TikTok beauty trend makes dark under-eye circles look ‘cool’
TikTok is known for cradling bizarre (and sometimes dangerous) trends and challenges and it continues to do so with a rising beauty trend of people putting (or enhancing) dark circles underneath their eyes.
Yes, those pesky dark circles that beauty gurus call “imperfections” (which others religiously conceal) are apparently a trend now.
The TikTok trend, made popular by user Sara-Marie Carstens (@sarathefreeelf), sees TikTokers draw dark under-eye circles using a lipstick or an eye shadow, blend them using their fingers to create a shadow underneath the eye, and pose for the final look—which reveals an accentuated under-eye circles. The video uses The Wombats’ song Greek Tragedy.
Some of them, like makeup artist Danielle Marcan (@daniellemarcan), start the video with a fully made-up look but erases the makeup underneath the eyes before proceeding to highlight their natural under-eye circles.
The trend received mixed reactions, from people calling it empowering to others calling out those who participate in the trend “bored teens trying to make themselves look haggard to look ‘cool.’”
“Wait, people want dark circles now? I got bullied for mine,” one said in the comment section.
Others love the trend for “normalizing” their insecurities, like one user who said, “I love that people are doing makeup like this because it makes me less insecure about my bags. More of this please.”
However, some commented on Sara-Marie Carstens’ video, which now has over seven million views on TikTok, that it’s not okay to make fun of other people’s insecurities.
Carstens made a second video to explain that she was not trying to make fun of anyone’s insecurities because “that is also my insecurity” and that she was not trying to make a trend out of it, she was just “bored.”
Makeup artist and creator Danielle Marcan told the Insider that she followed the trend because she loved the idea of being able to define one’s one idea of beauty using makeup. She said she also felt empowered and “assured I was beautiful, and that I don’t necessarily need a concealer to feel good about myself.”
In support of the trend, Marcan also shared a TikTok tutorial to her followers on how to enhance dark circles and how to add them on one’s makeup routine.
So, with the dark under-eye circle trend, are you in or out?
Banner image and thumbnail photos from @sarathefreeelf, @daniellemarcan, @valenflores and @FroNazGola on TikTok