TikTok trends report: September 2024
Four TikTok trends defined September 2024: contrast makeup and fashion, themed dinner parties, pumpkin season, and "aura points."
This is our read on the month: what moved on TikTok, why it moved, and how a brand turns a cultural moment into structured creator activity rather than a scramble to post something before it fades.
A trend is a signal, not a strategy. The signal tells you where attention is pooling. What you build around it, which creators, which products, which formats, is where the value is won or lost. Below: the four signals that mattered in September, and how to read each one like an operator, not a spectator.
The short version:
- Contrast makeup and fashion, a creator-led colour theory framework, ideal for beauty brands built on personalisation.
- Themed dinner parties, a cross-category hosting format spanning FMCG, fashion, beauty and homeware.
- Pumpkin season, the most reliable seasonal demand spike of autumn, across food, decor and beauty.
- Aura points, a humour and relatability format that rewards self-aware brand storytelling over polish.
Trend 1: Contrast makeup and fashion
The signal
- High contrast makeup: 5.51M searches in the last seven days (+398% in the last day)
- Medium contrast outfits: 1.06M searches in the last week (+78% in the last day)
Why it’s trending
This trend took off after French makeup artist @alieenor posted an explainer on how understanding your contrast level changes the way makeup reads on your face. The video passed 7M views, and creators have since been applying the same logic to both makeup and fashion.
What makes it durable is that it isn’t a look. It’s a framework. “Find your contrast level” gives audiences a reusable lens, which is why the format keeps generating content long after the original video.
How to read it as a brand
This is a natural fit for beauty brands built on personalisation, and for fashion brands that can show contrast through styling. The point isn’t to chase the audio. It’s to give creators a genuine reason to feature your product inside the framework: how a shade suits a contrast level, how a collection plays high or medium contrast across skin tones.
For creators
- Beauty: a before-and-after tutorial using high contrast makeup techniques.
- Fashion: a ‘GRWM’ video building a high contrast outfit from your wardrobe staples.
For brands
- Beauty: a ‘Find your contrast’ activation, with creators using your products to teach followers how to read their own contrast level.
- Fashion: a seasonal series with creators styling contrasting looks, showing how new collections sit on the high-to-medium spectrum.
@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 ℃
Trend 2: Themed dinner parties
The signal
- #Dinnerparty: 125.3k posts on TikTok and 1.8M on Instagram
Why it’s trending
With the holiday season approaching, themed dinner parties surged. Niche, creative themes, olive, lemon, cherry, gave the format its momentum: a single theme threads food, table styling, outfits and makeup into one shareable moment, which is what makes it work across so many categories at once.
How to read it as a brand
This is one of the most cross-category formats of the month. It touches FMCG, fashion, beauty and homeware, often in the same video. The opportunity is to own a theme rather than appear in one: “help me pick my outfit for an olive-themed dinner,” “do my cherry cola makeup for a cherry dinner.” When the theme is yours, every adjacent category becomes a reason to feature your product.
For creators
- Beauty: a makeup tutorial built around a theme (e.g. cherry cola).
- Fashion: your outfit choices for a themed party, tropical, autumnal, citrus.
- Food: what you served, styled to the theme (e.g. a lemon menu).
For brands
- FMCG: a ‘Dinner Party’ series with creators building themed gatherings around your food and drink.
- Homeware: creators styling a dinner table with your products as the centrepiece of the decor.
@alessandrabrontsema Cooking for friends & hosting dinner parties is my love language 🫶🏼🍝🍋 this lemon theme was so much fun! #homecooking #hosting #mealideas #dinnerparty #dinner #dinnerideas #fyp #homemade #pasta #lemon #homemadepasta #pastafromscratch #colorfulpasta #lemonpasta #lemonravioli #lemondinner #lemontheme #lemondessert ♬ Jazz masterpiece “As time goes by” covered by a Jazz violinist by profession(962408) – ricca
Trend 3: Pumpkin season
The signal
- Pumpkin cookies: 1.53M searches this week (+181% in the last day)
- Pumpkin makeup: 631K searches this week and rising
- Pumpkin recipes: 476K searches this week
Why it’s trending
As Halloween approached, pumpkin-themed content surged across food, decor and beauty. Its strength is breadth: pumpkin-flavoured treats, burnt-orange makeup, autumnal home styling all live under one cultural umbrella.
How to read it as a brand
Pumpkin season is the most predictable demand spike of autumn, which is exactly why it’s a planning moment, not a reactive one. The signal is reliable enough that you can brief creators ahead of time rather than racing the audio. Lead with the season’s cultural relevance and let the product sit naturally inside it.
For creators
- Beauty: a ‘pumpkin spice latte’ makeup tutorial in warm, burnt-orange tones.
- Fashion: outfit inspiration built on the earthy palette of the season.
- Food: a bake-along for pumpkin muffins, cookies, or a savoury pumpkin pasta.
For brands
- FMCG: a seasonal series with creators working your products into pumpkin recipes.
- Homeware: creators styling burnt-orange decor for an autumnal home refresh.
@lauraschultdesign pumpkin spice season in cosy sweathirts #fall #falltok #autumn #ootd #fallfashion #fashiontok #cozyfashion #cosyfashion #pinterestoutfit #pumpkinspice #pumpkinspiceseason #pumpkinpatch #gilmoregirls #cozy #cozyseason #autumnfashion #uggtasman #CapCut ♬ som original – tatefilm🎧
Trend 4: Aura points
The signal
- No single search spike. This one shows up as a format: a named scoring mechanic (“how many aura points did I lose?”) spreading across unrelated niches, from beauty to everyday life.
Why it’s trending
“Aura points” took off as a way to score everyday life: users share an embarrassing or cringe-worthy moment and ask how many aura points they’ve lost. It runs on relatability and self-deprecating humour, a low-polish, high-resonance format.
How to read it as a brand
This is the hardest of the four to do well and the easiest to get wrong. It rewards self-awareness, not a sales pitch. Brands that earn a place in it tell a genuinely funny story, a relatable problem the product happens to solve, rather than borrowing the format to advertise. The currency here is in on the joke, not above it.
For creators
- Tell an embarrassing or awkward story and ask your followers how many aura points you lost.
- Or flip it: a moment where your confidence, or aura, got an unexpected lift.
For brands
- Beauty: creators sharing a funny past beauty mistake and the fix (“I used to have dry skin before [product]. How many aura points did I lose?”).
- Fashion: humorous wardrobe-malfunction stories that resolve into a style upgrade.
@hairsyrup that must be +1000 aura points right? thank you rapunzel👸🏼👸🏼👸🏼👏🏽🩵 #aura #aurapoints #fyp #hairgrowth ♬ kanye is king – nina ひ
How should brands actually use a TikTok trends report?
A monthly trend round-up is only as useful as the decisions it informs. The brands that get value from it don’t treat each trend as a one-off post to chase. They read the signal, decide whether it fits, and brief the right creators while the moment is live.
That distinction, reacting versus reading, is the whole game. Chasing a trend means copying a format a week late, after the audience has moved on. Reading a trend means recognising a contrast-level framework or a seasonal spike early, and having the creator relationships in place to act on it before it peaks. One is a scramble. The other is a system.
The four signals above will be replaced by four more next month. What doesn’t change is the discipline: a consistent way to spot what’s moving, judge what’s relevant, and turn it into creator activity that builds something, recognition, relevance, demand, rather than a single forgettable post.
FAQs
What were the biggest TikTok trends in September 2024?
Four stood out: contrast makeup and fashion (a creator-led colour-theory framework), themed dinner parties (a cross-category hosting format), pumpkin season (the autumn seasonal spike across food, decor and beauty), and “aura points” (a self-deprecating humour format).
Should brands jump on every TikTok trend?
No. Relevance beats reach. A trend only works for you if it gives creators a genuine reason to feature your product. Forcing a brand into an ill-fitting format reads as exactly that, and audiences notice. Pick the signals that fit, and skip the rest.
How do brands spot TikTok trends early enough to act?
By watching the right indicators, search-term spikes, hashtag growth, and the creators who set formats rather than follow them, and by having creator relationships already in place so activity can move at the speed of culture, not the speed of a procurement cycle.
A trend is a signal. What you build around it is the strategy.
Any brand can see what’s trending. The harder, more valuable work is reading which signals matter, matching them to the right creators, and turning a fleeting cultural moment into compounding relevance.
That’s the work we do. Vamp is a tech-enabled influencer marketing agency: we build the creator-led growth systems that let brands move on culture with intent, not panic, so the next trend is an opportunity you’re ready for, not one you’re chasing. Talk to us.