Birthday Makeup Slander

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About

Birthday Makeup Slander refers to discussions, memes and videos regarding several men's supposed dislike of heavy makeup some women typically wear on their birthdays. Jokes and slander memes referencing the slang term "birthday makeup" focus on how heavy, cakey and unnatural it can look, with the general idea being that some men prefer their girlfriend's "regular" everyday makeup look over a professional and glamorous full-face beat. Discussions about birthday makeup first appeared on Twitter in 2019 and continued on TikTok into 2022.

Origin

The earliest known viral discussion about birthday makeup being unflattering took place on Twitter on December 24th, 2019, with Twitter^[1] user @CharlesYngboss posting a tweet that read, "The birthday make-up never slaps like the usual one," and gathering over 2,000 likes in three years (seen below, left). The tweet was then quote tweeted by @Farda_Alphonso,^[2] gathering over 5,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).

On December 25th, 2019, Twitter^[3] user @user5124557 posted a meme about birthday makeup, gathering over 600 likes in three years (seen below).

Spread

Discussions about birthday makeup continued on Twitter for consecutive months, with Twitter^[4] user @britaingwd posting a tweet on the topic on January 20th, 2021, and gathering over 5,000 likes in two years (seen below, left). On August 5th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @Deji95 posted a tweet on the topic as well, gathering over 1,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).

On December 13th, 2021, the slang term was added to Urban Dictionary,^[6] gathering over 30 likes in a year (seen below, left). On February 13th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user @wydccalamity posted a tweet about birthday makeup as well, gathering over 17,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

The meme began making an appearance on TikTok in late 2021 through 2022, with TikToker^[8] @guapgod71 stitching a now-deleted video made by @trent2x.0 about birthday makeup, gathering over 8 million likes in over a year (seen below, left). TikToker^[9] @blackhottie2000 posted a video about the topic on December 18th, 2021, gathering over 2.4 million plays and 200,000 likes in just over a year (seen below, right).

On February 24th, 2022, TikToker^[10] @therealbigwinnn posted a joke about birthday makeup, gathering over 1.8 million plays and 200,000 likes in nearly a year (seen below, right). On September 18th, TikToker^[11] @jaysqrddd posted a video about women hiring professional makeup artists for their birthday, gathering over 1 million plays and 140,000 likes in four months (seen below, right).