DIY: Get lashed up: How to apply fake eyelashes properly

Thanks to Cheryl Cole, luscious, long fake lashes are big business – and here’s how to apply them properly

Beautiful, youthful, flirty and effortlessly sexy, who wouldn’t want gorgeously long, thick Cheryl Cole-style eyelashes?

Not since the days of Sophia Loren and Faye Dunaway has it been so essential to sport lashes that create a strong breeze with a wink. And long lashes are also big business.

In the past year, there’s been an explosion in the number of salons and department stores offering semi-permanent extensions – individual lashes glued into your lash-line that last up to a month.

But how can you apply them properly? Read on!

Step 1:

Remove the lashes from the pack and hold them against your eye to measure them against the length of your own natural lash line.

False lashes are often too long for your eye, so ensure you cut the strips to fit.

If you leave them too long, they will drag your eyes down – which will have the opposite effect of the youthful look you are aiming for.

Step 2:

Now you have two choices: either apply the adhesive on to the full length of the base of the false lashes or, using a brush (Blink & Go has a micro-brush especially for this purpose), place dots of adhesive along your own natural lash-line before pressing the false lash on to it.

Cut to size: Hold lashes against your eye to measure them against the length of your own natural lash line

If this is all too much kerfuffle, Eylure does ready-glued lashes which you can simply peel off and stick on.

Step 3:

Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the opposite eye.

It is very important to wait 30 seconds for the adhesive to become tacky before applying the false lashes.

Step 4:

Using tweezers hold the strip lash in the centre. Then place it in the centre of your natural lashes.

Then, again using the tweezers, push the inner side of strip lash in place, followed by the outer side.

Step 5:

Using a ‘pinching-and-push’ technique with the tweezers to pinch together the strip lashes and your natural lashes, then ‘push’ them towards your eyelids.

Do this all the way across the lashes and repeat for the other eye.

Step 6:

Eyeliner can be added if needed, or mascara, but this needs careful application to the natural lashes only.

You may find you don’t need any other eye make-up at all.