Cyborg Skin

Meet the the futuristic follow-up to ​“jello skin” and ​“glazed donut skin."

When the folks at The Face asked me to contribute to their 2023 predictions piece — “What the internet’s favourite Substack writers think will happen this year” — a phrase, a trend, an aesthetic appeared in my mind’s eye: “cyborg skin.”

via “I, Robot”

That highlight, am I right?

As I told The Face:

In 2023, I predict that the skincare industry will continue to push consumers further from the purpose of life — AKA being fully present in your one wild and precious human body — with ​“cyborg skin,” the futuristic follow-up to 2022’s ​“jello skin” and ​“glazed donut skin”. Inspired by Metaverse avatars, AI art, and the democratisation of photo-editing software, cyborg skin will seek to flatten any and all signs of life (wrinkles, pimples, pores) into a one-dimensional approximation of perfection: skin with no deviation in tone or texture, finished with a screen-like sheen… perhaps courtesy of more ​“NASA-backed” skincare devices promising to ​“optimise” human existence? The look marks a cultural shift from self-objectification (emulating inanimate foodstuffs) to self-mechanisation (emulating humanoid machinery).

Considering Vogue’s recent roundup of the “9 Biggest Beauty Trends for 2023,” I think I hit the nail on its surgically-enhanced head with this one. The outlet claims a “perfected skin-care routine” is “the new makeup”; believes the “shimmery, futuristic, and ever-so-slightly affected era that was Y2K will continue its refractive reign”; and cites “Flash Makeup” — or highlighter inspired by “the effects of retro flash photography” — as a trend to watch. (And like I told Forbes last month, highlighting is an excellent example of how machinery informs modern appearance ideals: the technique doesn’t recreate an innate human feature but rather, the effects of heavy-duty Hollywood lighting equipment.)

You can read the rest of The Face’s 2023 report, featuring predictions from Rayne Fisher-Quann of Internet Princess, Emily Kirkpatrick of I <3 Mess, and Kyle Chayka of Dirt, here.

For further reading on the lead-up to “cyborg skin” (which, if it isn’t clear, I do believe will trend but do not endorse as an aesthetic goal), check out:

• Worshipping At The Altar of Artificial Intelligence via The Unpublishable

• Lensa AI and the Trap of Otherworldly Beauty via Jezebel

• How AI Avatars And Face Filters Are Altering Our Conception Of Beauty via Forbes

• Meta Face Is Coming via The Unpublishable

• Future Alien Barbie via The Unpublishable