Search icon

Beauty

23rd Jan 2021

The latest TikTok beauty trend is drawing on under-eye bags to look tired

We're all tired right? Why not lean in.

Niamh Maher

Tired of 2021 am I right?

There’s no doubt that TikTok can be an educational platform. For me, as an elder millennial, I’ve accumulated an extensive range of beauty knowledge and numerous tricks by scrolling relentlessly through the app. Admittedly some, such as wrapping your hair in socks to get heatless curls, are more useful than others, like slugging; where you coat your entire face in Vaseline before you go to bed.

Well, a new beauty trend has popped up recently and it’s certainly dividing the internet. It started with one TikTok user who posted a video in which she draws dark circles under her eyes using a reddish-brown lipstick. She then smudges and blends in the colour to achieve the desired effect, check it out below:

@sarathefreeelf♬ Greek Tragedy (Oliver Nelson TikTok Remix) – The Wombats

What is the desired effect I hear you ask?

It seems to be a mixture of every female Tim Burton character you can imagine, and the grungy undone vibes of the 90s. Basically, you look like it’s the Sunday morning of Electric Picnic and you need to get your ass to a bus ASAP.

The original video has racked up over 6 million views and many were quick to praise Sara Carstens, saying it was a welcome change to see what is usually described as a flaw, celebrated! One user wrote, “ARE WE FINALLY MAKING THIS A TREND? I’M GONNA CRY. PRAISE GOD I AM SO HAPPY. MY BAGS ARE HUGE”.

Other TikTok stars have jumped on the tired-look bandwagon and the posts have quickly gone viral:

@daniellemarcan@sarathefreeelf and @abbyroberts made me do it♬ Greek Tragedy (Oliver Nelson TikTok Remix) – The Wombats

Despite the rush to fake a bad night’s sleep, not everyone has welcomed the new look, many users took to the comments section highlighting that they’ve suffered bullying due to their dark circles and just because “pretty” girls are posting videos… it’s now trendy.

As a result of some of the comments, Sara posted a follow-up video explaining that she herself has dark under-eye circles: “I wasn’t trying to make fun of your insecurity, because I have the same insecurity. I wasn’t trying to make a trend out of it. My lipstick was right next to me and I just drew them back on. What’s the issue here?”

As we all know, beauty trend come and go. We like to stick to the motto that you should do what feels comfortable for you. The fact is, we shouldn’t feel the need to cover up our dark circles, if you feel tired and want to show that to the world, go for it! Similarly,  if you want to use concealer and cover up the bags, that’s also your prerogative.

For me personally, I’m always tired, so I feel pretty damn pleased about being on trend… for now.