We Tried 9 Celebrity Beauty and Style Hacks So You Don't Have To (You're Welcome, We're Sorry)
Every few months, a celebrity posts a video of their "simple morning routine" and the internet collectively loses its mind. The routine involves eleven serums, a $400 face roller that looks like a medieval torture device, and the kind of effortless confidence that only comes from having a glam team on call. Millions of people watch. Millions of people think: I could do that. Millions of people cannot do that.
We know, because we tried. We also crowd-sourced attempts from our readers — brave, delusional souls who submitted their own photo evidence via our Instagram and a Google Form that got more responses than we expected, which says something deeply sad about all of us.
Here are nine celebrity trends that regular humans attempted to replicate, ranked from "surprisingly manageable" to "please seek help."
9. Hailey Bieber's Glazed Donut Skin
Difficulty: Medium | Success Rate: 12% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I look like I fell into a fryer"
The glazed donut look — dewy, luminous, almost wet-looking skin — became the aesthetic of 2023 and refused to leave. Hailey makes it look like she simply exists in a state of perfect hydration. The reality, as approximately 340 of our readers discovered, is that achieving this requires layering peptide serums, hyaluronic acid, a specific Rhode lip treatment, and something called a "glass skin toner" that costs more than a car payment.
Reader submission standout: A woman from Ohio named Brianna sent us a photo captioned "I used Vaseline and setting spray, I look like a glazed ham." Brianna was correct. We love Brianna.
The actual barrier? Most tutorials leave out the part where Hailey's team does this professionally, in perfect lighting, with products in quantities that would bankrupt a normal household. Your bathroom fluorescents are not doing you any favors either.
8. Jennifer Lopez's Ab Workout
Difficulty: Hard | Success Rate: 4% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I pulled something I didn't know I had"
JLo posted a workout video. It went viral. People attempted it. People discovered muscles they had never previously been aware of, in locations that seemed anatomically improbable. One reader from Austin described it as "finding out my torso had a third layer I'd never met before." He rated the experience two out of five stars.
The workout itself isn't fake — it's just designed for someone who has been professionally training for thirty years and has the discipline of a Navy SEAL crossed with a Broadway performer. Attempting it after a weekend of delivery pizza is, medically speaking, a choice.
7. Bella Hadid's No-Makeup Makeup Look
Difficulty: Medium-Hard | Success Rate: 18% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I look sick, not in the cool way"
The "no-makeup makeup" trend is perhaps the most elaborate lie in beauty culture. It requires: primer, skin tint, concealer, cream blush, brow gel, clear mascara, a very specific lip liner worn as lipstick, and about forty-five minutes. It is designed to look like you did nothing. The cruelty is intentional.
Reader Danielle from Chicago spent $180 at Sephora attempting to replicate a look Bella Hadid described as "just some concealer." "I looked like I was auditioning for a period drama about consumption," Danielle wrote. "Elegant but sickly. Not the vibe."
The tutorial that got the most engagement on our Instagram was a side-by-side that simply said: "Left: Bella. Right: Me after three hours. I have given up."
6. The Kendall Jenner Cucumber Salad Situation
Difficulty: Easy | Success Rate: 95% | Most Common Reader Comment: "Why did I need a tutorial for this"
In a moment of cultural insanity, Kendall Jenner posted a video of herself making a cucumber salad that went viral — not because it was impressive, but because she appeared to be cutting the cucumber with the energy of someone who had never encountered a vegetable before. The internet, correctly, lost its mind.
Here's the thing: readers could replicate this one. Almost everyone who tried succeeded in making a cucumber salad. The failure was existential rather than practical. "I made the salad," wrote reader Marcus from Philadelphia. "I stared at it. I thought about wealth and fame and the unfairness of the universe. Then I ate it. It was fine."
Highest success rate on this list. Deepest psychological damage.
