The Viral Eyeliner Bandage Technique Looks A Little Wild, But The Results Are Undeniable

In 2023, it seems like TikTok is the new YouTube of eye makeup tutorials, as the controversial social media platform teaches us more eyeliner hacks each week than we thought we'd learn in a lifetime. Between TikTok's finger eyeliner technique for a smoky liner look, and the app's invisible eyeliner trend for a soft cat eye, TikTok offers countless eyeliner hacks. 

However, all those eyeliner-related strategies and tips can get a bit overwhelming. After so many eyeliner-focused videos pop up on our For You pages, we tend to confuse the techniques and forget what to do because we see so much similar content daily.

Once in a while, a bold, seemingly out-of-nowhere eye makeup technique catches our eyes and stays in our heads even after we've watched 10 other eyeliner hack videos. That's what happened with the eyeliner bandage technique — oddly enough, TikTok taught us how to use a bandage to help us apply sleek eyeliner. Yeah, it sounds weird, but it somehow works.

Before you cringe at the idea of taking a bandage out of your First Aid kit and adding it to your makeup area, remember that trying this hack isn't expensive, so it can't hurt to give it a chance. TikToker @kat_longoria posted a video showing viewers how to do this eyeliner trick, and that video has more than four million likes at the time of writing. 

In the video, the TikToker cut off a bandage and positioned that bandage on her face so its ends formed diagonal lines connecting the ending points of her brows and eyes. The bandage made a V-shape on the TikToker's face, as the center of the bandage wrapped around the bottom of her nose. Then, the TikToker added a much smaller piece of bandage on top of each eye, and the endings connected to the ends of the other bandage piece. Lining up the edges, she had an outline showing her where to add eyeliner.

Once the TikToker's outline was ready, she used her fingers to fill the non-bandaged spot with dark eye makeup, then removed the bandages, resulting in flawless eyeliner wing effects. The eyeliner looked like a professional makeup artist applied it — not a quirky bandage technique. Viewers were impressed, and while someone commented, "you literally don't need to put tape all the way to your nose," someone else wrote, "honestly ... it takes forever to get a perfect wing and this took three seconds."

While the long bandage hack is brilliant for creating a sleek wing design, some commenters made sense in noting that it seems unnecessary to use such a large enough bandage that it touches your nose. If you agree with these complaints, try using smaller Band-Aids instead.

For example, TikToker @jazoeee posted a video where she followed similar steps to the viral bandage TikTok, but used two Band-Aids to create the outline instead. The bandages took up significantly less room on her face, staying near the eye area only. While the TikToker used eyeshadow instead of liner in this video, she still ended up with that perfect wing look — proving that Band-Aids can be just as effective as larger bandages for this hack.

Moreover, TikToker @girlfriend_au posted a video using classic Band-Aids for this hack, too, and the results were professional-looking black wings. She touched the wings up after taking off the Band-Aids, and the results were perfect. The TikToker's caption for this video is "This Band-Aid eyeliner hack is all time 🔥," and we can't argue with those stunning results. 

We have a feeling that beauty enthusiasts are about to start stocking up on bandages and Band-Aids — though not for their First Aid kits.