You know how once upon a time, before wearing face paint was socially acceptable for Western women, girls were advised to pinch their cheeks to bring some color into them? I have new advice: Just adhere some medical tape to your cheeks every night, and yank it off in the morning. That gives you lots and lots of color, right where you want it. Unfortunately, it also gives you very, very tender (and also owie) skin. But it looks good! Well, unless you use the extra strong, wide kind, which has a tendency to leave a straight-edged mark (a less natural look). And of course, the eye shields you might be taping down also leave a circular indentation above the cheekbone, but that's a mere side effect.

Sadly, although I actually do look like I have some lovely red color in my cheeks, this morning they are really, really ouchy. Very tender. Each morning it's worse. I suppose this makes sense, as my skin hasn't really had time to heal up from the previous night's taping before I re-apply. But tonight is the last night I need to wear the shields (and I might skip it, just to save my skin from actually peeling off my face). They're just for the first week.

On the other hand, my eyes look great! It's so wonderful to look in the mirror and see my face. Every time. I'm still getting used to sitting down at the computer or picking up a book and not needing to also pick up my glasses, but it's amazing how quickly it becomes not strange.