Rímel (Mascara Meme)

About

Rímel, or eyelash mascara in English, refers to a Spanish-speaking TikTok trend in which women share stories about their "eyelash mascara" as a metaphor for relationships. The trend also went viral on Twitter, where some users misunderstood what the reference as a makeup trend rather than a meme with a double meaning.

Origin

On October 28th, 2022, TikTok user Sofi Espinoza^[1] (@sooofi.er) published a poem in which she makes the analogy comparing rímel (mascara in English), eyelashes and relationships, saying that "when the mascara gets dry and weird, you have to throw it away. But how do I do it?” The poem started a trend on the app and Twitter where people tried to figure out the hidden message in the poem. The video has accumulated 506,000 views and 89,000 likes in almost a month.

Spread

After the video went viral, TikTok and Twitter users began to comment on their relationship experiences but using the analogy of the mascara. The Colombian actress Lina Tejeiro^[2] joined the trend to talk about her former partner, the Colombian singer Juan Duque. Her tweet says "Months ago I bought an eyelash mascara, I loved its packaging. I used it and it left my eyelashes beautiful. But as the days went by it dried up and it wasn't the same quality. I tried to give it time but it got worse. And since I don't like to settle for less than I deserve, I threw it away." The post, uploaded on November 10th, 2022, received 99,000 likes and 11,800 retweets in five days (seen below).

As the trend grew in popularity, a series of women started to comment on analogies of mascaras as their past relationships. One tweet, posted to Twitter^[3] by @yennyOf on November 9th, 2022, joked that the "mascara" people are posting about is probably being used by other “eyelashes.” Her tweet received 48,800 likes and 5,700 retweets in six days (seen below).

Men’s Reactions

The mascara analogy culminated in several meme reactions by men on social media, like this tweet^[4] by @edgarsts1 on November 9th, 2022, expressing how he felt after he understood what the trend was about (seen below).

A few men also joined forces in trying to create their own version of the “rímel meme.” Twitter^[5] user @julianforeroo asked his followers to help him find a name for women using a Penguins of Madagascar meme. The post received 5,500 likes and 327 retweets in three days (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References