Essential Gurly Skills - Mascara

 

 One of the easiest ways to draw attention to your eyes and create fun, flirty looks is by adding mascara. Mascara is a key component to making your eyes stand out. Mascara has the ability to not only make your lashes darker; it also adds length and thickness. It doesn’t matter how wonderful your eyeshadow looks, or what great techniques you have used, without great looking lashes no one will notice. 

Even if you don’t wear a lot of eyeshadow, adding mascara will bring depth to your eyes and open them up. On the other hand, if you don’t know the correct way to apply mascara it will draw attention to all the clumps in your lashes from too much product. Let’s face it, none of us want so much mascara on, it can produce spider lashes or can flake off resulting in raccoon eyes. Don’t despair however, knowing how to utilize mascara is just a matter of practice and some great tips.

Finding the Right One

Choosing the right mascara can definitely be a love-hate relationship. With so many mascaras on the market promising to either lengthen, or volumize our lashes, the options can be confusing. Here are some things to keep in mind when your purchase your mascara. Should you get lengthening, curling, thickening or Volumizing? With so many to choose from deciding which one is best for you can be intimidating. If you want longer lashes go for a good lengthening mascara, fuller lashes need volume, and some mascaras promise to do both. We like L’Oreal Volumizing mascara; it has a great want to it and is great for thickening the lashes while adding length.

Waterproof mascaras are great for people who plan or need to wear it all day. It works wonders if you are going to be in the sun or sweating. Also, it helps to maintain any curl you put into your lashes by an eyelash curler. However, it is harder to remove than conventional mascara so make sure you have a good remover specially formulated for removing waterproof mascara. If you wear contacts or have sensitive eyes it may be best to find mascara that is hypoallergenic to avoid irritants near the eye.

Color

This one is pretty easy. Black mascara opens the eyes and gives the lashes a fuller effect. Although you can pick from many different shades, black will give the best outcome for a set of full, thick lashes that everyone will envy. However, if you have very light hair and skin you may find that very black mascara may be to overpowering. Try using a brown/black mascara to not overwhelm your look.

Tips for Applying Mascara

Don’t pump the wand in and out of the bottle. This pushes air into the tube which will make the mascara dry out faster causing clumping and flaking. Instead, gently twist the back and forth or in circular motions to pick up the desired amount of product.

If you decide to curl your lashes, begin at the root of the lashes being careful not to get any skin into the eyelash curler. Press the curler together and hold for about 10 seconds and move the curler out to the end of your lashes and repeat. Again, this step is optional but it does make for longer looking lashes and opens the eye. When you remove the wand from the bottle make sure to scrap off any excess mascara from the wand. This will help you avoid making your lashes clumpy.

Whether you start with your top or bottom lashes is completely up to you, although beginning with the bottom lashes will prevent those tiny dots that appear on your eyelids when you look down to apply mascara to your bottom lashes. For the top lashes, look straight forward, take the wand and place it at the base of your lashes. Using a back-and-forth motion while moving the wand up your lashes and sweep upward, this will help give your lashes a curled effect. Keep repeating this until you get your lashes as thick as you want, usually 2-3 coats. When it comes to the bottom lashes, tilt your head forward slightly to keep from getting mascara onto your cheek. Use the same side to side motions until you get a good coat of mascara on your lower lashes. If you have problems with mascara transferring from your lashes onto your eyelids or cheeks, use a business card, credit card or small piece of paper and hold over the area while applying your mascara.

To make your eyelashes look even thicker a trick is to apply a coat of black eyeliner to the upper waterline of your eyes. To do this, pull up your lashes just a bit, and run the black eyeliner on the top of the inner waterline. To give it more staying power, dip your eyeliner pencil in black waterproof gel eyeliner and line the waterline. Even though this is a subtle difference, the black base it creates automatically gives the appearance of thicker, fuller lashes.

Fuller, thicker lashes are just a few brush strokes away! Hope these tricks and tips help you in getting the most from your lashes