A Girl’s Guide to Faux Eyelashes

The gorgeous Birdiee at Bonne-Vie has been a lifesaver, coming to my rescue with an amazing tutorial on faux eyelashes!  Miss Birdiee’s been a girl long in my heart, with her love of burlesque, her bright mind, and her 12 year old sense of humor.  Please pop by Bonne-Vie & shower her with some love!

I’m no *real* pro when it comes to makeup, but I can assure you that when it comes to faux lashes, practice DOES make perfect.

It started when I auditioned for a gig as a pick-up girl with a local burlesque troupe. They told me to bring an outfit – a waist cincher, ruffle shorts and fishnets, and a pair of faux lashes. It was a look I’d been dying to try. I remembered stories of my mom in her “Twiggy” days – bright eyes and big heavy fake lashes. It seemed daunting though – I’d never put them on before, there’s glue involved and you have to have a pretty steady hand. The girls gave me a few tips for gorgeous glamorous eyelashes.

Now, it seems I’ve become the one giving all the faux lash tips to my friends! A pair of faux lashes does a LOT for a “look.” They can completely change the shape of your eyes – round and bright eyed, or almond shaped and exotic. They fill in where your eyelashes and mascara may have left off. If your lashes are dark, sometimes you can even get away with NO eye makeup, save for your lashes and a little filler eyeliner. You can get them in different colors to match your wigs, different shapes, different lengths and different styles.

The pair I picked for this tutorial are blue, with feathered edges. I figure the blue would be easy to see in the tutorial, and because they were part of a Halloween costume they would match my coif.

But first things first -Eyelashes are DEFINITELY reusable, and when you’ve got a nice pair that works with your style, you’re not going to want to buy a new pair every time you want to put them on. At the end of the night, don’t toss them. Keep the little plastic case they come in, and when you take them off, scrape the glue off the edges with your fingernail (carefully – you don’t want to bend the band that the eyelashes attach to, or pull the lashes out completely) and put them back in their case.

The easiest lashes to put on will be round, blunt-cut lashes (not feathered or longer at the edges like the eyelashes I’m going to use).

I generally go to a drugstore and pick up Modlash eyelashes – they are inexpensive ($6 max), easy to put on, and often come with glue – and they have a band around the top edge (instead of having the eyelash hairs, wrapped around a plastic piece) so the glue will stick better. If you’re looking for an easy solution, Modlash is the way to go.

Compare the band (the part closest to your eye) with THIS band:

See how there’s not a black band around the top? It looks like the lashes are attached to something clear? The eyelashes with that little plastic strip can sometimes be harder to apply, without a little bit of extra love. I find, with this type of lash, it helps to roll them a little, for shape. With the blue pair, I had to roll the inside edges in, because the plastic strip doesn’t mold well to the shape of my eyes.

Before applying the lashes, you may find you need to trim them. Usually I don’t trim mine, but your eyeballs could be a different shape. To determine the amount you need to snip, lay them down, starting at the inside edge of your eyelash. If they stick out too far past the outside edge of your real lash line, trim them a little on the INSIDE edge (with scissors) until they mimic the length of your lash line.

Next, you’ll need to make up your face. I, personally, lie using eyeshadow primer before putting on lashes because it gives you a matte base. When I first started using fake lashes, I found it was easiest to put on my eyeshadow after the lashes. The result – makeup IN the eyelashes. They became so caked with glue and eyeshadow, that I found I had to replace the eyelashes more often. The Burlesque girls told me that the best way to go is to put on most of your eye makeup first, then your lashes, then a few finishing touches.

When doing your eye makeup, lay down a good line of eyeliner, and make sure to put on mascara if your real lashes are light.

Some eyelash kits come with an applicator. If you have the applicator, grab the lashes like so:

If you DON’T have an applicator, you’re fine. The applicator is a learning tool, but it isn’t always necessary. Next you want to line the edge of the eyelash with glue like this:

To get a (very) thin line of eyelash glue on your lashes, you can do one of two things. The first, is use the back end of a pair of tweezers.

If you don’t have tweezers, your eyelash glue should still have a little tip on it, to make application easy.

Now that the glue is on, give it a second to get sticky. I wait about… 15-20 seconds because I’ve found that the glue sticks better when it’s had a chance to set.

Go ahead and set the eyelashes down, now, as close to your regular eyelashes as possible.

If you have the little applicator doodad, it’ll work like this:

HOWEVER! Even if you use the little applicator, you’re still probably going to have to press the strip down – especially on the edges. Just do this:

The first couple times you do this, you’re probably going to stick your fingers to your face. It’s normal. Sometimes the outer edges of the lashes will come up because your fingers are stuck to them, or because the eyelashes just won’t stay.

See how the inside corner has lifted up? Never fear! Just take a little glue and put it on your tweezers again

Then VERY CAREFULLY tap the glue onto the eyelash strip, being careful to A) not get glue in your eye, B) not stab yourself in the eye and C) not pull the eyelashes straight off your face.

Then flip your tweezers over, and use the non-gluey side of the tweezers to press the fresh glued-eyelash down onto your lash line.

Once you’re done applying the eyelash strip, keep your eyes closed for just a moment, so the glue has a better chance to dry. Once they’re dry, you can go in and do your detail work – including lining your eye between the inner corner and the eyelash band. Your newly applied lashes will look like this:

Now flutter your gorgeous new (faux) eyelashes! Don’t worry if you struggled the first time, because it gets easier every time you do it.

Merci-beaucoup, sweet Birdiee!