The web’s latest beauty obsession is weeping. And why not? The whole lot is a bit shit. Why not romanticise it and find something creative within the sorrow? Presumably, for this reason “Crying make-up tutorials” have been taking off on social media: on TikTok, the term has 130 million views and counting, and Google searches have sky-rocketed within the last month. The concept is easy: to make it appear to be you’ve just been crying by giving yourself smudged eye make-up, puffy lips, a red nose and cheeks, and glistening eyes with glitter eyeliner for a “perpetually crying look”. 

Crying make-up tutorials have been around for a while, but enjoyed a resurgence when beauty influencer Zoe Kenealy posted a now-viral tutorial last month. Kenealy says she was inspired by the Korean Beauty trends Douyin and Ulzzang. “For years I actually have known it’s common in Korea to make use of glitter on the underside lash line to present the effect that you just’ve just finished crying and there may be a twinkle in your eye,” she says. “I assumed it could be fun to take the look to the following level by adding blush, runny nose and flushed cheeks.” Kenealy knows her tutorial doesn’t actually make you appear to be you’re crying, and that’s the purpose. She’s enthusiastic about creating recent make-up looks and posted the video as a fun on-video experiment.

Marta Mae, co-founder and inventive director of Dieux Skin, is a fan of crying make-up tutorials. “It’s campy and funny,” she says. “I feel it’s more accessible than other trends.” Mae often posts her real tears online, and even created a separate Instagram account where vulnerability and tender emotions are encouraged. “I agree with the viral videos claiming we glance higher when/after we cry,” she says. “Crying is nature’s serum and lip plumper and I feel crying selfies are a fun exercise for people to explore and express themselves. Also, crying is sweet in your skin.” Chatting with Dazed earlier this 12 months, Mae joked that Dieux’s Ceaselessly Eye Masks are the proper “crying accessory”. “We encourage crying when it is advisable to.”

Crying online isn’t recent (consider the viral “leave Britney alone” video) however the stigma around it’s actually shifting. Supermodel Bella Hadid posted a series of crying selfies on her Instagram at the top of last 12 months and Lizzo posted a crying video on TikTok singing Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” in the identical week. Encouraged by the trending “authentic” approach to social media (hello blurry photo dumps) and more casual apps like TikTok and BeReal, crying content is officially having its moment – but is it actually resulting in more vulnerability online?

Crying make-up videos and crying “shitpost” selfies are two separate web trends, but they each capture the essence of “sad girl beauty” and play into the “soft life” aspiration that’s currently popular. Living a “soft life” encourages taking things at a slower pace, with comfort and low stress (think baking bread from scratch and dealing less). Brooke DeVard Ozaydinli, creator marketing manager and video lead at Instagram, says that “it’s only natural that this shift towards a softer life means we’re seeing softer make-up trends”. This, says Ozaydinli, will also be political.  

“A variety of Black creators have been vocal about selecting the soft life – opting to guard their peace and never strive to be in a relentless state of accomplishment,” she says. “There’s been an actual effort to interrupt down the ‘strong Black woman’ trope and encourage Black women to assert their softness and vulnerability out loud.” Ozaydinli says we’re moving away from using social media as a highlight reel. “In sharing flaws and low moments, you’re capable of construct a more meaningful community and relate to other people,” she says. “Nobody is comfortable 24/7.” 

Sabrina Sade, co-founder and CEO of 4am Skin, says the rise of “sad girl beauty” is a “chicken or the egg scenario”. “Is it Gen Z that’s more open and vulnerable that’s driving TikTok to be an outlet that reflects their mindset? Or was it TikTok as a format that allowed for the driving of this sort of content, that then allows a protected space to be vulnerable?” she says. Sade herself has posted crying videos while in medical school. “In the future I made a decision to take a selfie video of me crying behind my laptop in front of my messy desk, as a reminder to myself once I was down again that this has happened before, and I got through it,” she says.

Sade says crying beauty is each an encouragement of vulnerability and an aesthetic trend. “I feel in a way there are folks that are seeing it as a trend and only making content for that, but I still feel that it has greater impacts to the broader population to say ‘hey it’s OK to be vulnerable’,” she says. Sade’s own brand 4am Skin was built on the concept of creating vulnerability and messiness chic and aspirational, rejecting the “clean girl” beauty and green juice wellness narrative. “We are attempting to reject perfectionism and with that show that being messy, lazy, and even sometimes a bit unhinged shouldn’t be only OK, but totally normal,” she says.

The web’s current obsession with crying (real tears and make-up tears) shouldn’t be going anywhere, nor should it. Nonetheless, Anne-Catherine Auvray, executive editor at Beautystreams, says that while the trend has “the potential to spotlight and democratise certain subjects which can be still too taboo today”, we must always even be wary of the “capitalisation of sadness”. “Crying make-up is a type of self-expression,” she says. “But crying selfies confront us with a more vital query which concerns morality and authenticity. We should always wonder if depression shouldn’t be being exploited for decidedly more business purposes, resembling the aesthetics of tears.”

As much as we’d prefer to consider we’re our unfiltered selves on social media, even the anti-curated aesthetic has grow to be its own aesthetic. Also, seeing billionaire celebrities like Nicola Peltz Beckham crying since it’s “Monday” is removed from relatable. This, nevertheless, doesn’t mean that encouraging softness shouldn’t be a worthwhile pursuit, opening up an area for actual vulnerability under the protection net of a “trend”. In any case, many individuals have been made to feel too uncomfortable to cry in public – so if others feel at their prettiest after they’ve done so, there’s no reason to not share that with the world.

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