Fake Lashes: Your Secret Weapon

I have a confession to make.

I am not a very photogenic person.

I know, you're shocked right. And maybe I am harder on myself than the general public, but I see pictures of myself and I generally criticize them until you'd be sure that I was talking about the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I told you I was judgmental!

Anyway, every year the holiday season rolls around, and guess what that means? Yup, family pictures. Now, let me say that I find nothing in this WORLD more torturous than family picture day. My husband's family is MASSIVE and filled with small children who cry, sneeze, antagonize each other and ruin pictures. Which only means more pictures are taken, where the adults have to suck it in YET AGAIN and hope that they don't look hideous. Because it is, after all, all about the children smiling.

Did I mention that we always do family pictures at my house too? Yeah.

I did however, find a way to make every picture of ME a super good one, so that we didn't have to take as many to find one that is holiday card-worthy. And that, my friends, is false eyelashes.

I know, right? Like WHO wears false eyelashes? Am I a showgirl? I assure you, no. Who would pay to see a mother of two shake it? I mean, really, let's be serious here. But a few carefully placed falsies opens up your eyes, and gives you a general better-than-usual look that everyone will notice, without questioning HOW you did it. Which is nice.

False lashes might sound a little scary. You probably see them at your drugstore all the time and don't think twice about them. But they are so easy to use, and make you look a smidgen better. I wear them for pictures, special events like weddings or concerts, and work parties. I'm actually a little sad that people will know my little secret now.

Here's how to use them. First, choose the kind that will work best. You can buy them in strips, which work well if you already have pretty generous lashes, or individual clusters if you're lash-challenges. If using the clusters, ONLY apply two or three clusters to the out corner of the eye. That's all you'll need, and it'll make a huge difference. Use tweezers to hold the cluster, and dip the edge in the lash glue. Place it on TOP of your natural lashes and clamp down for a few seconds. Voila!

With strip lashes, they can look really drag-queenish if you use the whole thing, so cut them in half. It'll give you an extra set, and look more normal. They might come pre-glued, but even still, stick a little strip of glue along the base, and use tweezers to apply them to the top outside corner of your lashes.

When you've got them in place, glued and dried, CURL them. This will make a big difference in how they blend with your lashes. Do the three clamp trick with your curler: once at the base, once in the middle, once at the end to create a nice curve. Then put on two coats of a black mascara to blend them all together so they match the color of your natural lashes.

See how easy it was? It's a tiny thing that you can do that makes a big difference. I took a picture of me wearing them. You can't really tell like, omg she's wearing fake lashes, but it's enough to glam up an otherwise ordinary makeup regimen.



See? Darker lashes define the eyes better. (I was going on a date with my husband the night I took this picture. I basically wear them anytime I want to up the ante, if you will.)

So, make every picture a good picture. I often get asked what one should wear in family pictures. FAKE LASHES. Especially when those pictures are going to be hung in a house or sent to everyone you know in cards.

You don't need to buy expensive ones. Most are for one use only. Just wash them off when you wash your face at night, they'll slide right off, and if you're me, wash down the drain. What? Who said that?

Fake lashes: Cheap and easy. They are the whore of the cosmetics world.