5. Sydney Sweeney's Cottagecore Aesthetic
Difficulty: Medium | Success Rate: 35% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I look like I'm fleeing something"
Flowy linen dresses, sun-drenched fields, effortless romance. Sydney Sweeney made the whole aesthetic look like a perfume ad. Readers attempting to recreate it discovered three problems: 1) Linen wrinkles the moment you breathe on it. 2) Sun-drenched fields are not readily available in most American cities. 3) Looking "effortlessly romantic" requires an effort that is, ironically, exhausting.
One reader photographed herself in a linen dress in a local park. "There was a guy arguing on his phone nearby and a dog barking," she wrote. "The vibe was not cottagecore. The vibe was Tuesday."
4. Timothée Chalamet's Red Carpet Suit Styling
Difficulty: Hard | Success Rate: 8% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I look like a substitute teacher"
Timothée Chalamet has built an entire red carpet identity on wearing suits that look like they were designed by someone who finds traditional menswear boring. Sheer panels. Unusual cuts. Brands you cannot pronounce and cannot afford. Readers attempting to channel this energy at weddings, proms, and one reader's cousin's quinceañera had... mixed results.
"I wore a velvet blazer and felt very cool until my uncle called me 'the magician,'" wrote reader Derek from New Jersey. Derek's uncle was, statistically, not wrong.
The key ingredient everyone missed: Timothée's stylist, his bone structure, and a budget that exceeds most people's annual rent.
3. Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Morning Routine
Difficulty: Extreme | Success Rate: 2% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I don't have six hours"
Gwyneth Paltrow's morning routine, as documented on Goop, begins before dawn, involves infrared saunas, oil pulling, a specific meditation practice, dry brushing, and a breakfast that costs approximately $47 in ingredients. It takes, by her own account, the better part of a morning.
Reader Jennifer from Seattle attempted a modified version. "I woke up at 5 AM, did the oil pulling, gagged, went back to bed, and was late to work," she reported. "I feel like this is Gwyneth's fault somehow."
We're not saying Jennifer is right. We're also not saying she's wrong.
2. Kylie Jenner's "Casual" Outfit Posts
Difficulty: Financially Catastrophic | Success Rate: 6% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I spent how much"
Kylie posts photos in what she describes as casual outfits. The outfits cost between $800 and $4,000. When readers try to find "similar" pieces from more accessible brands, they discover that the specific combination — the proportions, the accessories, the way everything fits — requires either a personal stylist or a willingness to try on forty-seven items at the mall and buy none of them.
Reader Tasha from Atlanta described spending a Saturday attempting to find a "Kylie-inspired look" on a $150 budget. "I ended up buying two things that don't go together and a candle I didn't need," she wrote. "The candle is nice though."
1. Any Celebrity's "Natural" Hair Tutorial
Difficulty: Unknowable | Success Rate: 3% | Most Common Reader Comment: "I need to lie down"
Every celebrity hair tutorial on TikTok begins with the phrase "I literally just did this in five minutes" and then proceeds to involve a diffuser, three separate products, a technique called "scrunching" that apparently requires years of practice, and a level of patience that borders on the spiritual.
We received more failed hair submissions than any other category. We could wallpaper an office building with them. They were united by a single theme: the celebrity looked like they'd stepped off a beach in a movie. The reader looked like they'd been to a beach, lost a fight with the wind, and then tried to fix it in a gas station bathroom.
"I watched the tutorial four times," wrote reader Camille from Houston. "I have naturally curly hair. She has naturally curly hair. We do not have the same hair. I don't know how that's possible but here we are."
Here we are indeed, Camille. Here we all are.
The Takeaway
Celebrity culture sells the fantasy that looking effortlessly incredible is achievable with the right products, the right attitude, and a free Saturday. What it doesn't mention is the team, the lighting, the budget, and the fact that these people are, professionally, famous for looking good. It's their job.
You have a different job. You have a Tuesday. You have a linen dress that wrinkled on the drive over and a cucumber salad that turned out fine.
Honestly? That tracks. That's real. That's something Gwyneth Paltrow probably hasn't experienced since 1997, and we respect you for it.
