Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic

Welcome to our new weekly column on the YOU magazine website, www.you.co.uk  Below you will find the current question and our advice, with a list of where to source the products mentioned.  To look at past columns, click here. And for lots more solutions to your beauty dilemmas, visit Q&A, just click here.

February 21st, 2010: Eyelash enhancers

Q I have very fine eyelashes, and not a lot of them. Is there any product that will make them grow or appear thicker? I've tried most of the mascaras out there, but none seem to make much of a difference.

A Long answer here, but lets start with the simplest solution: mascara.   One tip on applying: always take it from the base of your lashes, zigzagging it through for maximum coverage. 

Jo often bemoans her lack of lashes but her experience is that the key is to find a mascara with the right wand. the ‘flexible’ rubber ones (like Chanel Inimitable, £20.95, and Maybelline Define-A-Lash, £7.99) do a much better job at ‘gripping’ the lashes than most wands, and therefore have a much better curling, lifting and lengthening action.   (Anything that looks like a ‘dead bee’ - with a fuzzy wand – skims over Jo’s lashes, she’s found.)  Once you’ve found a style of wand that works for you, don’t bother with anything that doesn’t look the same.  It’s easy to waste so much money on ineffective mascaras.’  

Another thing you could try is a lash primer.  We’ve become real fans during the process of testing them for this column.  This niche market is growing, probably due to the number of women with the same problem as you.  Here are offerings from four leading brands: 

Elizabeth Arden Lash Optimizer-Primer with Conditioners, £14, to condition, soften and build lashes, also enhance the effect and wear of mascara. 

Clinique Lash Building Primer, £10, with emollients and moisturisers (panthenol and waxes) to condition, plus advanced formula with ‘duplex polymer duo’  to help mascara bind to lashes. 

Blinc Lash Primer, £12.50, a base coat that surrounds even the tiniest lashes to create volume and length, boosting your mascara’s effect. 

Urban Decay Eyelash Primer Potion, £10, with silk proteins, panthenol and hydrolized wheat protein to fortify and condition, while making lashes appear thicker. 

And of course you can always try falsies!  Beauty expert Marcia Kilgore says:  ‘just adding four or five last extensions on the outer edge of each upper eyelid can make a tremendous difference to your lashline’.  Have them done professionally at a beauty salon, if you can (from around £50 in London) – they should last about six weeks. 

‘What also makes a HUGE difference to the appearance of lashes is a dark lash-line at the roots,’ says Jo.  Most lash-liners leave a gap between the lash-line and your actual lashes.  But Laura Mercier Eyeliner, £18, is a product that’s applied in a fairly revolutionary way, with a special flat eyeliner brush that you work into the eyeline underneath the lashes, rather than on top - a technique called ‘tightlining’.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but the results are miraculous in terms of creating the optical illusion that lashes are longer than they really are.  If you’re unsure, check out your nearest Laura Mercier counter (call 08001 234 000), and they will demo this genuis technique to you,  ‘til you get the hang of it.  

Trish McEvoy has also just launched a Lash Enhancer Night Times Conditioning Treatment for lashes and brows: it’s a hefty £89 for three months supply – visible results can begin to be seen in four weeks, they tell us -  and we haven’t trialed it (yet), but we do trust Trish.  At a more budget price, L’Oreal Paris has launched Renewal Lash Serum, £10.99, which again we haven’t trialled (because again it’s only just come out) but contains the popular haircare ingredient panthenol, plus fortifying amino acids and ceramides. 

We . . . Lipstick Queen Sheer Red Power Gloss, £15.  Red lips are a hot seasonal trend – but very hard to get right, unless you’re Snow White.  So Lipstick Queen (a.k.a. Poppy King, cosmetic creator extraordinaire) has come up with the most goof-proof way to wear red lips that we’ve yet found:  a non-sticky, non-shimmery, suits-all-skintones gloss in a sheer red which puts you instantly ‘on-trend’ – in a totally non-scary way. 

Where to Find Products 

Chanel Inimitable Mascara, £20.95, is available to purchase online from www.boots.com. 

Maybelline Define-A-Lash, £7.99, is available to purchase online from www.boots.com. 

Elizabeth Arden Lash Optimizer-Primer with Conditioners, £14, is available to purchase online from www.boots.com. 

Clinique Lash Building Primer, £10, is available to purchase online from www.boots.com. 

Blinc Lash Primer, £12.50, is available to purchase online from www.hqhair.com. Don’t forget your exclusive 10% discount with all online orders 

Urban Decay Eyelash Primer Potion, £10, is available to purchase online from www.hqhair.com. Don’t forget your exclusive 10% discount with all online orders 

Laura Mercier Eyeliner, £18, is available to purchase online from www.johnlewis.com. 

Trish McEvoy Lash Enhancer Night Times Conditioning Treatment, £89, is available to purchase from Harvey Nichols and Selfridges 08001 234 000. 

L’Oreal Renewal Lash Serum, £10.99, is available to purchase online from www.boots.com. 

Lipstick Queen Sheer Red Power Gloss, £15, is available to purchase online from spacenk.co.uk. 

Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic Archive

February 14th 2010 - Night-time skincare
February 7th 2010 - Moisturisers
January 31st 2010 - Concealers
January 24th 2010 - Primers
January 17th 2010 - Choosing skincare products
January 10th 2010 - Parabens free make-up
January 3rd 2010 - Cosmetic Dentistry

Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic Archive 2009