They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. But what's the point of having the clearest and brightest windows if the curtains are blocking the view?
That pretty much sums up how I felt about my eyelids up until about grade 10 when I still had mono-lids. I am definitely not trying to say that everyone has to have double eyelids in order to have beautiful expressive eyes or anything like that. And there are many mono-lidded Korean celebrities and Chinese models who are/were immensely popular, e.g. Sohee from Wondergirls, Rain, Baekhyun from EXO-K, Du Juan, Liu Wen etc. etc.
In my opinion, mono or double is completely up to personal preference, and I have chosen double for my own vanity. There are those with really piercing eyes or eyes with 'shen' as we would say in Chinese (its hard to capture the exact quality, kind of like having a certain lively energy or spirit?) that can cut through the air with a single look. And some with beautiful deep looking eyes that you would happily drown yourself in.
People with big eyes or the illusion of bigger eyes (i.e. those with double eyelids) can make up for their sleepiness or 'lack of depth' just by the size of the eyes.
Unfortunately, I was not blessed any of the three above and I looked quite creepy and half dead in my mono-lidded small eyed days, so I wanted double eyelids to make up for something which I felt was lacking. Luckily, I did not have to resort to double eyelid surgery to achieve this. Instead, when I was about 15 years old, I hopped onto the eyelid tape/glue bandwagon and I haven't looked back since.
It took a lot of experimentation and time before I was able to use eyelid tape properly. I've pretty much tried all the kinds you can get. The double sided ones, thin one sided, thick one sided, stretchy fiber, half sized, clear, skin coloured, the list goes on and on. I gave up on eyelid glue very early on because it was much too fiddle-y and inconsistent for me. After many nights sleeping with eyelid tape on, 'Nat, there's something on your eye''s and packs of eyelid tape later, I finally got double eyelids permanently(ish).
That pretty much sums up how I felt about my eyelids up until about grade 10 when I still had mono-lids. I am definitely not trying to say that everyone has to have double eyelids in order to have beautiful expressive eyes or anything like that. And there are many mono-lidded Korean celebrities and Chinese models who are/were immensely popular, e.g. Sohee from Wondergirls, Rain, Baekhyun from EXO-K, Du Juan, Liu Wen etc. etc.
In my opinion, mono or double is completely up to personal preference, and I have chosen double for my own vanity. There are those with really piercing eyes or eyes with 'shen' as we would say in Chinese (its hard to capture the exact quality, kind of like having a certain lively energy or spirit?) that can cut through the air with a single look. And some with beautiful deep looking eyes that you would happily drown yourself in.
People with big eyes or the illusion of bigger eyes (i.e. those with double eyelids) can make up for their sleepiness or 'lack of depth' just by the size of the eyes.
Unfortunately, I was not blessed any of the three above and I looked quite creepy and half dead in my mono-lidded small eyed days, so I wanted double eyelids to make up for something which I felt was lacking. Luckily, I did not have to resort to double eyelid surgery to achieve this. Instead, when I was about 15 years old, I hopped onto the eyelid tape/glue bandwagon and I haven't looked back since.
It took a lot of experimentation and time before I was able to use eyelid tape properly. I've pretty much tried all the kinds you can get. The double sided ones, thin one sided, thick one sided, stretchy fiber, half sized, clear, skin coloured, the list goes on and on. I gave up on eyelid glue very early on because it was much too fiddle-y and inconsistent for me. After many nights sleeping with eyelid tape on, 'Nat, there's something on your eye''s and packs of eyelid tape later, I finally got double eyelids permanently(ish).
What I mean by the 'ish' is that my eyelids are very temperamental. And lately that have been trying to revert back to their single lidded ways. So I had to go out to get some supplies to prevent this from happening. Since I hadn't bought eye lid tape in such a long time, I had trouble remembering what I used before. So at first, I just went to Daiso ($2.8) and bought the generic one sided thin-ish ones and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, after a few days I knew I needed something more heavy duty so that I would be able to put them on at night and be able to take them off the next morning and still keep the double eyelids intact throughout the day. So on my way home after uni one day, I made a quick stop at W Cosmetics and bought the AB Single Eye Tape ($13).
AB Beauty actually has a very comprehensive range of eyelid tapes and eyelid glue too. But I just choose the generic single sided one. The reason for this was because I planned to mostly use them at night and remove them the next day so I wasn't worried about if they would be visible or not. If I had intended to use them during the day time, I would have picked the double sided ones instead as they are less visible.
So what makes a great double eyelid tape anyway?
1. They have to be rigid enough to hold the fold. That was the main problem with the ones from Daiso. The material they used was so thin that when I opened my eye after putting it on, the tape would just sit on top of my monolid...
2. They have to stick well, but not leave residue or painfully pull at your eyelid when removing it.
3. Be tacky enough so that they still maintain their stickiness even after you re-position it.
4. If using during the day time, still be able to hold the fold even after applying eyeshadow or other eye products on your eye area.
5. Or if putting the tape over the makeup, be able to stick on over eye makeup.
It is a pretty big ask for a measly piece of tape, but the AB ones actually ticked all the criteria!
Just to prove my point, I deliberately only used eyelid tape on one eye last night and left the other one so I could show how the fold is maintained throughout the day (left) and also hold the fold even when put on top of eyeshadow (right).
So what makes a great double eyelid tape anyway?
1. They have to be rigid enough to hold the fold. That was the main problem with the ones from Daiso. The material they used was so thin that when I opened my eye after putting it on, the tape would just sit on top of my monolid...
2. They have to stick well, but not leave residue or painfully pull at your eyelid when removing it.
3. Be tacky enough so that they still maintain their stickiness even after you re-position it.
4. If using during the day time, still be able to hold the fold even after applying eyeshadow or other eye products on your eye area.
5. Or if putting the tape over the makeup, be able to stick on over eye makeup.
It is a pretty big ask for a measly piece of tape, but the AB ones actually ticked all the criteria!
Just to prove my point, I deliberately only used eyelid tape on one eye last night and left the other one so I could show how the fold is maintained throughout the day (left) and also hold the fold even when put on top of eyeshadow (right).
Hopefully my eyelids will be able to sort themselves out soon as I don't have to keep up with this. I'm much too lazy to have to do this again on a permanent basis. When I first used this technique to achieve double eyelids, it took about 6-8 months for them to become 'permanent'. As always, thanks for reading. Hope my rant provided at least a little information for some of you ;)
On another note, I really think I was in over my head when I thought I would be able to juggle everything that I have going on right now and still be able to maintain a regularly updated blog. Especially with my disastrous time management skills. But I am always looking to improve myself, so I will try to work some sort of plan out so that I can post more.
On another note, I really think I was in over my head when I thought I would be able to juggle everything that I have going on right now and still be able to maintain a regularly updated blog. Especially with my disastrous time management skills. But I am always looking to improve myself, so I will try to work some sort of plan out so that I can post more.