I Tried Applying Individual False Eyelashes & The Struggle Was Real

Beauty bloggers make everything look easy, even when they're styling out some makeup technique that would be totally fiddly for the common person — like applying fake eyelashes, they always seem to do whatever they attempt with professionalism and ease. If you're keen to copy a trick learned from an online makeup tutorial, don't be too stressed when you find out that it's genuinely a lot harder than you'd imagine.

At least that's what I learned whilst trying to apply individual false lashes for the first time. After falling down a YouTube hole of "how to" videos and thinking about how simple it would be, especially seeing as I had just lulled myself into a false sense of security after watching all these beautiful people tackling their eyelids with complete precision, I knew I had to try them out for myself. Oversized black falsies used to be my go-to party look back in the day, so I assumed it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to dabble in the world of glamorous singular lashes.

Grabbing the first box available to me at the drugstore and a new set of tweezers, I rushed home to excitedly try out this new (well, to me) beauty trend that I'd never tried before. In reality, I probably shouldn't have bothered.

Apologies to the woman on the back of the box for using her forehead as a platform, but the glue needed to be easily accessible for dabbing the ends of the lashes in. At least, that's what the beauty tutorials told me. In actuality, it kept drying out, meaning that it needed constant top ups and that a lot of product got wasted.

For my first attempt, I picked up a medium sized lash and glued it to the outer corner of my eye using the aforementioned tweezers. Aside from my obviously poor foundation blend, I thought it was all going so well.

Until I was three lashes deep and my first hand dude started to look droopy and sad, causing my own face to look similarly displeased. Although the other two lame attempts look fairly alright in this photo, they were actually facing all sorts of directions making me look completely weird.

Shortly after this picture was taken, my eldest child ended up falling from my face and into the carpet somewhere, never to be seen again. As an isolated incident, it would've been forgivable, but fifteen minutes into the application session and my tights were littered with fallen soldiers. It wasn't going so well.

"Maybe I should apply some mascara and pull the whole look together", I thought, desperately hoping that my Urban Decay 'Perversion' mascara would stick everything in place and make me look fabulous. My naivety knew no bounds.

Perversion mascara, $20, Sephora

Instead, I was left with a lash trying to attach itself to my actual eyeball, which was a lot more painful than you would expect. In a frantic state of panic, I decided to abandon the voluptuous full lash look and go for something simpler and more effective.

Taking inspiration from a mishmash of '70s street style and A Clockwork Orange's very own Alex DeLarge, I decided to go for a statement bottom lash effect, as not to completely abandon the project and completely waste my time. Realizing that the tweezers were actually more cumbersome than useful, I abandoned them and decided to use my trusty fingertips instead. If everything went to plan, it would result in a striking look comprising of way fewer lashes.

Et voila!

Although I probably shouldn't have angered my fragile hairy babies with another layer of mascara, luckily everything eventually managed to keep in place. Whilst the final look wasn't exactly casual, it made for a great grungy statement look that would be perfect for parties.

Not only was my fake lash adventure painful at times and infuriating, but the amount of wasted time and individual lashes to complete this partially failed attempt was pretty heartbreaking.

Applying individual lashes is a lot trickier than it seems, despite the fact that MUAs and other experts make it seem otherwise. If you've run into issues like mine before, don't be so hard on yourself. I'd definitely suggest having a friend over that knows what they're doing or at the very least having a trial run beforehand. As for me, my short lived career of wrestling individual lashes onto my eyelids is over forever — but I still believe you could have better luck in the future.

Images: Hatti Rex