Eyelashes are important. Having a good eyelash day is ALMOST as good as a good hair day. Sure they aren’t a huge feature in the physical sense, but you know you feel extra pretty when your eyelashes look good, so they do have a big impact. But beside the obvious, like finding a mascara that works for you, what can you do to make sure that you lashes look their longest?

The first and most important answer is curl them properly. It can be hard to determine what a proper curl is in order to maximize the length of your natural lashes. So let’s take a close up look, without any mascara so you can see what a difference the curl alone makes.

Ok so if you have straight lashes, the uncurled natural state of them may look a little like mine here. Which is pretty straight. When I was a kid I used to complain to my mom that they looked like the straw that stuck out of the scarecrows hat in the Wizard of Oz. I was a weirdo, but you hafta admit that was kinda accurate.

The problem with straight lashes is that from the front you can’t see jack. You completely lose any depth. It’s like when you’re looking at a piece of wood sticking off the back of a truck, you can only see the end and it’s really hard to tell how far out it comes. Thats why they tie those little orange flags on the ends. Unfortunately that would look really dumb on your eyelashes, so you need to find a different solution.

By leaving them straight you see approximately .0001% of your natural lash. It’s literally a total waste of eyelashes. So you need to curl them, but . . .

You don’t want to over-curl them either. Its definitely better than not curled at all, but it’s still not ideal. When you look at the side view you can see that the lashes are curling in a full 180 degree arc, which causes the tips of the lashes to lie behind some of the shaft, and therefore cutting off the visible length. It also usually causes some crimping in the lashes, from squeezing too hard on the curler, and that’s not cute. It also isn’t good for your lashes because it can pull some out and accidentally break some off, and good luck making them look long and luscious if that’s what you’re doing to them every day.

What you want instead is a happy medium between these two extremes . . .

As you can see here, the lashes are curled from root to tip, but not so tightly that they tuck up behind themselves and lose length. You can also see that they don’t have any crimped areas, which gives you a more natural look.

To achieve the proper curl is really a matter of practice, but the basic formula goes like this:

Place your curler at the root and make sure that all of your lashes are inside the curler. Pump firmly two or three times. Concentrating the most curl at the base of the lashes will ensure some lift. Then move your curler to the middle of the shaft and pump it just once, with less pressure. This will create a nice swoop without crimping them. Next move it up closer to the tips but not all the way, and pump it once very lightly if you need to. This last step may not even be necessary, so take a look at the way your lashes are curving and make a judgement for yourself.

You may need to tweak this to get it perfect for your lashes, but I find that this formula generally works on most people.

As I have mentioned before, using waterproof mascara will help BIG TIME to keep them curled. So give it a go, and enjoy your fluttery lashes!