"I'm considering getting surgery on my eyelids and my friends are horrified."

To my friends’ utter dismay, I’ve recently been mulling over whether going under the knife to get me some beautiful eyelids is worth the pain. Beauty is pain. Beauty is pain.

Also known as Asian upper blepharoplasty, double eyelid surgery is basically a small incision made along the top eyelid to create a natural crease.

Before you say it- no, it’s not so my eyelids will finally resemble the very beautifully creased eyelids of a Caucasian person. Nor would this surgery be to please da boiz/my male fans/admirers (there are countless). It is first and foremost about convenience.

My eyelids are… Let’s call them sisters, not twins. Perhaps distant relatives.

My left has my dream crease, but only sometimes makes an appearance when it wants to party. Most of the time it’s as lazy as me on a Saturday night and lays low, aka the crease inconveniently disappears.

The right eyelid? Well, it’s a fleshy mess in there. A whole lot of eye meat and no crease to balance it out- THE WORST. Although my friends don’t notice, when I look in the mirror I see one eye that’s wide awake and the other way that’s fast asleep.

So, you can imagine the shock on their faces when I casually mentioned my current contemplation.

“Are you CRAZY?!”

“Don’t be silly, Annabelle!”

And those are just a selection of their very dramatic responses.

Oh sorry, I didn’t realise I was being SILLY.

In that case, you’re right. I’ll flush my thoughts, insecurities and research straight down the toilet. But to be fair, they had no idea what double eyelid surgery was and how it relieved an ever-present struggle for many women and men.

So, I began the following explanation:

It’s a full-blown thing in Korea.

We follow so many Korean beauty trends; why not add this one to the list?

Surprisingly, South Korea performs the highest number of plastic surgeries in the world, and the popularity of this surgery in Korea can be attributed to their number one beauty ideal: having big eyes. The bigger the better, actually.

This beauty mantra has been reinforced by countless Korean celebrities and has consequently become all the rage among your regular Korean girl or boy.

(Post continues after gallery.)

Note: This is not why I find double eyelid surgery so appealing. In actual fact, it’s because…

Right now, applying eye makeup on myself is really hard.

As a makeup lover and winged eyeliner fanatic, symmetry is all that I ask for, yet symmetry I have not been blessed with. We all endure the struggles of perfecting one eye’s wing, then completely messing up the other. Well for me and my uneven eyelids, that difficulty is multiplied by 1,000,000 (you know what? I’m not even exaggerating).

Trying to apply winged eyeliner onto a droopy mono-lid is like trying to wade through a bushy forest with no sense of direction or destination in mind.

Extra lid/bushy forest just keeps intercepting the task at hand, and the only solution is to dramatically fall onto your knees while shaking your hands in the air. Stress does weird things to me.

Okay okay, a slight hyperbole - the main problem I regularly face is dealing with two different eyelid situations.

In all honesty, I would rather have two mono lids than my current uneven state, because CONSISTENCY, PEOPLE.

I’d be happy to wade through bush twice, so I can get used to it and remedy any accompanying issues.

But handling a double eyelid first, then a mono eyelid is like spending a weekend at a pamper filled, spa galore in Hawaii, then immediately being dumped into this stupid bushy forest.

(Confused about whether we’re talking about eyelids or bushy forests? Same.)

#monolid now #doubleeyelids #doubleeyelidsurgery using #anchoringtechnique during #incisiontechnique about 5 weeks #postop #eyes #chaselaymd #realeyelashes #naturallook #sanjoseca

A photo posted by Chase Lay MD (@chaselaymd) on Feb 5, 2016 at 4:07pm PST

Alternatives.

Alternatives are called alternatives for a reason: they're not the real deal. Alternatives to getting the legitimate double eyelid surgery include eyelid tape and eyelid glue.

Michelle Phan uploaded a YouTube video back in 2012 about how she magically created her double eyelids without surgery by the power of eyelid tape. "SIMPLE!" I thought. Nope.

Of course it worked for Michelle Phan because she is a perfect angel, but my skin is really, really sensitive, and after a few days of testing out tape and glue, they began to become super itchy, swollen, and red. To sum up, it’s an uncomfortable, inconvenient mess.

But, apparently wearing eyelid tape non-stop for up to a year actually does do the trick for some people, so I'd hit up Daiso for a variety of temporary double eyelid tools and watch Michelle’s tutorial video below.

How much will I have to spend?

The fee for upper eyelid surgery in Australia can range from $2,500-$4,500 depending on your surgeon, anesthetist, hospital and consultations.

Understandably, Medicare doesn’t cover cosmetic surgeries such as this, but if your droopy mono-lids become so difficult that they begin to impair your vision, the surgery becomes medical and, FREE DOUBLE EYELIDS FOR ALL! Score! Fingers crossed my vision becomes compromised, am I right?

You get a free eyelid surgery, YOU GET A FREE EYELID SURGERY! via GIPHY

Any risks? 

Just like any surgery, there are risks involved, where most of the time there’s a low probability of them actually arising. With this particular surgery, swelling, scarring, or even multiple eyelids might overtake your eye without permission. Sounds scary, right? Or should I say, scarr-y… “Hi-fives self”

But considering my annoyingly sensitive skin, the chance of risk is much higher, which could pose as a slight problem.

The verdict.

So yes, we can’t have it all, and yes, perhaps “girls these days just don’t appreciate their individual beauty like we all had to,” as my mum would put it, but to that I say: let us live our own lives.

We all have our insecurities, and this is mine. I’m sure as hell allowed to work on it the way I see appropriate.

Sure, love the skin you’re in, but only if that makes you happy.

If not, do what you want, girlfriend - your happiness is the main priority, whether you’re the owner of mono lids or double lids.

But alas, being a lady of abnormally low pain tolerance and a sensitive outer layer, I have for now decided to leave my eyelids untouched and hope that “time will lead your droopy eyelid to open up and flower”- once again, insightful advice from the mother.

A lot is resting on your wise words mum. I’m still waiting for time to plump up my boobs like you promised.

Image via Annabelle Lee.