Set aside labels such as braggart or facetious for just a moment and allow me to put something out there in the open: I get a pleasing amount of compliments on my lashes. Mostly from girls- I don't think guys are observant enough to pinpoint what lashes contribute to your look! I know this is frustrating for many women but bear with me here.
P.S. Sorry in advance I'm not going to have a lot of photos. My laptop charger died and my life is in SHAMBLES right now.
In these conversations, people have flippantly attributed my lash success to having naturally long lashes. My lashes are 7-9mm long (yes, I've measured). Measure your own and check how far off it is, I believe I am not ridiculously far from average. If you have lash lengths similar to mine but don't feel you've maximized your potential: keep reading. And if yours are significantly shorter? Read on, because SPOILER ALERT: length is not crucial.
People who dismiss the appearance of my lashes to length don't know how obsessed I am with playing up my lashes. I've spent the equivalent of weeks experimenting with different curl shapes, practicing application techniques, going through different types of curlers and basically perfecting this craft. I peek at other peoples' lashes and think, mine aren't significantly longer nor thicker.
THE LONG ROAD TO DISCOVERY
The D-Curl is the tightest curl your lashes can make but I can't appreciate it because it doesn't allow me to apply mascara at the full length of my lashes... So I went with a C-Curl! Let me take you through the 3 stages of my curl philosophy to save you the time and grief brought about by misguided beliefs:
Stage 1: Curling can shorten lashes
At the dumbest point in my life, I begged off curling my lashes because I believed they made lashes look shorter. Theoretically, curl eats up length. A 6'2" spine looks 6'2" standing straight, but can appear to be 5'10" when slouched. It's what I told myself when I was too lazy to curl my lashes.
Dumbest dumbness of all the dumb.
Why this is wrong: Looking at 'straight' the wrong way, I didn't realize that my long but straight lashes fell slightly downward. Whatever 'length' I was trying to preserve was nullified by the fact that my dark eyes drowned out all the lash details. My uncurled lashes basically camouflaged against my eye :<
Stage 2: A 90-degree angle at the base is the way to go to flaunt your full length
Still reluctant to let go of my length by letting curl eat it up, I stuck to a 90-degree curl at the very base of my lashes. Camo problem solved, length preserved by keeping a straight angle!
Why this is wrong: Fake is not complimentable. Straight-and-up lashes may showcase your full length, but the unnatural shape is far too distracting. No matter how long the lashes, straight lashes make you look like you mooshed your face on the pillow during siesta time.
Stage 2 didn't seem so dumb to me, so I took a while getting out of that mindset. Even as I started doing a softer-than-90 curl to avoid the overload of fake, I thought my lashes still looked kinda lame.
Fortunately, I had a chance encounter with a beautiful Persian woman while playing poker in one of the city's casinos. I told her she had beautiful lashes, and she thanked me. So I studied them while she did her poker face and I said rather dumbly, "But how can that be, they don't even look that long or thick?"
She shrugged and said, "It's all about the curl, trrrrust me." She went on to explain that even when she doesn't wear mascara, they look fab because she is an expert lash curler. And in fact, she thinks looks better sans mascara because she can never apply them without clumping. I studied her lashes again and couldn't believe it: the extreme curl must have eaten up sooooo much length! Yet as it stood, her eyes looked 10000x more beautiful than mine, and I had longer lashes than her- she acknowledged this!!!
That was the start of me weaning off my straight-angle length obsession in the hopes of preserving the appearance of length. LENGTH IS NOT CRUCIAL, because CURL IS. In fact, the more obsessed you are with length, the tighter the binds are preventing you from your best lashes!
It took me a while to figure out the most flattering curl shape for me, but I eventually settled with a D-curl. Basically, there's 5 levels of lash curls: J, B, C, D and L with J as the flattest and D as almost a half-circle. L curl is steeply-angled, not exactly rounded.
I tried the D-curl for some time but found that the extreme curvature hindered mascara application. The tips of my lashes are already pointing towards my eyelids and I can only apply mascara 'til the first 3/4 of my lashes! Though for bare lashes, they admittedly looked best.
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| C-Curl in action |
For now I've settled with a C-curl. It looks the best so far, but if I can find a way to apply mascara on D-curls, I'll go with those! It doesn't seem like it'll improve your lashes, but trrrrust me, THEY WILL.
I'm curious, how do you play up your lashes?