And all it took was a few strips of tape!

Over the last few years, our Japanese reporter Mariko Ohanabatake has been noticing something unusual whenever she looks in the mirror. Instead of seeing her reflection, she’s starting to see the face of a woman she doesn’t recognise. “Who is this mysterious woman?” Mariko pondered, until reality hit her like a brick — “No way…that’s me?!”

“Age is just a number!” Mariko kept telling herself, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was at some sort of crossroads, faced with a decision. Should she let time continue to ravage her face until she looked like an old woman? Or should she try and find some ways to recapture her youthful face?

▼ Mariko had always imagined herself ageing gracefully like Japanese singer YUKI, who is 50 years old.

So when Mariko came across Magie Lab’s Face Lift Secret Tape – Super Hard at retail chain Loft, she was intrigued. At only 900 yen (US$7.80) it almost seemed like a joke item — after all, can you really rejuvenate your face for under ten dollars?! Joke item or not though, it was with a serious determination that she bought a pack, which contained of 30 strips of tape.

The package had a woman on the front with the slogan “make your face look ageless”. The package also claimed it was ideal for beginners, as if sticking tape to your face had levels of mastery.

As Mariko took the strips of tape out of the box, she was struck by just how primitive it seemed to be. For 900 yen she wasn’t exactly expecting some sort of fancy face-lifting equipment, but was sticking a bunch of tape on her face really going to make her look younger?

The tape placement seemed to be dependent on the areas that you want to lift. If you wanted to give the area around your eyes a boost, the instructions said to apply tape to the temple area. To erase laugh lines, apply around the ear area. Mariko decided to ‘lift’ her eyelids, which she felt were looking a little saggy these days.

Once she’d given her face a quick wash, Mariko was ready to start taping. The tape seemed similar to a band aid — light and stretchy, which made applying it quite difficult. The tape had to be applied pretty firmly for it to work, and Mariko ended up burning through a few strips before she got the hang of the technique.

But eventually, when she managed to apply a strip correctly, the result was instant!

▼ The tape has a matte finish, so it blends well with your skin.

Mariko’s saggy eyelids got an instant lift, and her eyes looked wider, too. “All this just from sticking a piece of tape to my face?!” Mariko mused. It was like she’d travelled back in time to meet her younger self.

Originally Mariko was only going to test out ‘lifting’ her eyelids, but seeing how effective the tape was she decided to rejuvenate more and more. Next up was her face line.

Mariko applied some tape around her ears, and as if by magic, the corners of her mouth went up and her laugh lines faded!

Struck with a feverish desire to restore her whole face to a more youthful look, Mariko stuck some tape under her ears and pulled them upwards, and her whole face shape changed. Her chin also became more defined!

It’s often said that it’s easy to become addicted to plastic surgery; once you get one procedure done, you’ll want to get more and more, and as Mariko sat with her face covered in tape, she understood why.  Her eyes were less droopy, her chin much more defined — it was like she’d entered a wormhole and travelled ten years in the past.

“But surely you’d be able to see all that tape on her face,” some of you might be thinking, but Mariko is confident that won’t be an issue. She has bangs and doesn’t tie her hair up a lot, so the tape is well hidden behind her curtain of hair.

▼ Fingers crossed a rogue gust of wind doesn’t reveal her secrets!

It was like she’d bathed in the fountain of youth, such was the power of the lifting tape. Of course, now she’s revealed her trick on the Internet, the impact might be slightly less effective, but maybe this could be perfect for high school reunions or something.

“How is this not more popular?!” Mariko wondered, as she admired her rejuvenated face in the mirror. Maybe people weren’t ready to embrace such a practice, or maybe they felt embarrassed about being caught with a face covered in tape.

▼ Mariko considered the possibility of being compared to Japanese impressionist Korokke, who is known for his crazy faces.

Still, Mariko was impressed with how effective the face-lifting tape was and will definitely be using it more regularly. The pack she got this time was a ‘trial’ sized pack for newcomers to the world of face tape and had only 30 strips, but her next purchase will be the 100 strip pack for sure.

Images © SoraNews24
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