Penelopes painI just had my second go round of fake eyelashes applied at a salon. My eyelids swelled up and got really red in the crease of the upper lids. It was painful! The Right Brain responds: Our blog post on How To Remove False Eyelashes has received tons of comments. But some women, like Penelope, have a problem even BEFORE they try to remove their ersatz eye hair. Thats because some of the glues used to attach fake lashes are preserved with formaldehyde, which can be highly irritating.