Bespectacled Beauty: TikTok’s Hack To Make Glasses & Eye Makeup Work

I used to hate wearing glasses, so much so that I went through the first couple of years of high school squinting hopelessly at the whiteboard, trying to decipher the blue marker blobs.

When I finally succumbed to my terrible eyesight, I eagerly jumped at any opportunity to wear contact lenses. I thought it was the only way to feel properly put together, cue The Princess Diaries' iconic makeover scene.

Glasses have occasionally sprung into popularity — from blue light glasses to retro sunglasses — which has helped my own love-hate-vision-dependent relationship with glasses. But I still skimp on fun eyeshadow looks because what's the point when my glasses swallow up all the hard work?

That is until I stumbled across 22-year-old Roni aka @percievemepls on TikTok.

Roni creates ethereal and experimental makeup looks that work with glasses instead of against them. Most traditional eye makeup looks are covered by glasses' frames, but here, the frames act as an outline for the makeup look.

The beauty of the hack is that it is completely customisable to your style. Go for a fairy vibe, or go for a tinted blue, Avator-esque look. To achieve the look, Roni recommends keeping your glasses on to outline the borders of your frames (where you want the eyeshadow to sit). She applies concealer with a thin makeup brush before filling in the area with powder as a base for the eye makeup. At this stage, it might look like you have a terrible glasses tan — but trust the process. As you would with any other makeup look, apply eyeshadow on top of the primed area.

For those who lean into more of a minimalist makeup look, take a leaf out of TikToker Steph Hui's book. She opts for a pair of wide frames before applying a subtle swipe of warm-toned coral powder under her eyes.

For dark rounded frames or thin metallic frames, Steph packs on blush across her high cheekbones and nose bridge, giving her a sun-kissed look that's not hidden by her specs.