I’m usually a “never say never” kind of person, but here I go: I will never join TikTok.
And yet, here I am, recommending a product that went viral thanks to TikTok! The NYX Fat Oil Lip Drip is indeed a beautiful product. It’s tenacious, feels lovely on the lips, and the shade Status Update (which I’m wearing below) has a surprising amount of pigment for a lip oil. I’m impressed!
Status Update is a true berry color—it reminds me of raspberries. I think it’s a really pretty shade for fall.
Against my better judgment, I ended up picking up a second shade, Scrollin’, which looks like a rusty brownie orange in the tube. On me, it’s a pinky neutral; the orange tones are nowhere to be found. I’m always on the hunt for neutrals that lean more orange or brown on me, but I think the natural color of my lips can interact with lip products in unexpected ways. At any rate, I’m not mad at Scrollin’, even if it doesn’t quite give me the color I had hoped it would.
Left: me wearing Scrollin’. Right: swatches of Scrollin’ (top) and Status Update (bottom). Swatch photos taken indoors.
What makes a product go viral? Me and 10,000 marketing professionals are trying to answer this question. And while I’m not a pro, just a writer with a beauty budget, I think viral products, as a group, tap into our need for belonging. They may have a seductive quality that lures us in—a color, a finish, a glow—but ultimately the decision to buy a viral product is about joining the club. We are tribal beings, searching for our people and our place in the world.
And capitalism knows this. “Belonging” isn’t something that is established once and remains set in stone. We need affirmation, over and over, that we still belong. Purchasing viral products is one way that those of us who love beauty can feel that we belong to a community that exists both online, in the form of TikTok, beauty YouTube, and other platforms, and in real person, in beauty retail stores and with our real-life tribe.
It’s so FUN to buy something that’s super popular! It’s so great to find someone else using the products you love too, or wearing the same brands you love. For me, it is a true moment of bonding; my loneliness is assuaged for a few moments. The feeling of belonging is a pause in the bleak experience that is late-stage capitalism.
The irony, of course, is that capitalism has weaponized our feelings of isolation against us. We feel lonely or lacking in community, so we turn to social media to comfort ourselves. We get sucked into beauty TikTok, and we find ourselves driving to Ulta, looking for the NYX lip oils so we too can slather our lips in a beautiful glossy product. We love it! It looks so pretty, and it feels nice too! We are, for now, happy. We did a thing. We bought makeup.
It’s a dangerous game we are playing. Capitalism cannot heal the wounds it creates. And yet. Count me among those who think that beauty and art matter, that creative expression can be a positive force against the nihilistic doom forces we’re all facing. And what is TikTok if not a collective experience of creative expression? I mentioned earlier that I don’t plan to join the app. I refuse to put the app on my phone or join it as a creator. And the reason for that is that I’m already cripplingly addicted to my phone, so that last thing I need is an app that has an especially powerful algorithm to feed me the content I want to see, 24/7. But I can still tip my hat to the creators on TikTok. And I can be happy for them that they’ve found a platform they enjoy, even if it’s not for me. My deepest hope for them is that they are creating a place where they feel a sense of belonging—not just on TikTok, but in real life too.
Product details: NYX Fat Oil Lip Drip
Sold: At Ulta or on the NYX website
Shades featured: Status Update and Scrollin’
Price: $9.00
PPS A thoughtful video about the dangers of the “for you” algorithms that are driving apps like TikTok: “What About Me Syndrome” by Kyla Fish.