3 Editors Tried the "Clean Color" Pastel Makeup Trend, and They're Never Going Back to Basics

Watercolor eye makeup can manifest in many different forms: swirls of rainbow on the upper and lower lids, gradient shades of tie-dye, or flicks of color on the inner corners of the eye. For this rendition, we decided to go with the latter for a more natural approach.

"When it comes to makeup, a pop of color is my perennial mood board (more specifically, a bold lip with neutral shades elsewhere), so the 'clean color' trend felt like it was made for me," said senior beauty editor Kelsey Castañon. "I also always apply a brush of color to my inner creases — it's just usually an ivory or cream hue versus pastel — so the idea of swapping that for a more playful shade seemed like a fun experiment."

Before we got started, we applied the Lune+Aster CC Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 50+ ($52) as a base and swiped on a few coats of the (Power Your Pretty award-winning) CoverGirl Exhibitionist Mascara ($9).