TRUE OR FALSE….
Love your lashes
New beauty trends are dreamed up many months (often years) before they land on our faces, so we can thank serendipity for the way that 2021 is shaping up to be the year of the eyelash. Certainly when MAC decided to give its celebrated collection of fake lashes an overhaul by adding 10 new silhouettes – from clustered starbursts to marabou fringes – it had no idea that the eye area would shortly become the zone to decorate, due to the face coverings we had to learn to live with. ‘We wanted to reclaim the lash for grown-up women,’ says Terry Barber, the brand’s director of make-up artistry. ‘False lashes have changed.
It’s not “the bigger, the better” any more; they’re prettier and more doe-like, giving the wearer a whole new way to shape and beautify the eye.’ For a GH reader, Terry likes a refined and feathery lash that’s pliable at the base so sits more comfortably on the lid. ‘Try the Romantic Lash [4], £12.50. It’s denser at the root and wispy at the tip, making eyes look elegant, not crowded,’ he says.
Mascara holds its own though. This year sees the 50th birthday of Maybelline Great Lash [1], £5.99, the non-clumping, high-street mascara we once had to bribe friends to bring back from the States. Lancôme has welcomed Lash Idôle [5], £23.50, to its chic band of dependable formulations; the brush is curved and slender, the effect wonderfully fanned out and glossy. New Kevyn Aucoin Indecent, £22, boosts growth, giving dense, doll-like lashes, while the ingenious Benefit They’re
Real! Magnet Extreme Lengthening Mascara [2], £24.50, has a magnet-enriched formula and a magnetised brush: the combination draws the mascara up and then out beyond the lash tips, for incredible length.
But for seven-day longevity and a new skill to try your hand at, consider at-home extensions by Lashify. Priced around £105 for The Control Kit starter pack [3], the lashes are intended to look more like make-up than fakes. The kit is smart and once you have the hang of gluing and clamping the short sections of silky lashes in place, they’ll stay there for up to a week, sitting under rather than over your own lashes for an imperceptible join. GH’S beauty team is already addicted!