An odd and sometimes unnerving makeup trend is on the rise online, serving up some wild and seriously weird looks.
The Uncanny Valley makeup trend aims to lean into that mystifying, normal-adjacent space that sets our hair on end, and — in some cases, at least — it’s working. People are largely taking to TikTok to share their best attempts at the trend, and many are leaving a trail of discomfited viewers in their wake. It’s the perfect look for the Halloween season, but not all Uncanny Valley looks are equal.
There’s an art to pulling off the makeup style, even though no two looks are exactly the same. You can’t just toss some toner on and call it uncanny — there are a few tricks to pulling off the right Uncanny Valley look.
How to pull off Uncanny Valley makeup
Before we dig into the details of the Uncanny Valley makeup trend, it feels prudent to dig into what exactly the Uncanny Valley is.
It’s a common phrase among gamers and fans of 3D animation since the strange visual phenomenon crops up commonly among both art styles. You’ve ventured into uncanny valley territory when a human, or human-looking, character appears almost alive — but not quite. When it’s so close to real you can almost believe it is, but something feels off, that’s the sweet spot in which the uncanny valley lives. Think of characters like every Tom Hanks iteration in The Polar Express: Those bright, but somehow lifeless, eyes? Uncanny, creepy, and unnerving. He looks human — almost. And the fact that he comes close but doesn’t quite match up makes him endlessly eerie to the rest of us.
That feeling the uncanny valley elicits is likely a result of our silly monkey brains telling us NOT to trust that strange, almost-human thing — a survival instinct that probably helped us survive as a species this long.
Now let’s get to the oddball TikTokers working to elicit this exact feeling through makeup. In order to pull off the look, as you’ve likely now realized, you’ll need to alter your features enough to make them appear… odd. Anything to make your face look a little less real, and a little more off-putting, will make your attempt at the trend more successful.
Plenty of the people participating in the trend are missing the mark, of course, and testing out makeup looks that simply don’t commit enough to the bit. Sure, your makeup looks a little weird, but it doesn’t look uncanny. That requires a touch more skill.
There’s no one way to do the Uncanny Valley makeup trend, of course, but there are a few steps that will help. Things like changing the look of your eyes, eliminating your eyebrows (not permanently, please), and adding contours where they don’t quite make sense will help create that perfect human-adjacent look.
Other things like lengthening the mouth, adding shadow in odd places, and over-emphasizing certain contours will likewise aid in achieving that curiously eerie look. One of the most effective methods used by TikTokers is adding some color to the center of both the bottom and top eyelid — making it look like the iris of the eye edges out over the lid. It’s weird, I hate it, but it’s crazy effective.
Plenty more creative ways to pull off the Uncanny Valley makeup trend will inevitably be discovered in the coming weeks, as skillful makeup users lean on their longstanding expertise to creep the rest of us out. Just remember, if a strange, almost-human person sends a chill down your spine over on TikTok, they’re probably real, and simply participating in a makeup trend.
Probably.