Posted on by chelskers · 3 Comments

Eyelash Extensions: Experience & Review

There are milestones in life: birth, death, graduations, relationships beginning and ending.  Sure, those things are important, but allow me to add another milestone to that list – the day the wonder of eyelash extensions enters your world.

As I’ve talked about before, I’m a huge fan of lashes.  Real or fake  – doesn’t matter, give me ALL of them.  I’ve spent countless hours and dollars in the pursuit of the long, lush lashes that will open up my hooded eyes and help me channel my inner Beyonce.

I believe that at long last I’ve finally found the solution: Eyelash extensions. Let the church say AMEN.

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Warning: Extensions cause excessive selfie taking

After doing extensive research (i.e. did my Googles) and telling myself that yes, I can fit this into my budget even if I have to live on grilled cheese for 2 weeks, I decided to plunk down some cash on eyelash extensions.  Soon after I found myself lying on a comfy bed in a suburban Chicago salon for 90 minutes while a very nice lady glued an extension on to each of my individual lashes.  Yes, it takes a long time.  Yes, it’s worth it.

First I’ll show you how my God-given lashes look without any makeup.  Prepare yourself for blurry iPhone photos:

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As you can see, my lovely hooded lids tend to swallow up my lashes and make them pretty much non existent when my eyes are open.  My natural lash hairs are also very fine.  According to the extension applier, I have a lot of lashes, they just aren’t thick or particularly long.  But hey – I have a sparkling personality.  God’s working on all of us.

The process itself is pretty simple – lay down, have your lower lashes taped down (it feels weird but is necessary) and take a little snooze or meditate while the extensions are applied.  It’s actually quite relaxing.

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Photo Credit: edenenvy.com

Typically the salon will have a variety of extension styles.  My salon gave me the option of a more natural look or a more dramatic cat eye and I figured if I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna DO IT so of course I went with the cat eye style.  I’m very happy with how they turned out.

Here’s how they look open, closed and from the side without any other makeup:

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As you can see, one of the biggest advantages of extensions is you don’t have to wear mascara or curl your lashes anymore! It’s taken a couple days to get used to waking up and seeing myself with “done” lashes but it saves time in the morning and makes me look so much more awake and put together even when the rest of my face is completely bare.  An unexpected but very welcomed side effect is that the lashes seem to make the always-present bags under my eyes much less noticeable.  Woo!

The only slight downside is that you cannot get your lashes wet for the first 24 hours and it’s recommended to be very careful to not rub your eyes or pull on your lashes in any way. So, I’ve said goodbye to splashing my face with water in the morning and standing with my face in the water while in the shower, but there are bigger tragedies in life.  I’ve seen the suggestion to wear swimming googles while in the shower, not a bad idea.  Makeup wipes are also a gift from the heavens. The only real day-to-day maintenance is to brush them out every morning with a spoolie as the lashes can get a little tangled and wonky during the night.

The lash extensions are glued directly onto the natural lash and will fall out with their natural cycle.  The salon suggests coming in for fill-ins every 3-4 weeks to keep everything looking great.  I’ve already scheduled my fill-in appointment so I think it’s safe to say that I LOVE lash extensions and highly recommend them.

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Do you have lash extensions?  Do you love them, too?  Let me know!

Posted on by chelskers · 3 Comments

Mascara Tips & Tricks

My oldest and truest love in the makeup world is mascara. It’s my “desert island” product. I have a minimum of 5 tubes in my makeup stash at any given time (stay tuned for my episode of Hoarders). I can’t live without it. Okay I could…but I don’t want to.  Why?  Because mascara makes a huge difference, especially for hooded eye folks like me, and there’s just something ultra feminine and Marilyn Monroe-esque about having long, fluttery lashes.  

Over my many years of mascara wearing and beauty researching, I’ve learned some helpful tips and tricks to get the most out of my lashes and I’m happy to share those tricks with you.  Here we go:

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Right eye brought to you by the power of mascara; facial expression brought to you by seasonal allergies.

Heat It Up

It goes without saying that a good lash curler plays an integral part in making your lashes look their best. So before you start applying any makeup, throw your lash curler and/or mascara tube in your bra. Yes, you read that correctly.  

Heating up the curler helps lashes hold the curl longer while heating up the mascara softly melts the formula and leads to easier, smoother, less clumpy application.  Some beauty gurus advise heating up the curler with a hairdryer but I’m far too lazy for that and prefer to just stick my curler in my bra for a few minutes and let body heat do its thing.  Works just as well and really confuses anyone who happens to be watching you apply your face.

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Looks weird, works well

Line the Waterline

The majority of us aren’t #blessed with thick lashes but luckily it’s easy to fake them by lining the upper waterline.  This trick isn’t for the faint of heart because you’ll be putting a pointy object dangerously close to your eyeball but it really does make a world of difference:

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Photo Credit: beautylish.com

Run a waterproof black or dark brown liner on that tiny strip of skin to fill in the gaps between lashes and give you a more cohesive, full lash look.

