Sharpie lip liner: the $2 TikTok hack dermatologists warn about

The latest beauty shortcut on TikTok is Sharpie lip liner, a trend that starts in the office supply aisle. Creators are drawing on permanent markers, the kind meant for labeling boxes, and using them as lip liner. The routine is simple: trace the edges of the lips with a Sharpie, usually in red or coral, then layer lip gloss or lipstick over it for a finished look.

Videos of the hack have piled up across the app, with commenters asking exactly which marker shade the creators used and praising the trick as an economical alternative to traditional lip liners. Some creators started by joking that they grabbed a marker because they could not find a real liner, and the Sharpie lip liner videos took off from there. Others now blend multiple marker shades for an ombre effect or use black for a heavy grunge outline.

What dermatologists say about the chemicals

Permanent marker ink was never designed for human skin. The Northern New England Poison Center states on its website that permanent markers, including Sharpie brand products, contain ink made from xylene, toluene and urethane resin. Toluene shows up in paint pigments and thinners, metal cleaners and gasoline, none of which belongs near a mouth.

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Brooke Jeffy, who practices in Scottsdale, Arizona, told Fox News Digital in a report that she finds the trend concerning. "The risk is not worth it," she said, adding that she worries toxins in the ink could be absorbed at levels that raise real health concerns. She also pointed out the irony she sees in the trend: people who avoid ingredients she describes as completely safe are now embracing a product that actually contains toxins.

Dr. Marnie Nussbaum, also a board-certified dermatologist, put it bluntly in an interview with InStyle covered by Woke Waves: "Just because it doesn't burn right away doesn't mean it's safe." According to Nussbaum, lips absorb more than other parts of the skin, which means the ingredients in permanent markers can reach deeper than people expect.

Not everyone is sold on the hack

Even some of the people trying the trend admit it feels off. One TikTok user said in a voiceover that her lips were not burning but were clearly drying out, and that she could taste and smell the chemicals on herself. She told viewers she would not recommend doing it regularly.

Other creators have started posting reaction videos with built-in warnings. One reaction video to the trend drew tens of thousands of likes along with a caption noting that permanent markers are not cosmetic products, are not meant for the lips, and that the video was a reaction to the trend rather than a recommendation. Sharpie's own website advises against using the markers on skin, according to coverage of the trend.

Some participants have invented workarounds rather than dropping the hack. A few say they coat their lips in balm first, treating it as a barrier between the ink and the skin. Others brush off the risk entirely, comparing the chemicals to whatever else touches their mouths in an ordinary day. Neither approach has any backing from the dermatologists weighing in, who keep returning to the same point: the ink was not tested for cosmetic use, and no home trick changes what is inside it.

The gap between how the trend looks and how it feels is part of what keeps it going. Videos sell the result: sharp lines, deep color, a full lip that reads as expensive on camera. The physical reality, reported by the people filming, runs in the other direction, with dryness, chemical taste and a smell that no lip gloss fully hides. The mismatch has not slowed the copies, which suggests the audience is buying the idea of the shortcut as much as the shortcut itself.

Why a marker became a makeup bag item

The appeal comes down to a familiar tradeoff. Drugstore lip liners cost money, and marker ink costs almost nothing. For a generation that grew up watching clean, expensive aesthetics get pushed on every feed, rejecting the price tag is part of the appeal. Commentators have dubbed the mood recession-core glam, a look that treats a cheap marker as both a cosmetic and a small statement against overpriced beauty products.

The Sharpie trend also sits inside a bigger wave of internet-driven beauty experiments that keeps pulling everyday objects into makeup routines. School-supply highlighters have been used as eyeshadow, food dye mixed with petroleum jelly has become a long-wear lip stain, and eyelash glue has been pressed into service as brow gel. The Sharpie version just happens to be the one that got doctors to speak up, because of how directly the chemicals contact the mouth.

Dermatologists counter that cheap has a limit, and that this particular shortcut crosses it. Long-term use of permanent marker on skin risks irritation and allergic reactions, and the sensitive skin of the lips makes absorption easier. For now the videos keep coming, with the views going to the creators drawing the lines and the warnings coming from the doctors who would prefer the markers stay on the paper.