Reporting from the frontlines of teen beauty TikTok trends: gluing your lips

The kids are alright.

What ill-advised beauty trends did you attempt as a teenager to imitate the stars you loved?

It’s likely you plucked out all your eyebrows into one thin line because of Madonna. Or wore chunky brown lipliner because of Brandy or dark brown lipstick because of Gwen Stefani.

I, for one, grew up, with an ongoing addiction to peroxide and smoking thanks to the Olsen’s and Kate Moss, not to mention a permanent guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach immediately after eating anything that you wouldn’t see on a vegan Instagram page.

IMAGE.ie’s homepage editor Grace McGettigan wore clear lip gloss because S Club Junior and pink Vaseline on her cheeks because she read once that the Olsen twins did it to give them a healthy glow.

CARA Magazine editor Lucy White wore headscarves and crucifixes and tulle skirts because of Madonna and used to take pictures of Meg Ryan’s choppy bob to the hairdresser.

CARA Magazine’s editorial assistant Shayna Sappington had chunky blonde highlights and was in the possession of a hair crimper because of Lizzie McGuire.

Well for today’s teens, that icon is a Kardashian or a Jenner and the beauty look to imitate takes a lot more work than begging your parents for ghd so you could achieve the Rachel Green haircut. Teens today as we well know, have Filters and full glam teams and PhotoShop and surgery to deal with.

Which I guess is why teens are gluing their upper lips to their Cupid’s bow on TikTok.

imagine you’re talking to someone and your lip falls down by accident pic.twitter.com/kDD9CqHOr6

— Shafeeq (@Y2SHAF) September 7, 2019

bruh i tried that bratz lip trend on tiktok bc everyone look cute doing but but uhhh …… pic.twitter.com/s1zWDfm3ka

— angelene (@AngieRieta) September 7, 2019

As a black woman with a severe lip deficiency I felt obliged to try this. ??TRIGGER WARNING?? Hilarity ensues pic.twitter.com/moVaYlylGu

— She Who Can Not Be Gamed (@SprklShneGlistn) September 7, 2019

Yall I did that trend where you glue your lip up… im dying ??? pic.twitter.com/mIHlZmd4tC

— ? Alexandra Daniels ? (@alexdanielsxo) September 8, 2019

Y’all I tried it? ignore the laugh pic.twitter.com/cGx0vV5wXP

— Bri? (@brianna_vacio) September 7, 2019

So is it as damaging as the Kylie Jenner Challenge that caused a load of teens to swell their lips up by sucking them into a shot glass?

Not quite.

“Definitely some damage could happen depending on the glue,” says Olga Kochlewska of Skin by Olga, our Best Beauty Therapist at the IMAGE Business of Beauty Awards 2018 . “Or allergic reactions!”

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Holly (@holly_oneill) on Sep 12, 2019 at 7:33am PDT

Well, myself and IMAGE.ie’s deputy editor Erin Lindsay attempted it, as you can see above, to sadly minimal results. It didn’t work for us, and thankfully, Duo Adhesive for eyelashes did not give us any adverse reactions. The sensitive skinned among us should maybe sit this trend out. Once you don’t use some super strong adhesive, I believe, in this instance, the kids are alright. They are using eyelash glue, which we put near our eyeballs. They’ve just become more inventive than we were skilled with a hair crimper. Leave them off.

Photography by @chloehammock4 on TikTok.

Read more: Hairdressers debunk the biggest hair myths they’ve ever heard

Read more: The best of SS20 beauty at NYFW: soaring hair and Euphoria eyeliner

Read more: Everything to know about eczema: causes, management and soothing products to try