makeup

MASCARA RE/DONE

TUTORIAL + PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY NADINE, GRAPHIC DESIGN BY EUNICE CHUN

Not everyone has full, thick and long lashes. Hey, we can’t have it all… maybe you have gorgeous long hair or perfect skin, but your lashes are a little on the sparse or short side. Who cares! Embrace what you have, make the most of it and if that’s the worst of your problems, you’re doing alright, right?! But this little trick will become your new best friend. I know you have a mascara in your makeup drawer that you bought with high hopes only to find the wand or the formula (or both) does nothing for your lashes. But don’t toss it! Re-purpose it into a personal root stamper.

WHY?

1. The flat surface paints the roots better than bristles ever can.
2. Stamping at the root really presses and flares the lashes upward.
3. Stamping at the root makes lashes look thicker at the base, a must for those of us with sparse or thin lashes.

TOOLS:

• A Mascara You Bought And Don’t Love — or one that you loved but has dried out or lost its juujuu.
• A Mascara You Bought And Love — right now this is my favorite luxury mascara and this is my favorite mass market find.
• A Pair of Scissors

STEPS:

1. Take a deep breath and cut the end of the mascara wand off (make sure it’s the one you don’t want anymore!) with the scissors. Toss the end with the bristles.
2. Switch to your favorite mascara and apply a couple coats like you normally would.
3. Don’t forget the bottom lashes too.
4. Switch to your new root stamper and dip it into the mascara tube that you love (or back into its original tube if it isn’t dried out). Press it at the roots of the upper lashline.
5. Continue to stamp it along the lashline until your cover the entire area.

P.S. You can also use the stamper to paint each lash from root to tip.

P.P.S. Want to know how this ingenious trick came about? One of my favorite producers, Emily Roth (who produces the Charlotte Russe campaigns that I do the makeup for and Lauren Conrad’s Kohl’s/Disney blogger parties), was running late and decided to do her makeup at stoplights in her car. When she went to pull the wand out of her mascara, it broke in half and she didn’t have a backup! She had no choice but to use the broken wand stub thing to paint each lash. And they never looked better!! I saw her at the Minnie Mouse party last month and complimented her on her lashes and she told me what happened and how she’d been using it that way ever since. So of course when I got home I ran straight into my bathroom and cut the bristles off of an old mascara wand to see. She was right! Thanks Emily! I love when mishaps become new inventions…