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While making an eyeball truly bigger is anatomically impossible, there is a trick for mimicking the look of a larger eye that entails more than the mere optical illusion obtained from makeup.

The circle lens is an opaque contact lens that, due to its imprinting, makes the colored portion of the eye (iris) look larger and thus the eyeball bigger.

The lenses create a doe-eyed, doll-like appearance characteristic of Japanese anime but popular throughout all of East and Southeast Asia and now the United States.

Circle lenses are available in an almost endless array of hues and are available in the Orient without a prescription. Some of the more off-beat colors can add an attractive fashion flare that complements a dressy outfit while others look starkly alien.

Because of well-known medical risks, it is illegal in the United States to sell any contact lenses -- even those that are purely cosmetic -- without a prescription from an ophthalmologist or optometrist. No major contact lens company in the United States currently offers the lenses.

Lenses ordered online from Asia are considered as contraband, although enforcement is all but absent and so the lenses are easily obtained.

More than a few patients have suffered sudden serious eye infections, corneal pain and scarring, and permanent vision loss. Professional supervision is thus strongly advised.

Like tattoos that were once considered renegade, circle lenses have become a fad that has entered the mainstream.

Interestingly, some early users in Asia have lost interest now that the once shocking look of such otherworldly eyes has grown commonplace if not passé.