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Can these masks give you Japan’s kogao “small-face” ideal? Let’s find out!【Experiment】

Casey Baseel Nov 16, 2020
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Our team tries to achieve the Japanese beauty goal.

Soap, shampoo, and masks. Those are the three things that are pretty much always on our shopping list when we go to the drug store these days, and so when our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori headed to the mask section, he found these.

With a lovely young lady gracing their packaging, the Be-Style face masks, from manufacturer Hakugen Earth, promise to make you look more beautiful by giving your face a kogao appearance. Literally translating as “small face,” kogao is a Japanese beauty concept referring to slim, evenly placed facial features.

While the kogao look is generally something that women in Japan aspire to, Go is always on the lookout for ways to make his face look its best, and this seemed like a much easier way to achieve that goal than some of his previous attempts, such as the time he scalded his flesh with a steam mask. So he decided to pick up a pack of Be-Style masks, which cost him 327 yen (US$3.10).

Back at SoraNews24 headquarters, he opened up the pack and found seven masks, folded and neatly nestled into one another.

Rather than physically compact your face, the masks’ kogao plan is centered on the contours created in the mask by its vertically stacked pleats.

Before he strapped on the Be-Style mask, though, Go wanted to snap a control picture, so here he is a regular mask.

And now here he is in the Be-Style mask.

▼ Regular mask (left) vs. Be-Style (center and right)

With its more angular lines, the Be-Style mask really did make a subtle difference in the visual perception of Go’s facial features. It also made his chin appear to come to more of a point, creating a slimmer-looking overall shape to his face.

Since Go had plenty of extra Be-Style masks, he took a look around the office and decided to distribute them to some of his coworkers to see how they looked, starting with fresh-off-his-Joe-Biden makeover Mr. Sato.

▼ Once again, regular mask on the left, Be-Style masks at center and right

Next up was fresh-off-his-Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba makeover Seiji Nakazawa…

And rounding things out were a selection of other not-recently-made-over members of the staff.

Looking over the crew, results seem to vary depending on the individual. If nothing else, though, they all had a charm boost from the cute little hearts at the corner of the Be-Style masks…

…and this is a lot more pleasant of a way to make your face look good than the week Go spent sticking that bizarre “face trainer” contraption in his mouth.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]