애교살 (aegyosal) — The Little Line Under Your Eyes That Only Shows When You Smile, and the First Face Word Every K-pop Fan Learns
애교살
애교살 (aegyosal) refers to the thin, slightly plump ridge of flesh that appears just below the lower eyelid when you smile. In Korea, having a prominent one is thought to make your face look softer and younger, so the word is used almost always as a compliment.
The places this word pops up are fairly predictable: the comment section under an idol fancam, fan replies beneath a selfie, the eyeshadow display at a cosmetics shop, the line in front of a photo booth. They all have one thing in common — they’re places where a camera gets close to a face. That’s why K-pop fans often learn this word before they’ve learned any Korean grammar. The instant a stage close-up hits, comments like 애교살 미쳤다 (aegyosal michyeotda) start rolling in one after another.
The meaning is short, but there are three things you need to know before you can actually use it.
First, it only appears when you smile. 애교살 is the part that puffs up slightly as the muscle under the eye contracts, so for many people it’s barely visible with a neutral expression. That’s why someone who insists 나는 애교살이 없어 (naneun aegyosari eopseo) will hear, the moment they’re caught grinning in a photo, 있잖아, 지금 나왔잖아 (itjana, jigeum nawatjana). Before you argue about whether you have one, you have to look at the smiling face.
Second, it’s a compliment by default. Plenty of words for facial features turn into insults if you bring them up at the wrong moment; 애교살 sits on the opposite side of that line. Mentioning it is generally a sign of affection. That said — as you’ll see below — depending on who you’re talking to, a compliment doesn’t always land as one.
Third, you have to distinguish it from the other things under the eye. 다크서클 (dark circles) are a color — a dark shadow. 눈밑 지방 (under-eye fat) is a bulge that sags downward with age. 애교살 is a single line that forms right below the lashes. The position is different, the nuance is different, and so is the face someone makes when they hear the word.
It’s worth memorizing the phrases it commonly pairs with, too: 애교살이 있다 / 없다 (aegyosari itda / eopda), 애교살이 생기다 (aegyosari saenggida), 애교살이 도드라지다 (aegyosari dodeurajida). When you create one with makeup, you say 애교살을 그리다 (aegyosareul geurida); when you have it filled in with a cosmetic procedure, 애교살을 넣다 (aegyosareul neota).
Seeing it in a real conversation
Scene: In front of a photo booth in Hongdae. Two friends have their heads together, examining the four-cut photo strip they just printed.
Jun-kyung: 야, 이거 봐 봐. 두 번째 컷 진짜 잘 나왔다. Hey, look at this. The second shot came out really well.
Emily: 어? 근데 나 눈 밑에 이거 뭐야. 나 부었어? Huh? But what’s this under my eye? Am I puffy?
Jun-kyung: 붓긴 뭘 부어. 그거 애교살이야. 웃으니까 딱 생긴 거잖아. Puffy? Come on. That’s aegyo-sal. It showed up because you smiled.
Emily: 아, 이게 그 애교살? 나 그런 거 없는 줄 알았는데. Oh, so this is that aegyo-sal? I thought I didn’t have any.
Jun-kyung: 웃을 때만 나오는 사람도 많아. 거울 앞에서 가만히 있으면 당연히 안 보이지. Plenty of people only get it when they smile. Of course you won’t see it standing still in front of a mirror.
Emily: 그럼 나 앞으로 사진은 무조건 웃으면서 찍어야겠네. 애교살 나오게. Then from now on I’d better smile in every photo. So the aegyo-sal shows.
These usages sound off
✗ (To a department head you haven’t seen in a while) 부장님, 눈 밑에 애교살 생기셨네요! ✓ (To a friend your own age) 너 요즘 애교살 좀 생겼다? 사진 잘 나오겠는데. → On an older person’s face, a bit of fullness under the eyes is likely to read not as 애교살 but as sagging under-eye fat. What you offered as a compliment can arrive as “you’re looking a lot older.” And in Korea, commenting on the facial features of someone senior to you is awkward to begin with.
✗ 나 요즘 잠을 못 자서 애교살이 시커메졌어. ✓ 나 요즘 잠을 못 자서 다크서클이 진해졌어. → 애교살 is a shape of flesh, not a color. The thing that gets darker is 다크서클; with 애교살, the question is whether it appears when you smile.
Example sentences by situation
① At a cosmetics shop — if you don’t have one, draw it on
Korean cosmetics shops carry shadows and pencils made specifically for 애교살. Here’s how to ask a salesperson:
애교살은 어떻게 그려요? (aegyosareun eotteoke geuryeoyo?) How do you draw on aegyo-sal?
