Beauty on a budget: Top 5 affordable ‘Douyin’ style makeup products

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Many creators on Douyin showcase Chinese makeup tutorials, with these videos soon becoming viral and taking TikTok by storm.

The Chinese makeup style has been dubbed by TikTok users as “Douyin makeup”. 

“Douyin makeup” is an umbrella term for a broad makeup style, defined by soft and ethereal looks that give a doll-like appearance.

Here’s our top 5 most affordable and effective makeup products to help you achieve the viral look:

Etude House’s Fixing Tint is considered a K-beauty cult classic. Available in 13 shades, the lip stain is smooth and transfer-proof.

Donning a faint sweet chocolate scent and a doe-foot applicator, these tints are non-drying matte liquid lipsticks that come in a variety of muted nudes and pinks.

With its non-drying mask-proof formula, the Etude House Fixing Tints have been a fan favourite globally.

The flexible doe-foot applicator makes it easy to do what Koreans call “over lips”, which is basically overdrawing your lips slightly for a fuller pout – a trend also present in Douyin makeup. 

Dusty Beige, the most popular shade, is an opaque, muted greyish mauve that works perfectly as a base for cool colours.

You can get the Etude House Fixing Tint here from $8.39.

Judydoll is hailed as one of the best makeup brands in China, known for producing high quality dupes (replicas) of highly-raved cosmetics at budget prices.

One of the most popular dupes that Judydoll has created is the Judydoll Starlight Highlighting Powder. This highlighter brick glides on with a dazzling shine, similar to the famous BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector – but at less than a fraction of the price.

You can get the Judydoll Starlight Highlighting Powder here for $10.69.

Many Douyin makeup looks feature baby-soft, smooth skin, but achieving such a poreless, matte effect is no small feat.

An important step in Douyin makeup is applying the right kind of setting powder to blur any oiliness or texture still visible after foundation application.

Formulated with Jeju minerals and mint to refresh the skin while maintaining the oil and moisture balance, Innisfree’s No Sebum Mineral Powder instantly mattifies and corrects dull skin caused by sebum and oil.

Innisfree’s No Sebum Mineral Powder is available as a loose powder and as a pressed powder pact. You can get the Innisfree No Sebum Mineral Powder for $7.78 and the Mineral Pact for $11.23 here.

Also known as manga or webtoon lashes, this popular new lash style emphasises the upper lash line with longer clumped accent lashes resembling small spikes.

This results in an exaggerated doll-eye, similar to that of female anime and manga characters.

However, as strip lashes are made to be disposable after only a few uses, splurging on a set just isn’t budget-friendly. 

Shein lashes are both affordable and effective, a better option for those who are on a stricter budget.

You can get Shein Manhua Lashes here for just $2.50.

An important eye makeup detail in Douyin makeup is the contouring of the under eye. Originating from Korea, this trend is called “Aegyo-sal” makeup. 

“Aegyo-sal” refers to the roll of skin right beneath your eyes that frame the lower eyelids. This small detail to the eye is widely envied by Koreans as it makes one look younger and innocent. 

Sometimes called “eye smiles”, “aegyo-sal” makes the eye appear bigger because of the pop it gives the eye.

In order to achieve this look, one has to first outline the bag of the eye lightly with a light nudish-brown pencil, then highlight it with a nudish-cream pencil. 

To top it all off, after blending the products out, glitter is added in the inner corner of the eye as well as the centre of the under eye.

Judydoll’s Creamy Gel Liner does this job perfectly as the pencil liners glide effortlessly onto the skin, depositing a highly-pigmented yet easily blendable colour.

You can get the Judydoll Creamy Gel Liner here for just $7.45 each.