With trends coming and going in the flash of an eye, TikTok is no stranger to an abundance of products, techniques, and hacks flying through the app each week, with 167 million videos watched per minute. From applying snails to the face to improve the skin barrier, to using virtual guidelines to shape the face, here’s this month’s viral beauty trends, collated by BeautyMatter.
Kubi Skin Icing:
Known to reduce redness, appearance of pores, wrinkles, and aging, skin icing is the technique of gliding ice across acne-affected areas of skin. Across TikTok, several users have taken the technique into their own hands and added the step into their skincare routines. The company to come out on top during the ice hype is Spanish brand Kubi Beauty, who has taken to TikTok to promote their brand through the idea of “making skin icing sexy.”
Within the brand's promotional videos, models can be seen having fun at pool parties and posing with their “Kubis,” a silicone holder which, once filled with water and frozen, becomes the exclusive tool for skin icing. The brand's short clip showing viewers how to use the tool has gathered over 7.2 million views across the app, promoting the slogan “Cold Is Kool.” Several users have shared their opinions and hacks using the Kubi, with multiple users adding aesthetic value to their products with chunks of fruit in the center of their ice block.
However, despite the fanfare, a range of dermatologists across the app have warned against the dangers of skin icing. @Dr.mike.d, online dermatologist, informed users that skin icing creates prolonged contact with water, which disrupts the skin's barrier function in a similar way a strong detergent would. The technique also weakens cell bonds and causes swelling of skin cells. Another user, @kelseyysalmon, tested the icing skincare step, claiming “I think I have frostbite, but I have to remember, beauty is pain,” again proving TikTokers will go to extreme lengths to keep up with the latest beauty trends.
Snail Mucin:
Although snail mucin has been seen in formulas in recent years, the ingredient is now gaining widespread momentum on TikTok. While some users such as @blinkaria have gone to the extremes of hand-picking snails from their gardens and applying them to their faces, others have taken the more convenient option of purchasing products containing snail mucin.
The most popular product across the app containing mucin is COSRX’s Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power, containing 96% mucin to help repair and moisturize damaged skin. Popular dermatologist @dermdoctor reviewed the product, after having to visit three different stores to find it in stock. He expresses how, at first, he was not sold on the product; however “it turns out it contains amazing antioxidant and moisturizing ingredients and is even scientifically proven to improve skin's texture.”
The product has also sparked a fun trending challenge across the app, named #snailslap, which encourages participants to put the product between their hands and see how far they can stretch the substance from palm to palm before it breaks. The mucin is ethically sourced and cleaned before added to products, and is known to give the long-term loved “glass” skin look, heavily praised in K-pop culture.
Toothpaste Lip Plumping:
Just one of an abundance of examples of Gen-Z TikTok users undergoing DIY beauty hacks to save a little money, toothpaste lip plumper is the latest at-home product creation. Despite several products readily available in the form of lipsticks, balms, and glosses, users are not holding back when they find an opportunity to keep their money in their wallets.
The original video that began the craze was initially posted by makeup artist @feliciamaariemakeup and received 164K views. In the video, the artist is seen applying a thick, generous layer of toothpaste to her lips and allowing it to set for two minutes, commenting on the burning sensation of the product. It could be argued that the best way to achieve plumped lips would be to simply buy a product with enhancement ingredients in it. It would seem many have been doing this, as Spate recently reported 43.2K searches for the product on google per month, but this doesn’t seem to stop TikTokers’ pining for custom and homemade products.
Across other videos of users trying the hack, one girl is seen scrubbing the toothpaste across her lips with a toothbrush, which unsurprisingly caused irritation to the area. Regardless of multiple people who have tested the hack complaining about the pain and addressing how little time the lips stay plump for, the trend doesn’t seem to be dying down, with multiple videos being uploaded daily of people attempting the trend.
Personalized Lip Colors:
Channeling a popular ’90s makeup craze, TikTok has seen the rise of the dark lip liner look; however, this time it’s taken a unique twist. Said to be “the perfect shade for your skin tone,” the personal lip look includes users lining their lips with their eyebrow pencil, applying whatever they use as blusher to the center of their lips and then blending the two together with a high-shine gloss. The technique looks individual to each person due to skin pigments taking to certain colors in different ways, as previously touched on by TikTok color theorist @color.nerd.
A number of users have commented on how little faith they had in the hack, only to be surprised by the outcome and now no longer feel they must spend money on individual products such as specific lip liners. The original user to advise followers on the technique was @Yokenzieb, whose video has since received 4.5 million views and over 8K likes. The trend is said to be “a liberation for the girlies” within the comments section of the original video, with the stand-alone comment receiving 2 million likes.
The technique has seen an abundance of men and women come together using the same routine to achieve extremely individual outcomes. For those with darker eyebrows, the look is bolder and more outstanding, whereas for those with lighter hair, the look becomes more subtle with neutral undertones.
The Perfect Eyebrow Filter:
Exclusive to TikTok, “the perfect eyebrow filter” is a digital overlay filter that instructs users on how to shape their eyebrows as well as fill them in, in order to achieve the best eyebrow shape and setting for their facial structure. The filter has specific guidelines, starting from the Cupid's bow of the lip and expanding outwards to reach the key points of the eyebrows and face, including the arch and edge, as well as informing users where their eyebrow hairs should start and end.
The filter comes at a time when virtual try-ons and layovers are significantly on the rise, with Spate reporting a 19.9% year-on-year growth for virtual hair looks and filter applications. Just like the personalized lip colors, the eyebrow filter is customizable to each user, adjusting to the curves of their face.
The filter encourages lifted brows, with a low arch, almost entirely straight, a look that has been popular among online beauty gurus for a while. While the filter is helping users to achieve on-trend brows, it has also been commented several times that the impacts filters such as this could have on the constant changing of popular eyebrow trends could be damaging. By encouraging users to change their natural brow shapes to a flatter look, it could be hard to go back to their original more arched shapes, essentially causing permanent damage; however, this hasn’t stopped users giving it a try, with over 10.6K recreations of eyebrows using the filter.
