Freckles are ‘in’ now—and people who grew up hating theirs have thoughts

July 8, 2024

Growing up with freckles, lifestyle and wellness influencer Vic Styles heard all of the standard-issue insults about the tiny specks: “Your face looks dirty.” “Could I play connect-the-dots with them?”

Having classmates zero in on her face admittedly got under Styles’ skin. She absolutely hated her freckles for years, and since she couldn’t find a foundation that fully covered them, she just had to live with the spots.

But things have changed: Now 38, Styles loves the constellation of freckles across her face. Instead of covering them, she looks for ways to accentuate them with her makeup, reports HuffPost.

“I let them live in their fullest glory, if you will, and I really love the summertime because they tend to pop a little bit more,” she recently told HuffPost. “I think that they’re probably one of the most favorite things about my face. I think they’re really unique.”

It doesn’t hurt that freckles are very much “in” these days. For a long time, freckles—essentially sun spots caused by overactive pigment cells—were considered blemishes in need of coverage or even skin bleaching.

As early as 1910, Pond’s was advertising vanishing cream to banish freckles, while in later years, people started lasering them off.

Now, people draw on freckles with makeup―or use broccoli as a stamp (inventive!) to achieve the specked effect. With the dorky Pippi Longstocking connotations long gone, some even get a freckled look with microblading—a semipermanent tattooing process in which faux freckles are carefully pricked across the cheeks (or wherever else you want spots).

Indeed, freckles are said to be Meghan Markle’s personal favorite feature.

And how does Styles feel about them being trendy now? A part of me is a little upset, maybe jealous, that this trend happened now,” she said. “Why couldn’t freckles have been cool when I was 13, when maybe I wouldn’t have gotten made fun of and had an insecurity about them?”

But as a longtime freckle possessor, Styles is also hyped about the trend. “It’s a fun way for people to reinvent themselves, to play with makeup to alter their looks in a nonpermanent way,” she said.

“And I love the broccoli trend. I think it’s very creative. Who would have thought that broccoli could make the perfect freckles?”

She added, “All of us should just be celebrated and embraced for our differences, whether it’s freckles, birthmarks, alopecia, vitiligo —whatever it may be.”

Research contact: @HuffPost