What exactly is the procedure by which some Asian women apply tape to their eyelids to make them appear more round (in lieu of surgery)? I’m imagining that they would stick the tape on the upper eyelid, apply a little tension, then fasten it to the area just below the eyebrow and cover everything with makeup. But this doesn’t seem like it would work, as the tape would be visible and it would interfere with blinking. How do they do it?
You’re getting lots of views here but no replies, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for a self-answering cite for this practice. I’ve never heard of it.
You sure it was tape and not cosmetic surgery?
I’ve spent plenty of time in East Asia, but I’ve never seen this. I’d like a cite, too. Even though it sounds pretty strange, it would be cheaper than surgery.
BTW, what they want is not “round” eyes. They want to reduce the pronounced epicanthic fold that makes it look as if they have a “single eyelid”. Many prefer the “double eyelid” look (what a lot of Americans call “round eyes”). Some East Asians are born with it.
No wonder my (Euro-ancestry) mother once claimed my Chinese wife looked cross-eyed.
Also, Cecil apparently has something about epicanthic folds. Buy the book!
Here’s an article about medical uses for cosmetic eyelid tape that has some instructions and pictures.
It’s a matter of fashion. A hundred years ago in many Asian countries, the “single eyelid” look was considered the height of beauty. These days, the women want to avoid it. I guess it’s similar to Western ideals changing from a Reubenesque figure to skinny-as-a-rake. The current fashion in Asia is for the Western look. Some Asian women I know have had nose jobs and breast enhancements (my Vietnamese Girlfiend wants both but I’m trying to talk her out of it).
I’ve heard of this, and I think my mother either knew girls who did this or did this herself. :eek: I’m not sure exactly how they did it, but I have a good guess.
Take a piece of Scotch tape, about an inch and a half long or however wide your eye is. Cut it so that it’s about an eighth or quarter inch wide. Close the eye you want to work on. Now, stick that piece of tape along your eyelid, along your eyelash line. When you open your eye, the eyelid should fold over itself, giving the appearance of a double eyelid.
Don’t look at me-- I think it’s weird, too. 
I know there is some sort of a paste/glue. I saw a show on tv about beauty and it showed an Asian woman applying a glue-type product in order to create a more pronounced fold in her eyelid. . .
So who has double eyelids? and Who has single eyelids? I’m confused.
my kid sister has double eyelids, and people go up to her and compliment her on them. i don’t, so i’m mostly unnoticed. go figure…
Having read this thread yesterday, I asked Astrogirl (who is WAY Korean, and into the Korean fashions about looking westernized) about it.
She had never heard of such a thing. Lots of Korean girls have plastic surgery to create a false “double eyelid” (and it often ends up looking horrible, BTW), but we’ve never heard of any tape or glue…
FTR: Astrogirl has never had any plastic surgery, and has one “double eyelid” and one single eyelid. I like both! If she asked me to choose between them, I’d be at a loss…
I should add that my mom said girls did this when she was a teenager. That means this sort of thing would have been popular in the mid to late 60s. I imagine the practice died a merciful death sometime during the 70s. I’ve never seen a girl with tape on her eyelids, and you can be sure that if there ever was a girl who did that today, she’d get plenty of strange looks.
It seems many races want to emulate whites. Filipinos, for instance, want to be lighter-skinned. All of their TV stars and movie stars are light-skinned. Some even bleach their skin.
Whilst this may well be true, from what I understand of the Vietnamese and Thais, rather than actually trying to look Caucasian, a lot of them merely want to look pale. This is a class issue. In these hot countries, dark skin is associated with manual or farm work, and fair skin is indicative of a white collar job. In Vietnam, this probably has something to do with the development of the traditional ao dai, a loose fitting, flowing garment which covers the whole body. Even here in Australia, at the slightest hint of bright sunlight, many Asian women will be quick to whip out a parasol or a big hat, and they are quite bemused to see the fair skinned Aussie girls (whose colouring they envy) actually trying to get a tan.
It might not have anything to do with trying to emulate whites. Some studies have shown that large eyes are a universal component to female facial beauty.
http://www.muohio.edu/~psybersite/attraction/culture.htx
If this is correct, using adhesives to create a more pronounced epicanthic fold might not be as strange as it sounds.