The Eyeliner Effect: Is the “new normal” heavy on the eyes?
Words by Pia Salazar
In times of massive uncertainty and change such as the one we live in now, economists have noticed a behavior called the Lipstick Effect. This describes how consumers still tend to buy small luxury items (like premium cosmetics and trips to the cinema) during recessions or when they personally do not have much cash. Makeup doesn’t stop being a mood booster when things go south, so we don’t stop trying to be beautiful despite our situation.
When you’re wearing a face mask if you’re outside, some people have reconsidered what their makeup routine should be, especially if health professionals recommend that if you have to wear it, then it shouldn’t get you to touch your face or your mask. Wearing transfer-proof lipstick is an option, and a quick search can show you tons of options for whatever you’re looking for. But what if you don’t want to wear lipstick under your mask at all, since you’re the only one who’ll get to see it?
Looking up mask makeup generates pages upon pages of results that either recommend products that claim to last long and stay put, or suggest ways to deal with maskne, a cheerful portmanteau that refers to the less cheerful event of getting acne from where product is occluded under a face mask.
Other titles stick out, too—memorable but common suggestions abound for colorful eye makeup looks, which suggest a renewed interest in emphasizing the most visible facial feature wearing a mask.
Enter the Eyeliner Effect, which we discussed briefly on PV, and noticed in South Korea, where eye makeup sales increased by 51.8% from the previous year, with eyeliner for some brands experiencing an increase of 100%, while lipstick sales decreased. Wearing lipstick under a mask is empowering for yourself, sure. However, judging by the shift toward eye makeup, it seems like “the new normal,” has a standard look, too.
Women interviewed in Korea shared that eyeliner became a daily habit, as some said they cared about their eye makeup more, “since this is what’s visible to others.”
Beauty culture in the South Korean context has been widely documented, but from this opinion alone we may infer that so much of beauty involves what others experience relative to the self.
We can’t say the exact same thing about the Philippines, but the social aspect of beauty is certainly one part of it, and the work environments people find themselves in. It doesn’t hurt to ask if anything’s changed now most of our interactions involve masks and six feet of distance, though.
For Pat, a preschool teacher, wearing eye makeup was a part of her daily pre-pandemic routine; she’s always liked playing up her eyes so a daily wash of eyeshadow and flick of eyeliner helped put her in a good mindset before the day started. Pat likes to wear matte shades around her eyes and shimmer shades in the middle, to make her eyes look brighter and more awake; now that she holds her classes over video calls, she’ll do the same routine before her class starts. The extra task to wear a mask hasn’t changed her habits much, and she hasn’t bought any new eye makeup.
For Chloe, a project manager, eye makeup is associated with parties, special occasions, and wanting to boost her mood. When she worked at an ad agency, the commute was too tiring for her to want to do anything more than put on a bit of mascara and eyeliner. Now she’s fully home-based, she’s looking forward to when the pandemic ends and she can keep up her love for eye makeup; she saves it for when she feels good, and she’ll buy new palettes in the near future to bring more looks to life.
There’s no available market data on eye makeup sales in the Philippines which can tell us the extent of the Eyeliner Effect (under one of the longest lockdowns in the world), but with a different feature to emphasize and a new set of norms to follow, food for thought: why do we put on makeup?
For the women surveyed in South Korea, focusing on their eyes was skewed towards what other people saw; for the women interviewed above, doing their eye makeup was skewed towards making themselves feel good, whether for the workplace or for a special occasion. Whether it’s to uplift or to put ourselves in a good head space, eye makeup—and by extension, the eyeliner effect—keeps its place in the face of a pandemic, as a response of creative people with a makeup kit as their medium.
It isn’t a new observation that makeup is related to forms of self-care; it’s part of the reason the Lipstick Effect was initially noted, how women would splurge on small luxuries to take their mind off the problems happening around them. I’m not saying an eyeshadow palette won’t make some impact on someone’s emotional, mental, and physical health—we could talk for hours about dopamine and serotonin, if we want to get clinical—but in these times the purchase is only a part of the whole effect.
Whether it’s the knowledge that you’re wearing your favorite lipstick under your mask, or the crisp flick of eyeliner framing the only visible feature, how we’re wearing makeup in these times is a facet of how we’re approaching the world. Of all the things that what they’re calling the “new normal,” has changed, no matter that the lipstick and eyeliner are now transfer-proof, we put them on and keep going.
About the author
Pia Salazar pursues an interest in many things (after consuming at least one cup of coffee). Between satisfying caffeine cravings, Pia composes short fiction that attempts to say something meaningful about change, friendship, and things which are difficult to talk about. You can find more of Pia's media-related rambling on Letterboxd.
Links and sources:
1 Adam Hayes, “Lipstick Effect Definition,” Investopedia.com, Dotdash Publishing, updated July 16, 2019 at https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lipstick-effect.asp
2 Elizabeth Wellington, “Is my mask less effective if I wear makeup?” The Philadelphia Inquirer, updated May 9, 2020 at https://www.inquirer.com/life/makeup-covid-19-coronavirus-masks-foundation-lipstick-20200509.html
3 Catch Ofilada, “Budget beauty: One eyebrow palette, two eye makeup looks,” Project Vanity, published July 8, 2020 at http://www.projectvanity.com/projectvanity/eyeshadow-look-pandemic?rq=eyeliner%20effect
4 Jo He-Rim, “In coronavirus pandemic, ‘lipstick effect,’ gives way to ‘eyeliner effect,’” The Korea Herald, updated April 16, 2020 at http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200414000809