I Tried TikTok’s Puppy Eyeliner & My Almond Eyes Can’t Get Enough

Beauty TikTokers are bold in a way that sometimes honestly frightens me. What other subset of the Internet is so brazen that they'll casually apply fake tan to their lips and paint concealer on their face in the shape of Harry Potter glasses?

As a beauty lover and TikTok apologist, I thought I'd give one of these trends a go. There's a filter that's currently picking up in popularity called the 'downturned' eyeliner. It looks a bit like a sad clown. Despite that, I was intrigued.

The puppy eyeliner look is the latest eyeliner look doing the rounds (as well as Julia Fox's contentious fashion week moment, of course). As opposed to the classic cat eye which flicks up at the tail, the 'puppy' liner curves downwards. It's a bottom-heavy look, so the triangular tail sits in your crease and is joined to your bottom lash line. The Korean beauty trend aims to round out your eyes, giving wearers a more youthful and sweet look.

For those with hooded, deep-set, or almond eyes, this look is a winner. Cat eyes can get lost in the folds of the outer creases, but puppy liner foregoes this distortion by focusing its attention on the outer lower lash line.

There are a couple of different iterations of the puppy trend. The droopy puppy features a longer tail, and is sometimes paired with drawn-on lower lashes. I tried out the baby puppy liner look — in other words, the more lowkey, subtle alternative.

I followed 21-year-old TikTok user Kelso, whose tutorial has racked up almost one million views. "What you're going to want to do is do your eyeliner straight on, you're not going to lift up your eyelids. You're going to want to make a line that doesn't go past the crease," she says as she draws a line away from the outer edge of her top lash line.

"You can make [the wing] as big as you want, you would just go from below rather than above," she says, connecting the bottom half of the wing to her bottom lash line.

20-year-old TikTok user Irena approaches the trend differently. "Instead of starting on your upper lashes, start on your lower," they say as they begin their wing from their bottom lash line, ending it around their temple. Irena then connects that line to the top lash, creating an outline of the wing, before then filling it in. For the full effect, they also line their inner corner and upper lid.

I put on my go-to base (Nars Sheer Glow, $47, Fluff Cosmetic Bronzing Powder, $53, ILIA multistick for blush, $51, MECCA MAX Pout Pencil, $14, Kosas Eyebrow Gel, $33, and Eyebrow Pencil, $33) before pulling out IL MAKAIGE’S Black Card Liquid Eyeliner, $35.

It's a look that only a liquid liner can achieve, so leave your powders and pencils at home. The waterproof formula and fine tip made application a smooth process. I can't say the same about my nerves! That's why I opted for a baby puppy look — the smaller the confidence, the smaller the wing, apparently.

Old habits die hard, so my wing line ended up with a slight upturned flick, instead of the straight or downturned tail it's supposed to have. But I really liked the bottom-heavy wing that accentuated my almond-shaped eyes; I felt that it worked with my eye shape, rather than against it.

For my next attempt, I'll go bigger and better — perhaps even smoking out the bottom wing for a more lived-in look. Puppy love it is.