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Tue, Jul 30, 2013
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Latest Korean fad: Under-eye fat

For most of us, eye bags can be a problem. We go to great lengths to get rid of them.

Not in South Korea, though. Women there are Latest Korean fad: Under-eye fat

doing everything they can to make the skin under their eyes fatter.

The new trend - considered to make you more attractive and youthful-looking - is called "aegyo sal".

It means "eye smiles" or "cute skin", and involves accentuating the fatty deposits beneath eyes rather than drawing attention to the dark circles caused by sleep deprivation.

Some Korean women achieved this look either through make-up or by using little sticky strips of tape that make the skin beneath the eye "pop" out, Mail Online reported.

Some even have plastic surgery, while others resort to using commercial filler and fat grafts.

Blogger Patricia Cahiga, who has written a post on blog.myfatpocket.com about how to achieve the look, explains: "Aegyo sal are not eyebags. Eyebags are caused by lack of sleep or if you're unlucky, caused by your genes, and makes you look like a sleep-deprived zombie or an unadorable panda, but aegyo sal is loosely translated as 'cute/beautiful skin'.

"Aegyo sal is the layer of skin under the eyelids that gives your eyes more life and basically makes it look bigger."

China's micro-blogging website Weibo demonstrates how to achieve the look using tiny strips of sticky plastic, and make-up bloggers have posted tutorial videos on YouTube showing how to use makeup alone to make the eye puff more pronounced.

Plastic surgeon Kenneth Kim runs a website, Asian Eyelid Surgery, where he explains procedures often carried out on eyes in the Far East.

Dr Kim wrote: "Youthful lower eyelid fullness is commonly seen in younger Asian females. Essentially, it is a bulge of fat immediately under the lash line that creates puffiness under the lower eyelid.

"Different from eye bags, which can make one appear tired and aged, youthful lower eyelid fullness gives the appearance of youthful, friendlier eyes as it is associated with smiling."

Dr Kim said that the youthful lower eyelid fullness procedure can be done in combination with lower eyelid surgery.

'Another popular method is using Restylane commercial filler or fat grafting, which involves the transferring of one's own fat tissue (usually from the abdomen, thigh, or hip area) to the under-eye.


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