You know what time it is: another TikTok beauty trend is here. But you don’t need to put a lot of foundation on your skin or use lube as a primer for this. In reality, you don’t need a lot of products to get the manga lash look.
For those who aren’t familiar with the wonderful world of manga and anime, the characters’ eyelashes tend to grow in clusters of pointy hairs that are spread out along the top and bottom lash lines, giving them a spiky look. You can’t just stick a strip of lashes on your eye. Instead, you have to carefully place clusters or single lashes. Longer hairs stick out from the shorter ones, making them look like they are separated.
Manga lashes are becoming more and more popular among TikTok users who want to look different. Sarah Cheung, who lives in Toronto and goes by the handle @sacheu, saw the trend first on a Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu and decided to try it out. She first posted a video, which has over a million likes at the time I’m writing this, showing her take on the trend and a few photos of similar looks. Then she posted a more detailed tutorial.
In the tutorial, she put mascara on her eyelashes and then cut a Newcally Wispy Fluffy Lash into tiny pieces that were both short and long. She stuck each section to the eye with D-Up Eyelash Fixer glue, putting the longer pieces on top and the shorter ones on the bottom to make them look like they were separate. At the end of the video, she has long, pointy hairs in small patches on her lashes.
She makes it look easy, but she says it took her a few tries to figure out how to try out this lash trend in the easiest way. She tells Allure, “I think it’s a cute way to get a doll-like look, especially if you’ve always gone for more natural looks before.”
Cheung’s video got a few other people to try the trend, like @kamgregory user Kamille Gregory, who thought it was pretty easy to do. To position the lashes correctly and as closely as possible to your natural lash line, she advises that it might take a few tries.
She cut a wispy lash from her collection and an Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics Norvina A Moment lash into tiny pieces and stuck the shorter pieces of the A Moment false lash only to the waterline, making it look like a more subtle version of Twiggy’s famous lash. She added more definition to her bottom lashes by swiping Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara on them before revealing the final barbed look, which is a more subtle version of Cheung’s.
Ness, a TikToker who goes by the username @nesmates, found that the manga lash trend requires some intermediate makeup skills to master. She told Allure that she has seen anime influence makeup trends in general, with people wanting to look like dolls. She says she tried the trend to spice up her routine makeup looks and demonstrate that there are different ways to achieve “anime eyes.” With Ardell’s individual lashes and glue, she was able to finish her spidery lash.
These three users make it look easy to follow the trend at home. But even if you’re an expert, individual lashes can be much harder to put on than regular strip lashes. Makeup artist Tommy Napoli from New York City suggests starting with short or cluster lashes before moving on to individual pieces. He also suggests applying the pieces to curled lashes without mascara because “curled lashes help hold up individual or false lashes.” If you put mascara on first, it can be harder to figure out where to put the eyelash. “Don’t put on mascara until the eyelash glue has dried,” he says.
To put the hairs on, you need to dip each lash into a dot of glue and make sure it’s only on the band. “Drop” the person on top of their own lashes while looking down into a mirror, starting at the outer corner and moving inward toward the nose, he advises. “The people should be right up against the base of your eyelashes. ” People who have few or no eyelashes should choose full-strip lashes with clear bands, which will be more comfortable and less obvious. He claims that’s because “hair is needed for support” by people.
Not every TikTok trend gets our stamp of approval, but these spiky eyelashes are a great example.
