Let’s talk about the latest makeup hack taking over social media: broccoli freckles. Yes, you read that right. Makeup enthusiasts on TikTok and Instagram claim they’ve cracked the code for the perfect faux freckles, and all you need is a broccoli floret. Although I’m naturally weary of social media-viral beauty trends (I’m looking at you, hemorrhoid cream for undereye bags), I’m usually game to try them. And to my surprise, many have been successful. A few years ago, a viral TikTok video got me to start applying my foundation with a jade roller, and it’s still a hack I use every so often, so I was interested to see what the broccoli fuss was all about.
Everyone’s results that I had seen online looked great, but most of the people testing out the trend didn’t have freckles to begin with. I have them naturally, but once I put on a layer of base makeup, they disappear or look a lot more faded than I’d like. So, I decided to dive right in. But first, I needed to secure a piece of broccoli.
While most of my editor experiments start out in the bathroom, this one began with a trip to the grocery store. Since I knew this was going to be a one-and-done thing, I opted to stop at Whole Foods rather than Erewhon, because I wasn’t interested in spending my life savings on a piece of broccoli that I wasn’t even going to eat. Thirty minutes and a few dollars later, I had my broccoli applicator secured, and I headed home to get started.
Once in my bathroom, I grabbed the Tarte Sculpt Tape Contour ($36) wand and dabbed a bit of product onto the back of my hand. I use this formula to contour my face every time I do my makeup, and I find that it has great pigment and complements my skin tone well. From there, I ripped off a broccoli floret, dipped it in the product, and began applying it to my face. I started by positioning the freckles on just one side of my face to compare them to the real thing.
I quickly learned that a light hand was necessary for application; if I pressed too hard, the freckles just ended up looking like globs. It took a few trials and some makeup wipes before I really got the hang of it, but once I had the recipe down (aka the right pressure and amount of product), things drastically improved. The faux freckles looked great; they were more pronounced than my real freckles, but they looked pretty real and cute, if I do say so myself.
Overall, the method worked, and it was easy to get the hang of. Plus, it didn’t require much skill to master – essentially, all you have to do is dip and tap. However, there were a few cons. First and foremost, broccoli is for eating, and I can’t cook it up for dinner after smearing makeup all over it; using it to apply freckles, no matter how cute they turned out, feels wasteful. Although I could technically reuse the broccoli a couple of times to repeat this hack, it’d need to be thrown out by the end of a week.
All in all, despite working really well, I can’t see myself using broccoli to apply my makeup in the future – unless I happen to have some uneaten broccoli in my fridge. Would I love for a beauty brand to create a broccoli-like makeup brush, though? Absolutely.
Renee Rodriguez is a staff writer and social producer for POPSUGAR. She writes across all verticals, but her main areas of expertise are fashion and beauty content, with an emphasis on reviews and editor experiments. She also produces social content for POPSUGAR’s TikTok and Instagram accounts.