Use a Lash Primer

Not necessarily a must-have for every day, but when you really want to make lashes look extra long, thick and fabulous, apply a lash primer before mascara.  My favorite is the Benefit They’re Real Tinted Lash Primer:

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Lash primer is also great for “no makeup” makeup looks, giving just enough color and length to make eyes look more open and awake without looking made up.

Swipe Time

Mascara application is where the real magic happens.  Most important application tips:

  1. Swipe Toward the Nose – Instead of just swiping the wand straight up, angle toward your nose to fan out the lashes and cut down on mascara transferring onto the eyelids.  No one likes dealing with that mess.

  2. Base and Blink – Set the wand as far down on your lashes as you can get, right at the base, wiggle it a bit to get mascara on the roots of your lashes, then slowly blink as you move the wand upward and toward your nose in one fluid stroke.

  3. Coat Both Sides – Don’t forget the top side of your lashes!  Once you’ve done the base and blink technique, look down and coat the top of the lashes all the way up to the tips.

Revive Old Mascara with Eye Drops

There always comes that inevitable time when a tube of well-loved mascara turns dry, clumpy and basically unusable.  This is a good excuse to run out and buy another one but if you want to revive the mascara and stretch your money, add a couple squeezes of eye drops to the tube and swirl everything around with the wand.  Voila! Mascara resurrection.

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And there you have it, my best mascara tricks.  What is your lash secret weapon?  Let me know!

Posted on by chelskers · 7 Comments

6 Easy Steps to Applying False Lashes

Ah, false lashes.  Aside from winged eyeliner, false lashes may be the most-feared tool/technique in the beauty arsenal.  But fear not!  I’m here to help. Falsies can have a significant effect on your overall look and are a great way to add a little oomph for a big event or night out.

Here is my six step guide to applying false lashes with relative ease:

Step 1: Have a drink

No, seriously.  Have a drink (or if you’re not a booze person, do a little yoga or deep breathing or whatever you people do to loosen up).  I firmly believe that false lashes can smell fear and the more relaxed you are, the better.  Don’t get hammered, but put on some good “I’m going out tonight!!!11” tunes, have a drink and approach the process as fun instead of An Ordeal.  It helps, I promise.

Step 2: Select your false lashes and cut them to size

Eyes come in all different shapes and sizes so you may need to trim your falsies down to fit your peepers.  Simply hold the lash strip up to your eye and decide if you need to trim a few hairs off the end or if you’re good to go.  Having a lash that’s too long and tickling the inside of your eye/nose area is the opposite of fun, so don’t skip this step.

Step 3: Prep your natural lashes

Now we’re getting somewhere.  Take a look at your natural lashes.  Are they fairly straight?  Then curl them with a lash curler and swipe on 1 (one) coat of mascara.  If your lashes are particularly straight, I suggest waterproof mascara to really make sure your lashes stay curled.  If your lashes naturally curl up like mine do (humblebrag), feel free to run a clean mascara wand or spoolie through your lashes to get them all fanned out, separated and ready to go.

Step 4: Glue time

Use a good quality glue!  You want these suckers to stay on and a good glue does just that.  My personal favorite is Duo Lash Adhesive, Clear, 0.25 Ounce, easily found online or at any drugstore.  There are really two options when it comes to glue application: apply to the seam of the false lash strip, or apply the glue directly to your own lash line.  I’m a fan of both ways but tend to use the “apply to the false lash strip” method.  Apply a VERY thin line of glue to the lash strip seam.  The cardinal rule here is to let the glue dry for a good 30 seconds before you attempt to place the lashes on your eye.  The glue must be tacky to get a good, solid hold.  These will probably be the longest 30 seconds of your life, so feel free to use this time to take a swig of the drink mentioned in Step 1.

Step 5: Lash application

This is it.  Here we go.  Pick up your lash strip with either tweezers or those handy little lash-gripper tong things that come with many lash kits.  Look down into a mirror and carefully place the lashes on your eyelid as close to your natural lash line as possible.  Breathe.  Try to secure the middle of the lash strip over the pupil of your eye first.  Once that part is secured, carefully tug the end of the false lashes out to fit the inner and outer corners of your eye.  Breathe again.  Once you feel that the lash strip is well secured, take the flat side of a bobby pin and run it over the lash strip to smooth it down and really get a good hold.  Let the glue dry for a couple minutes.

Step 6: Merge the real with the fake

You’re almost done!  Once the glue has dried, use your favorite mascara to bond your real lashes with the falsies.  A couple swipes on each eye should do it.  Don’t forget to add mascara to your lower lash line to balance things out.  Finally, use eyeliner to draw on the seam of the lash and lash line to help blend everything together.

And you’re done!  You may want to throw the glue and tweezers in to your purse just in case, but if you follow these steps, your false lashes should have no problem staying on for many hours. Enjoy!