Eyelash Extensions

Slang permeates all areas of life and the beauty world is no exception. Here, an interesting hybrid of ‘eyelash’ and ‘extension’ has been formed.

This one confused me at first. In fact, if the full version of the shortened term まつエク hadn’t been written on the poster, I’d have been completely lost. I suppose for ladies (or men!) who go for eyelash extensions regularly, creating this sort of slang is just something that happens naturally.

仕上がりキレイで長持ち、まつエク上下で6,300円

しあがり　キレイで　ながもち、　まつエク　じょうげで　6,300えん

Upper and lower eyelash extensions for 6,300 yen. Long lasting with a beautiful finish.

This is the eye-catching phrase placed right at the top of the poster. Key terms include 仕上がり (finish/completed look), 長持ち (long lasting/long holding) and 上下 (up and down/top and bottom). The equivalent term for left and right is 左右 (さゆう), which also means ‘control’ or ‘side-to-side’.

ナチュラル系からゴージャス系まであなたの理想の目元を演出します。

ナチュラルけいから　コージャスけいまで　あなたの　りそうの　めもとを　えんしゅつ　します。

From Natural to Gorgeous looks, we will produce your ideal eyes.

Here’s a fantastic term that is used a lot by young people. 系 (けい), when tagged onto the end of a word can mean anything from ‘category’ to ‘group’ or even ‘series’. A collection of things, or a type of something. In this case, since we are talking about eyelashes, ナチュラル系 and ゴージャス系, are different styles. Just saying ナチュラル without 系 would change the nuance of the sentence slightly – we want to focus the reader on the types of eyelash styles, which include the categories of ‘natural’ and ‘gorgeous’ (among others). Hence, we use 系 to show that there are different styles of eyelashes.

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