Magnificence developments on TikTok are a revolving door.

Final yr’s entries included: the clear lady aesthetic, strawberry lady, rat lady, latte make-up, and extra. The app’s newest favourite phenomenon is one thing referred to as “visible weight.” It is a devoted filter that slices your face in two, making use of heavier make-up on the left and lighter, extra pure make-up on the appropriate. However visible weight is way more difficult than merely making use of make-up and, when carried out appropriately, it may possibly assist you perceive and rejoice your most original options.

We dug into the pattern’s origins to grasp its roots in East Asian magnificence and its common enchantment.

What’s visible weight?

Visible weight is a magnificence idea that lets you establish your face’s distinctive options and amplify them with complementary styling. Its objective is to boost your pure options, not alter them, and there’s no such factor as “good” or “dangerous” visible weight. As a substitute, the idea proposes that every one faces fall on a spectrum between “excessive” and “low” visible weights. 

Faces with low visible weight look finest in make-up that creates steadiness and concord amongst their options, whereas of us with excessive visible weight shine in make-up types spotlight their largest or most outstanding options.

The place did the time period ‘visible weight’ come from?

The time period “visible weight” has been popularized within the West by magnificence creator “Expensive Peachie” who talked about the time period in a number of YouTube movies on her channel earlier than making a video in regards to the idea in Jan. 2023. Expensive Peachie’s content material aggregates magnificence methods from East Asia particularly, and fellow magnificence creator Type Me Jenn says that focus could also be key to understanding the “visible weight” pattern. 

In a video analyzing a visible weight TikTok filter, Type Me Jenn explains, “I really feel like this complete thought of excessive versus low visible weight happened when East Asians began realizing that conventional Western types of make-up” — which have a tendency to focus on particular person “excessive” weight facial options — “do not all the time work for our faces as a result of our options are way more delicate” and could also be finest served by “low” weight make-up that achieves a harmonic magnificence. 

However these are solely observations, not hard-and-fast guidelines. There are East Asian celebrities with excessive visible weight and Western celebs with low visible weight. Each face is completely different, and exploring your face’s visible weight is only one method of creating and appreciating your distinctive fashion.

Is visible weight simply one other option to critique ourselves?

Magnificence developments, particularly these on TikTok, could be rooted in misogyny and consumerism. Whereas magnificence is a robust type of self-expression, it will also be leveraged as a societal instrument for oppression. Although the gender pay hole is slowly closing, ladies are nonetheless paid 15 % lower than males for a similar work. And when magnificence is a prerequisite for acceptance, ladies spend money on make-up and different aesthetic pursuits not as a type of expression, however as a type of safety.

Take the “clear lady” aesthetic, for example. Attaining “the look” requires the acquisition of equipment and styling merchandise — like yellow gold jewellery or a gel that may form the right wild forehead. It additionally encourages dangerous comparability, and has been critiqued as classist, racist, and fatphobic. If that lady is taken into account “clear,” what’s everybody else?

As a magnificence pattern, the idea of visible weight can in fact fall into these traps. However it’s not designed to demean or divide or to be aspired to as an achievable “look.” As a substitute, it’s an strategy to styling and make-up that anybody can entry, with the most affordable drugstore palettes or fanciest lip stains. The speculation of visible weight is meant that can assist you higher perceive tips on how to spotlight your magnificence, not match it right into a trend-shaped field.

That being stated, for those who do start to really feel like assessing your self primarily based on its parameters is dangerous, a commenter below Type Me Jenn’s video in regards to the pattern says it finest: “I like that individuals have extra sources immediately to seek out what flatters most. The one downside I’ve is individuals considering that one kind of magnificence is healthier than one other… there’s magnificence in each one among you.”

What’s low visible weight?

Individuals with low visible weight look finest when their options are balanced to create concord. This may be achieved by make-up seems that go for a softer or extra pure utility of colour that ensures nobody facial characteristic overwhelms the others.

Kate Bosworth (left) and Gabrielle Union (proper) are examples of celebrities with “low” visible weight. In these images, their make-up enhances the concord of their options.
Credit score: Mashable composite / Amy Sussman/Getty Photos and Paul Morigi/Getty Photos

What’s excessive visible weight?

Of us with excessive visible weight normally have massive or outstanding facial options that pop when accented by daring, darkish, or heavy make-up. These make-up types improve the characteristic quite than obscuring it, and draw consideration to a selected space of the face versus its general concord.

CL (left) and Angelina Jolie (proper) are examples of celebrities with “excessive” visible weight. Their make-up in these images enhances their most outstanding characteristic — their eyes — to realize steadiness.
Credit score: Mashable composite / Han Myung-Gu/Getty Photos and Samir Hussein/WireImage

How do I determine my face’s visible weight?

The easiest way to seek out your face’s visible weight is thru studying and experimentation, by watching movies on the topic and enjoying round with make-up. There are three major parts to contemplate:

The dimensions of your options

The ratio of your facial options to the “clean house” of your cheeks, chin, and different areas impacts the steadiness of your face. Giant eyebrows, for instance, typically draw consideration away from different options.

Shade, complexion, and distinction

The colours of our options, pores and skin, and hair create a distinction that helps draw consideration to sure parts of our facial make-up. It is a fairly easy idea: brown-colored eyebrows, for instance, will possible draw extra consideration than massive blonde ones.

Ariana Grande’s blonde eyebrows, a method selection for her position in Depraved, present low distinction to her pores and skin tone. Consequently, her face loses dimension, together with her eyes pulling nearly all of the viewer’s focus.
Credit score: Karwai Tang/WireImage

In distinction, darkish eyebrows convey a way of steadiness to Grande’s face.
Credit score: Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photograph Financial institution through Getty Photos

Your bone construction

Your bone construction impacts the depth of your face, the prominence of your options, and the place shadows naturally fall.

Beneath, Type Me Jenn does a fantastic job of explaining the idea with dozens of celeb examples.