In Korean makeup, 애교살 is both something you “play up if you have it” and something you “create if you don’t.” That’s why this question doesn’t sound strange at all.
② Talking among fans — a sentence of pure awe
You’re watching a stage video of your favorite member together, and the camera cuts to a close-up.
웃을 때 애교살 생기는 거 진짜 반칙이야. (useul ttae aegyosal saenggineun geo jinjja banchigiya.) The way aegyo-sal shows up when he smiles is honestly cheating.
반칙이야 (banchigiya) — from 반칙 (banchik), “a foul” — is a bit of fandom-specific exaggeration meaning “this is so pretty it’s unfair.” It shows up paired with 애교살 all the time.
③ At a consultation — neutral and practical
In a dermatology or plastic surgery consultation room, the tone shifts from admiration to weighing conditions.
애교살 시술하면 자연스럽게 나올까요? (aegyosal sisulhamyeon jayeonseureopge naolkkayo?) If I get the aegyo-sal procedure, will it look natural?
Same word, completely different temperature. In fandom it’s practically an exclamation; in the consultation room it’s just the name of a body part.
Polite vs. casual speech, and similar expressions
애교살 is a noun, so it has no separate polite or casual form of its own. What changes is the sentence around it. To a friend: 너 애교살 예쁘다 (neo aegyosal yeppeuda). To someone older or someone you’ve just met: 애교살이 예쁘시네요 (aegyosari yeppeusineyo). But as we saw earlier, raising the politeness level doesn’t turn it into something you can say to just anyone.
Here’s a quick roundup of the neighboring words that are easy to mix up.
| Expression | Temperature / intensity | Where it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| 애교살 (aegyosal) | A compliment. Bright and light | Peers, social media, fandom, beauty consultations |
| 다크서클 (dakeuseokeul) | Negative. Means you look tired | Anywhere. Often used about yourself |
| 눈밑 지방 (nunmit jibang) | Neutral to negative. Medical/procedural term | Clinic consultations, conversations about aging |
| 보조개 (bojogae) | A compliment. The closest match in feel to 애교살 | Anywhere |
As the table shows, 애교살’s closest partner is 보조개 (dimples). Both appear only when you smile, and mentioning either one counts as a compliment. 다크서클 and 눈밑 지방, on the other hand, point to the very same patch of skin but run in the opposite direction.
Cultural background — naming something that only shows when you smile
The structure of the word is simple. 애교 (aegyo, 愛嬌) is a Sino-Korean word for cutesy charm or endearing appeal, and 살 (sal) is a native Korean word for flesh. Put them together and you get “the flesh of aegyo” — the bit of flesh that makes you look endearing. It isn’t an old anatomical term; it took hold within a beauty and entertainment culture that examines faces in fine detail.
What’s interesting is that this word is being exported untranslated. Overseas K-beauty articles and fan communities often just spell it out phonetically as “aegyo sal,” because there’s no single English word that fits. Say “eye bags” and it becomes a negative kind of under-eye sag; “smile lines” refers to the creases around the mouth. In the end, if you want one word for “the pretty little line under the eyes that only appears when you smile,” borrowing 애교살 as-is is simply faster.
Look at how Korean names the face and you’ll find plenty of examples like this. 광대 (cheekbones), 턱선 (jawline), 인중 (philtrum), 다크서클, 애교살 — the face gets divided into small parts, each part gets a name, and each name carries its own temperature of good or bad. High-definition fancams and selfie culture have made this vocabulary even finer-grained. The bigger faces got on our screens, the more parts needed names.
So 애교살 carries more information than just the name of a body part. Knowing this word means also knowing which faces are considered lovable in Korea — and that the standard hinges on the moment of a smile.
Today’s quiz
Which of the following uses 애교살 most naturally?
- 어제 밤을 새웠더니 애교살이 시커메졌어.
- 너 웃을 때 애교살 생기는 거 진짜 예쁘다.
- (처음 뵌 사장님께) 사장님, 눈 밑에 애교살 많이 생기셨네요.
Show the answer
Answer: 2
Number 1 describes a color getting darker, so that’s 다크서클, not 애교살. Number 3 is grammatically fine but lands in the wrong setting — bring up what’s under an older person’s eyes and it’s likely to be heard not as praise but as “you look tired” or “you look older.” This word works best exactly the way number 2 uses it: to a peer, about a smiling face.
Definitions and example sentences are from the National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr); that portion of this post, including our translations, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 KR.