How Douyin Makeup Took Over TikTok

It’s the emphasis on the eyes that drew in Los Angeles-based TikToker Chloe Paredes. A trend both she and Hoang love is manhua lashes (sometimes referred to as manga lashes by creators) which are long, wispy lashes that look like individual clusters of hair rather than fanned out pieces. 

The look is meant to mimic the lashes of many manhua, or Chinese comic book, characters. The key to the look involves individual lashes, glue, and a steady hand. From there, you just apply the individual lashes in the scattered formation, and then you’ll look similar to Paredes’ final look in the video below. 

Though the makeup generally looks like it was applied with the lightest of touches, contouring is still common in the Douyin style, and it’s not exclusive to just the cheeks and jawline. Eye contouring is huge — it’s popular to define the aegyo sal, which is the area of fat right underneath your waterline. Paredes loves adding concealer around her aegyo-sal for a “younger” or more “innocent” appearance. Hoang sculpts out her aegyo-sal and highlights it with a silvery shimmer in the TikTok below. 

Though the eye makeup is arguably what makes a look immediately identifiable as Douyin, the lips don’t go completely ignored. A Douyin makeup look is often finished with a full and pouty lip, typically in nude, pink, or reddish shades. Creators tend to opt for a more blurred effect by using more sheer lip tints and stains or blotting a traditional lipstick to diffuse the color. 

And flushed cheeks are a must as Paredes shows in the video above. How they get so rosy is what’s interesting: One technique, which was labeled “Douyin blush trend,” became immensely popular among creators. The specific trend involves applying blush in a sideways V shape on the chin, nose, and temples. The technique is created to Instagram user @hezzzw_jv whose photo has been all over the app. You can see people’s re-creation of the look on TikTok hashtag #douyinblushtrend. 

Since Douyin covers such a wide variety of looks, simply searching Douyin makeup on TikTok or elsewhere might bring up too much inspiration.. To make it easier to decide what to try first, we present a few more Douyin makeup tutorials, tricks, and looks that we have been loving on TikTok lately.