makeup

We’ve seen before how well-done make-up can be used to drastically alter a person’s appearance, which, we suppose, is kind of the point. That said, many people (probably mostly guys who don’t wear much make-up themselves) are still fascinated by its transformative powers.

And even if you’re an experienced make-up artist, you may still find this simple video of a Korean woman removing half her make-up a fun exercise in perception.

The young South Korean woman’s video has netted over two million views on YouTube since it was uploaded by a Chinese men’s channel on May 2. It starts with the young woman in full make-up showing off a bottle of make-up remover and a cotton pad. As upbeat music plays, she presses the pad to her face and wipes off half her make-up revealing…a perfectly normal looking human being.

▼ Prepare to have your mind blown…kinda.

While we’ve all seen this sort of image before, it is an interesting experiment in perception. “The dress” inspired vicious debate about the nature of blue and white, and if you look closely at this woman’s eyes, you’ll notice something equally confounding. She appears to be wearing iris enlarging contacts to make her eyes look larger, and once she’s done removing half her make-up, her right eye looks suddenly smaller. But we never see her remove the contact! Assuming there’s been no clever editing, she’s still likely wearing the contact and this just goes to show how much a little eye shadow can do! We suppose this is somewhat similar to how the moon appears to change size as it rises in the sky. Update: As several commenters pointed out, she was probably using eyelid glue to make her eyes look bigger.

With over two million views, the video has, as you might expect, quite a few comments in a wide variety of languages. Here are some of our favorites.

“Wait, wha…?!”
“Where did her eyes disappear to?!”
“All the parts of her face — her eyes, nose, and eyebrows — just disappeared completely!”
“Being a woman must be difficult.”
“Yikes! I’m so glad I was born male. Really!”
“Make-up is magic.”

A number of commenters were simply impressed with her make-up remover, wondering what brand it is. As one commenter wrote, “[N]ormally, [with] the makeup remover we use, we need tons of time and cotton balls.”

While we’re not sure anyone should really be surprised that people look different with and without make-up, we do appreciate the demonstration of just how different a person can look. Now, if only it could change how the contents of our bank accounts looked too…

Image/reference: YouTube/牛男网
[ Read in Japanese ]