How to go viral in the eye makeup niche on Instagram
What 800+ viral eye makeup reels have in common: what they show, how they start, what they sound like, and who posts them. Real numbers from Aubrium's library.
"If you have hooded eyes you can still get away with that wing 🥺" sits on a liner tutorial that reached 14.9 million views. The creator behind it had 13,855 followers. The caption keeps the wink going: "For your (hooded) eyes only 👀".
Hooded lids, wings and lashes come up again and again in this niche, and nearly all of it is teaching: 83% of the 800+ viral eye makeup reels in Aubrium's library are tutorials. 260+ cleared a million views, and the account behind the middle reel has 22,541 followers. Here's what those reels share. For the wider rules, read our overview of reels that go viral; the niche directory has every other niche we read.
Viral eye makeup reels are tutorials, 83% of them, and 88% show a face. The 12% that don't went much further, a middle reel of 88 times its account's followers against 20. Text appears on 80%, a song on 53%, and 28% were posted by accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers.
Aubrium's library, 31 October 2026.
What kind of eye makeup reels go viral?
Tutorials, and it isn't close: 83% teach a wing, a lash set or a shadow, step by step. Transformations come a distant second, at 4%.
Tutorials' middle reel got 21×, and the 35 transformations went a little further, 24×. The chart's huge numbers sit on tiny rows: slideshows hit 112× and montages 108×, but there are only 16 and 11 of them, far too few to read anything into. Teaching is simply what this niche does.
Do you need to show your face?
Most do, at 88%, but the faceless ones went much further. Those 12% hit 88× in the middle; reels with a face, 20×. 11% show no person at all, and 28% feature someone speaking to the lens.
Should eye makeup reels have text on screen?
Yes, and mostly a light touch: three in four, 76%, carry a line or two; 20% go bare and 3% heavy. Those 28 heavy reels went furthest, a middle reel of 54×, but it's a small group. Bare reels reached 32× and light ones 21×.
Trending song or your own sound?
More often than not, a song: 53%, well above the library-wide 37%. Their own sound, at 43%, did better on reach, 29× against 18× in the middle. Borrowed audio, 4%, reached 34×, from just 32 reels.
What hooks work for eye makeup reels?
The transformation tease is the commonest opener, on 22%: the before, the hack, the routine. Relatable lines and callouts got the furthest of the bigger groups, 34× and 32×; number lists show 60×, but there are only 9. Then there's the hookless 22%, no hook of any type, whose middle reel reached 41×, above every bar on the chart. Hooks are short, 9 words in the middle, and the shortest went further. Six we picked:
- RelatableText on screen
If you have hooded eyes you can still get away with that wing 🥺
- Transformation teaseText and spoken
Hacks for SHORT lashes that actually work
- QuestionText on screen
anyone else have a dead lash that won't fall out but also won't curl??
- CalloutText on screen
Hooded eyeshadow hack on someone who actually has hooded eyes
- WarningText on screen
Never skip the lower lash liner ❌
- Curiosity gapText and spoken
This shouldn't even work...
Polished, or filmed on your phone?
Polished, at 90%. Yet the 10% filmed plainly on a phone did better, 45× against 22×. Fast cuts, 37% of reels, reached 29×; a medium pace, 19×.
Can a small eye makeup account go viral?
Yes, though here they're the minority: 28% of these reels were posted by accounts below 10,000 followers. Those that got through went a long way. The tiniest band, under 2,000 followers, shows 252×; 2,000 to 5,000 followers, 100×; the top band, 10×.
Your next eye makeup reel, by the numbers
83% are tutorials
Teaching is the default; transformations trail at 4%.
88% show a face
The faceless 12%: 88× for the middle one.
80% put text on screen
Usually a line; bare reels reached 32, light ones 21.
53% use a song
Own sound, at 43%, went further: 29 against 18.
9 words, the middle hook
Shortest ones, 1 to 4 words, got 25×.
59% ask for nothing
Zero calls to comment or follow.
Keep reading
Every hook type, with lines you can study, is on the best hooks for eye makeup reels. The wider makeup world has its own pages: how makeup tutorials go viral, what works in makeup hauls and beauty brand reels that went viral.
Questions people ask
What eye makeup content goes viral on Instagram?
Tutorials: 83% of viral eye makeup reels in Aubrium's library teach a look step by step, and the middle one reached 21× its account's followers.
Do you need to show your face for eye makeup reels?
No, though 88% do. The faceless 12% reached a middle reel of 88×, against 20× with a face.
Should eye makeup reels use trending audio?
53% use a song, more than the library's 37%. Reels on their own sound, 43%, reached 29×, and songs 18×.
How long should an eye makeup hook be?
Short. A typical hook is 9 words, and 1 to 4 words got 25× for the middle reel, against 7× past 20 words.
How many followers do viral eye makeup accounts have?
Only 28% of viral eye makeup reels were posted by accounts under 10,000 followers. Sort them all by follower count and the middle reel's account has 22,541.
How we did this
We looked at every eye makeup reel in Aubrium's library on 31 October 2026: 800+ reels from 600+ creators with 1,000 to 100,000 followers, each of which reached far more people than its creator has followers. We counted every reel filed in Aubrium's eye makeup niche; a reel can sit in more than one niche.
Format, faces, text, sound and hooks are labels Aubrium's reader puts on every post. Every number here describes reels that already went viral, so none of it is the odds for a new one.
Changelog
- First version.
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