery soft and radiant, and Hermes' soft and ethereal skin. Whether it's the runway, the red carpet, or TikTok's latest fascination with delicious beauty terms, we'll be seeing more and more of this trend this season.
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