Why do I always end up with mascara under my eyes

Syel · 8 November 2026

You look in the bathroom mirror and there it is: two grey smudges under your eyes that you never saw coming.

All day your hand went up to your eyes ten times without you thinking about it. A yawn at the screen, a tear that leaves on its own on the bus, a corner of your eye rubbed while someone talks to you. Nobody said a word. I can picture the moment you catch it in the mirror, that little 'oh, since when.'

Those smudges are your day coming out through your eyes, a little at every hour. The tiredness, the yawn you held back, whatever stung and never got said. By night you have just enough left to collapse, so you fall asleep with it on, and in the morning the mark is still there. It doesn't say you did something wrong. It says all of that had nowhere to go.