Duration of stage: October 24, 2018 – March 4, 2019 (4 months, 9 days)
 

 Summary 
 

After several days where her crease failed immediately, Megan would take a short break from using the tapes, and when she returned to them, she often got better results. She also noticed that when school or work felt stressful, her crease was more likely to fail. By the end of this four-month stage, her ideal crease could even handle crying, although it still became fragile afterward, whereas earlier in the journey it would fail much more easily. When she learned to angle the tail end of the F-tape slightly higher, it created a small micro-crease that helped support her ideal crease. She also became more disciplined about avoiding phone use in the morning, and she used the Looking-Up exercise instead, which gave her crease a better chance to fold while her eyelid skin was settling from normal morning swelling by the time afternoon arrived. For a period of time, Laura used coconut oil to remove adhesive residue, but she eventually felt it was too heavy and switched to Clinique “Take The Day Off” Makeup Remover for Lids, Lashes & Lips.
 

 Insight 
 

As Megan began getting more consistent results, she improved at shaping the tapes to fit her eyelids more naturally, and she got better at applying them in the exact same spot each time. However, in the beginning of this stage, while she was still getting used to using Optifold effectively, she experienced consecutive days of immediate crease failure, and that repetition frustrated her and made it harder to notice the small details that mattered. Taking a short break became a smart strategy because it helped her reset, return with more patience, and remember which placement positions worked best, including how close to the nose she needed to apply the F-tape.
 

She also learned that stress did not just feel stressful, but it could show up physically in a way that affected her results. When she felt emotionally drained, stress often came with hormonal changes that increased puffiness in the eyelids, and it also triggered facial habits like squinting, which made the crease more likely to collapse. As her application technique matured, her results became more consistent, and part of that improvement came from lowering the N-tape feet enough to increase the felt stimulation in the right way.