TikTok trends report: October 2024
The biggest TikTok trends in October 2024 were contrast makeup and fashion, the Wait dance, early-season gift guides, and the "But You Didn't Have to Cut Me Off" challenge.
This is our monthly read on what moved on TikTok and, more usefully, why. October sits at the front of the golden quarter, so the month’s trends split cleanly into two jobs: formats that earn attention (dances, audio-led challenges) and formats that drive intent (gift guides, early holiday shopping). Below is each trend, the signal behind it, and how a brand or creator can use it without looking like they arrived late.
A note on how we read these. A trend is not a tactic. It’s a window into where attention is already moving, and the brands that benefit are the ones with a creator system ready to move with it, not the ones briefing a one-off the week after it peaks.
The short version:
- Contrast makeup and fashion turned a colour-theory idea into a beauty and styling format with broad reach.
- The Wait dance is a flexible, low-effort audio trend built for outfit and product transitions.
- Gift guides arrived early and became the month’s strongest intent signal.
- “But You Didn’t Have to Cut Me Off” revived a nostalgic track into a freeze-and-dance challenge.
- The common thread: speed of adaptation beats size of budget. Whoever is already set up to brief and ship wins the window.
1. Contrast makeup and fashion
The signal: High-contrast makeup surged to 5.51 million searches in a single week, a 398% daily increase. Medium-contrast outfits followed, hitting 1.06 million weekly searches, up 78% in a day.
Why it took off: French makeup artist @alieenor catalysed the trend with a video explaining how understanding your personal contrast level changes how you do makeup. It passed 7 million views. The idea spilled straight into fashion, with people building outfits around their contrast level.
How to use it:
- Beauty brands: brief creators to demonstrate high- and medium-contrast looks using your products, framed as a technique rather than an ad. The trend rewards genuine instruction.
- Fashion brands: lean into outfit transitions and try-on content that shows contrast pairings, with a clear takeaway viewers can copy.
- Skincare brands: “before and after” prep content works here. Show how skin preparation supports the airbrushed finish the look depends on.
@evalarosaxo which contrast you need next?ib: @Alieenor 🧡 PRODUCTS: • @Florasis Shop concealer palette • @Yepoda multi balm peach • @ILIA Beauty lip balm in memoir • @Charlotte Tilbury hollywood blush & glow palette • @PLOUISE blend away palette 2022 • @essence cosmetics gimme glow highlighter in 10 • @L’Oréal Paris lash paradise mascara in marron intense • iliabeauty lip oil in petals #contrastlevel #mediumcontrast #contrastmakeup #makeuphacks #makeuphackstutorial #makeup #makeuptutorial ♬ is there someone else? – 87 ℃
2. The Wait dance trend
The signal: Searches for “wait trend” hit 761,000 in a week, up 34% over the previous day. The associated sound featured in 531,400 videos, and #wait carried 1.3 million posts.
Why it took off: The format is simple, flexible and fun. Creators hold a group setup, then break into individual solo moves. The payoff is watching how each person switches in, which keeps viewers to the end.
How to use it:
- Fashion brands: show new collections by having creators perform the transition in different pieces, switching outfits at the key moments.
- Lifestyle brands: use the audio as a hook for product transitions: one item, multiple uses (for example, several looks from a single pair of shoes).
- Food brands: a chef dancing through prep, cutting to the finished dish on the beat, turns a recipe into a watchable format.
@thegr8khalidthey don’t love you like i love you 😔♬ maps – <3
3. Gift guides
The signal: “Gift guides” pulled 732,000 searches in a week. Intent-heavy variants told the real story: “Sephora gift set” (968,000), “best friend Christmas gift” (805,000), and “bf Christmas gift” (366,000).
Why it took off: As the holidays approach, gift guides become a save-and-share format. They’re informative, digestible, and easy for the algorithm to keep recirculating, which makes them one of the most dependable formats of the quarter. More to the point, the searches behind them are commercial: people in this format are shopping, not browsing.
How to use it:
- Creators: build carousel and video guides for specific audiences (“Top 5 Gifts for Him”, haul-and-commentary formats) that are genuinely useful to save.
- Brands: sponsor guide series for placement inside content people actively seek out. Brief themed segments like “Best Beauty Gifts Under £50” rather than dropping a single product into a generic list.
- Tech brands: “Top Gadgets for the Holidays” works well with authentic creator demos and real reactions over a polished product reel.
@madisonwronowski what to buy for your friends bdays / random gifts / etc!🧁🧁🧁 everything is on my @Locker | Virtual Wishlist 💞#wishlist #giftguide #christmaswishlist #giftsforher ♬ original sound – Madison 🧁
4. The “But You Didn’t Have to Cut Me Off” trend
The signal: Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye and Kimbra returned as a viral sound, with creators building on its emotional, nostalgic pull.
Why it took off: The track anchors a freeze-and-dance format: participants take turns holding still and breaking into movement, stitched together with sharp jump cuts. The recognisable intro hooks viewers, and the structure keeps them watching to see who “steals the show”.
How to use it:
- Creative brands: use the freeze-then-action structure for product transitions or behind-the-scenes reveals: start frozen, launch on the beat.
- Service brands: a playful team version of the dance shows personality and the people behind the work.
- Retailers: stylists dancing through different sections of a store, cut to the jump cuts, turns a walkthrough into seasonal merchandising.
@prejoye @♱ Kevss ♱ ♬ origineel geluid – CDK COMPANY
How should brands actually use TikTok trends?
A trend is a window, not a strategy. By the time a format is obvious enough to brief, the early reward is usually gone, so the brands that benefit are the ones already set up to move.
That means three things: a roster of creators who fit the brand and the format, a brief-to-publish process measured in days not weeks, and the judgement to skip the trends that don’t fit. Chasing every trend is how brands look like they’re trying too hard. Picking the right two or three, fast, is how influence compounds across a quarter instead of spiking and fading.
The trends change every month. The system that lets you act on the right ones doesn’t.
FAQs
What were the biggest TikTok trends in October 2024?
The four standout trends were contrast makeup and fashion, the Wait dance, early-season gift guides, and the “But You Didn’t Have to Cut Me Off” freeze-and-dance challenge built on the Gotye and Kimbra track.
Should every brand jump on a TikTok trend?
No. Forcing a brand into a format it doesn’t suit reads as inauthentic and rarely performs. The better discipline is to pick the two or three trends that genuinely fit your brand and audience, then execute them fast and well.
Why do gift guides perform so well on TikTok in Q4?
They combine a save-and-share format with commercial intent. The searches behind them, branded gift sets, gifts for specific people, come from audiences who are actively shopping, which makes the format efficient at converting attention into consideration.
Trends are the signal. The system is the advantage.
Spotting a trend is the easy part. The harder, more valuable work is being ready to act on the right ones, with the creators, the brief and the measurement already in place, month after month, while everyone else is still reacting.
That’s the work we do. Vamp is a tech-enabled influencer marketing agency: we design creator-led growth systems and run the engine behind them, so trends become measurable growth instead of missed windows. Talk to us.