What Is “Makeup Blindness” and Does It Really Matter?

It’s 2016. Everyone’s on Instagram, and bold, glamorous makeup dominated our feeds. The goal was to look snatched (or like a Kardashian). Defined, arched brows framed everyone’s faces, while glitter crease cuts and fluttery lashes took centre stage.

While half the internet beat their faces to look like Kylie Jenner, the rest of us took notes from the legendary K-dramas that hit our screens that year.

K-beauty was all the rage, and I had just put together my first makeup and skincare routine with the help of Korean beauty YouTubers like PONY and Liah Yoo.

While I look back and question why I thought staining my inner lips with hot pink syrup for a gradient lip look was a good idea, what really makes me shudder is my attempt at the Korean straight brows trend epitomised by celebrities like IU.

I know I’m not alone in this — we’ve been seeing a recent wave of TikToks where creators poke fun at their past beauty decisions.

“Eyebrow Blindness”, “Blush Blindness”, and More

@melissa.riebel

I think i lost my mind #eyebrowblindness

♬ Gnarls Barkley Crazy Stephen Kramer Glickman – Gustavo Rocque

 

It’s not uncommon to look back on the decisions we made when we were younger and cringe at ourselves — even our favourite celebrities aren’t privy to that.

Professional makeup artist Jonet Williamson (@jonetwmakeup on TikTok) cited Cardi B’s brow transformation as an example of “eyebrow blindness”, a subset of the phenomena TikTok users call “makeup blindness”.

This is in reference to a time when people were ignorant of how badly they used to do their makeup or how unflattering a particular makeup trend looked on their features.

What started out as a harmless trend for laughs soon took a self-condemnatory turn. People started to overanalyse their makeup and physical appearance, worrying if they were just blind to the makeup mistakes they were making.

What Is “Makeup Blindness”?

If you spend a good amount of time falling down the rabbit hole that is your TikTok FYP, you might have encountered TikToks of creators with fully made-up faces, posing the question, “What blindness do I have?”

@sunnevaeinars

is it blush blindness when you love overblushing? 👼🏼

♬ original sound – Sabrina Carpenter

These creators are essentially asking the public to share their “objective” third-person input on beauty mistakes they are potentially making in hopes of improving their makeup, thus avoiding “makeup blindness”.

If you peek at the comments of these TikToks, you’ll find that TikTok users do not hesitate to point out the “mistakes” the creator is making with their makeup under the pretext of constructive criticism.

TikTok creator Abby Grayce (@abbygrayceeex2) posted a TikTok of herself with a full face of makeup, asking for people’s input on what she might be doing “too much” of in her makeup (bottom left). She then redoes her makeup according to the comments in her original video (bottom right).

“Makeup blindness” is an umbrella term that branches out into more specific subsidiaries, such as “eyebrow blindness” or, more recently, “blush blindness.”

TikTok creator Maia (@maiapapaiyaa) acknowledges that “makeup blindness” happens more commonly with eyebrows. She reiterates her point by presenting two varying examples of eyebrow trends that have gone wrong over the last decades.

This could be because eyebrow trends go through more drastic transformations. We’ve watched the trends go from skinny, over-plucked brows in the 90s to the recent rise of bushy and feathery soap brows.

To illustrate her point, Maia recalls the unnaturally thick eyebrows beauty influencer James Charles wore at the start of his YouTube career (left), and follows up with a contrasting comparison of over-plucked brows shaped like parentheses (right), a result of people attempting the iconic thin arches of the 2000s.

This made her reflect on her own experiences with makeup blindness, like how she used to over-pluck her eyebrows when she first started doing makeup, or when she would draw her eyeliner on so thick it covered her whole eyelid.

She concludes her TikTok with a question that has crossed most of our minds, “I’m wondering, in the moment, how we do not realise how ridiculous it looks?”

Is “Makeup Blindness” Really a Bad Thing?

As someone who also gets a visceral reaction looking at my old and cringe-worthy photos, I fully understand the desire to avoid another case of “makeup blindness.”

While we could always dial it down and play it safe with our makeup decisions, it dawned on me that doing so would take the fun out of experimenting with makeup.

Like how the skinny brow is representative of the 90s, Cara Delevingne’s full arches defined the 2010s. Marilyn Monroe does her makeup differently from Kylie Jenner, each a trendsetter of their generation.

What better way to differentiate an era than with the varying trends we ride through? Nothing screams 2020 more than your glowy “clean girl” makeup—how else can we set it apart from the universal fixation on all things matte in 2015?

@face_byshauny

hot take: 2016 kinda ate (ib: @Ashlee Day)#makeup #makeupartist #makeuptransformation #mua #2016makeup #2024makeup #makeuptrend #CapCut @Ultra Violette @maccosmetics @Charlotte Tilbury @milkmakeup @Benefit Cosmetics @Sephora Collection @Diorbeauty @tarte cosmetics @makeupforever @ONE SIZE BEAUTY @Saie @Laura Mercier @KVD BEAUTY @Morphe Cosmetics @Natasha Denona @Rare Beauty @NARS Cosmetics

♬ original sound – shauny

Wouldn’t it be awfully boring if we did our makeup the exact same way 20 years ago?

Trends come and go, and while they are superficial sentiments people chase with each new season, they are also striking ways we can identify an era.

While we use makeup as a tool to enhance our features and physical appearance, it is also an outlet for creativity and self-expression. Over time, we get so caught up in the former that we forget about the latter.

Always Take Your Face Shape and Features Into Consideration

After doing a deep dive into makeup blindness on TikTok, I realised that most makeup artists and beauty content creators share the same opinion and offer the same advice on counteracting “makeup blindness.”

They urge others to steer away from trends that are unflattering for their face shape, presenting examples of how different brow shapes can completely change your face.

Instead of shying away from new trends, allow yourself to join in on the fun while paying attention to things like your face shape, using it as a guide to picking out the most flattering brow shape or makeup technique to flatter your features.

It’s okay to hop onto the latest trends and wear your brows thick and feathery—or bleached—as long as you take your face shape and features into consideration.

This way, you can dabble with up-and-coming trends while ensuring your face is always framed with the most flattering brow shape or blush placement.

Unlike what the internet has been telling us lately, it’s totally okay to experiment with new makeup trends. Don’t let your fear of judgment stop you from having fun!

Featured image credits: @brynnemarieeee/TikTok, @sunnevaeinars/TikTok, @maiapapaiyaa/TikTok