Na­dine John­son

I must con­fess. Be­fore be­com­ing a make­up artist I nev­er thought much about eye­lash­es. (The rea­son is that I have none – it's true.) So as a con­se­quence I re­al­ly al­ways ig­nored that part of my fa­cial anato­my. So when we were in­struct­ed to get an eye­lash curler in make­up school I bought it, but that strange tool sat in my kit for a long time.

Then one day I dared to take it out of the pack­age and look at it. Then the next I dared to use it on some­one. This strange look­ing con­trap­tion is tricky to use at first but as with any­thing prac­tice makes per­fect. And the ef­fect of us­ing them to curl your lash­es re­al­ly pays off be­cause love­ly curled eye­lash­es make your eyes look brighter and wider.

And trust me, the eye­lash curler is a good tool to have in your ar­se­nal and to learn to mas­ter, es­pe­cial­ly if you have longer lash­es that tend to grow out straight, grow down­ward or not curl at all. It is al­so good to curl your lash­es if you are plan­ning on wear­ing false eye­lash­es so that the nat­ur­al lash­es and the fake ones blend bet­ter to­geth­er.

HOW TO USE AN EYE­LASH CURLER

1. Make sure your eye lash­es are clean.

2. Open the curler and en­sure that the curved part fol­lows the curved shape of your eye­lid.

(BE CARE­FUL! Don't put it too close to the base of your eye­lid and pinch your eyes in it.)

3. Clamp lash­es in the curler for about 10 to 30 sec­onds.

4. If you have su­per long lash­es you can work your way from the root to the tips.

5. Ap­ply mas­cara on­to lash­es af­ter curl­ing.

6. The re­sult will be curled lash­es that will give your eyes a bright, wide-eyed and lift­ed look.

EYE­LASH CURL­ING TIPS

1. Al­ways curl lash­es first then ap­ply mas­cara af­ter. Curl­ing lash­es with mas­cara on them can re­sult in you break­ing off and dam­ag­ing your eye­lash­es.

2. As with all make­up tools, keep the lash curler clean by wip­ing it with al­co­hol.

3. You can heat met­al eye­lash curlers by us­ing a blow dy­er or by dip­ping it in hot wa­ter.

4. A heat­ed eye­lash curler will re­sult in a long-last­ing and curli­er lash.

Again, BE CARE­FUL!

5. En­sure that you do not over­heat it and burn your eye­lids.

Note: There are rub­ber pads on the curlers; these can get worn over time, but they can be re­placed.

WHERE TO PUR­CHASE

You can buy a good eye­lash curler from your favourite make­up sup­pli­er or ven­dor and from any store where you buy your make­up. Most of the pop­u­lar ones are bud­get friend­ly but most of the high­er end make­up com­pa­nies al­so make them as well. If you de­cide that you like this tool, you might want to in­vest in a high­er end, more ex­pen­sive one.