The eyes: They are the windows to the soul — cliché, I know, but kinda true. They're also the feature of the face where makeup artists can take full reign and let their creativity shine. Mastering the eye shadow and eyeliner portion of a look comes first, and mascara remains the final touch.
But for those who wear glasses, it may sometimes feel discouraging to attempt elaborate eye makeup designs – products can smudge onto the lenses or simply disappear behind the frames. On July 1, TikTok user Christiana Ajai created an intricate eye look with the shape of her glasses in mind, laying all those problems to rest and going viral in the process.
In the past, Ajai has found inspiration from other eye makeup designs seen on the app. In one of her TikTok videos from May, she showcased her take on someone else's eye shadow look and captioned the clip, "I said I wanted makeup to fit my glasses I never said I don't like glasses!!!" The inspiration for the green eye shadow look came from a photo on Pinterest, and although it did not feature someone who wears glasses, the mimicked design happened to align perfectly with her frames. In a later post, Ajai also gave content creator @Aoifeartist's pink-hued eye shadow look a go, that time intentionally making the design reflect the shape of her glasses. Since then, it's kind of become her thing.
"Wearing glasses can be an accessory rather than a burden," Ajai tells Allure. Her perspective stems from when she was just 12 years old. "I remember buying some purple zebra frames from Claire's and taking them to my optician to get lenses put in when I was 12."
These days, Ajai has thick, clear frames to complement her creative eye makeup. Her viral clip from July features step-by-step still shots, capturing every detail of her process. Before any eye shadow comes into play, she creates an outline that mimics the shape of her glasses on either eye using a light shade of concealer, applied with the edge of a concealer brush. Ajai says that this is the most important part of the look; it ensures that the finished look lies within the frame of the glasses, which draws more attention to the eye shadow itself.
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She cleans up the outline of her frames with a wet tissue or a cotton swab. Then she blends the concealer to the upper and lower eyelids and outward to the tail of her eyebrows. The light shade of concealer ensures the colors of the eye shadow will stand out on her deep skin tone. She blends a peach hue into the inner corners of her eyes to the bridge of her nose. She then adds a pink color to the centers of the upper lids, which is then met with a swirl of blue.
Although Ajai has been wearing glasses from a young age, she tells Allure that she didn't have the idea to create these glasses-friendly eye looks until May. "I wanted to have something that would stand out but knew my glasses would get in the way, as they often do, so I decided I'd simply tailor the eye shadow to my glasses and hope for the best," she explains. "I think because the typical [eye] makeup we see doesn't involve glasses, this, in hindsight, very obvious 'hack' just never occurred to me."
See the #glassesproblems in the caption of her post. But her TikTok clip, which has garnered to more than half a million views and counting, is far from a problem. She single-handedly introduced a solution for those who like or need to wear glasses. Cheers to a hack that lets each and every eye makeup look come to life through the frame of your specs.
More on eye makeup essentials:
- BH Cosmetics Just Launched a 10-Piece Rainbow Makeup Brush Set, and It's So Affordable
- Kaja Beauty Bento Bouncy Eye Shadows are Cute as Hell In and Out of the Pan
- The 9 Best Colored Mascaras to Try Bold, Monochromatic Looks With
Now, watch Kim Kardashian answer beauty questions the internet asked her:
