Dots For Dates: Is This Makeup Sorcery?

The sweet sting of unrequited love leads many of us to partake in activities we wouldn’t usually stoop to.

Instagram deep dives, thirst trap story posts – god forbid we reach the quote posting stage. Some of us may move on to greener pastures, or dating apps, in search of someone with mutual feelings, but there are some on TikTok trying a different, somewhat unusual approach.

There’s not much on beauty TikTok that can surprise us anymore. From bizarre eyebrow trends to unbelievable transformations, viewers scream sorcery, positively and negatively, in disbelief at the insane talent creators showcase. Makeup has often been labelled as sorcery, but one trend has put a different spin on the label. People are now placing four simple, white dots around the eye with the promise it will hypnotise people into falling in love with them – stay with me here.

It’s a bold claim that makeup could hold this spell casting power. The trend blew up last year, and its bizarreness made many label it as another fast passing TikTok fad. However, a year later and the momentum hasn’t faltered. The app is still full of people of all genders trying out the look and garnering albeit mixed results. 

While this hypnotic claim is new, the dotted eye makeup trend has been around since the ’60s. With other ’60s trends like gogo boots, mod silhouettes, and graphic liner looks making comebacks in this decade, the current popularity of dotted makeup isn’t too much of a shock. Since the ’60s, many takes on the eye look have caught on, but none as much as this one. Perhaps the promise of love, or at least some attention, is more enticing than we wish to admit.

The current trend and accompanying claims of sorcery can be traced back to creator Michelle Diaz. Diaz regularly sports the four white eyeliner dots around her eyes, claiming she doesn’t feel like herself without them while doling out advice on love, dating, and relationships. The makeup come dating hack blew up her account, which doesn’t share many makeup tricks, but then again, is this a makeup trick or a dating one? 

Diaz told us, “I didn’t start wearing my dots for men or to make men fall in love with me. They’ve been a part of my makeup routine for about four years now. I started experimenting with them because I loved how they looked and was first inspired by @allyiahsface, who would use two dots. It was a nice way to add a pop to the eyes without having to use heavy eyeshadows.”

“One day, I randomly experimented with four dots. I started noticing a lot of men stopping to compliment me. These four carefully placed, tiny pops of white created a subtle yet enchanting detail that draws attention to the eyes, I later learned, through symmetry.

Since I make relationship content on TikTok, I decided to share the tutorial with the makeup lovers in my community. I started getting a ton of messages and comments from people who’d tried it that they were also getting a noticeable amount of attention and the video eventually went viral.”

The look is incredibly simple to do, taking a matter of seconds. Take a white liquid liner, look straight ahead in the mirror, not down or up or at an odd angle, and lightly dab the tip of your liner to create four dots around the eye; one at the inner corner, one at the outer corner, one in the middle of your lower lash line, and one just above your crease. For the sake of symmetry, keep your dots as aligned as your liner skills allow. You don’t have to stick to white liner. The look can also be created using different colours, rhinestones, pearls, or anything you fancy. You can dot over an extravagant eyeshadow look, or you can draw them on your otherwise makeup-free face. It’s a fluid idea, just stick to 4 dots. 

We can promise that it will draw attention to your eyes, framing them subtly. You are bound to get plenty of compliments on the look, but we can’t ensure a date, let alone full-blown love. That one’s up to you.

Alongside the makeup look, separating those partaking in the trend for the aesthetic and those taking part to find their one and only, is an intense take on the trend. In these videos, people use a viral affirmation audio by life coach Amanda Clayton to manifest a specific person, e.g. the douche that got away, back into their lives while drawing on the four-dot eyeliner design. 

It’s hard to get into the nitty-gritty of why people believe that this does work, not that we can say it doesn’t. There is literally no explanation anywhere telling us why drawing four dots around the eye could hypnotise someone, which also means there’s no explanation telling us it doesn’t. Extensive online scouring brings up no indication of where the link between the dots and hypnotising lovers comes from.

Diaz’s comment section and stitched videos show a pretty even split of success and failure stories. Some rave about the flood of compliments received and good fortunes stumbled across while wearing the look, and others said nothing happened.

What kind of sorcery is this? Probably none at all – surely? The almost ritualistic application of these dots around the eye while believing that they can do good may, subconsciously, make you more confident and open to conversations or situations that arise throughout your day.

This readiness for adventure, that spark of hope lit by the possibility that some magical force is guiding you to greatness, may cast a drawing aura around you. Or, perhaps the subtle-yet-statement look is enough on its own to draw attention and compliments. It is a cute look.  

You might be thinking it’s a load of rubbish, or your brain might be going, ‘finally, a makeup hack for brainwashing men’. If nothing else, the look is quite the conversation starter and meeting new people and making new friends, by any means, is a good time. Just remember, if you have to draw white dots on your face while reciting love spells into the mirror just to get a text back, you’re probably better off without them.

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