How to apply fake lashes under the lash line

Applying fake lashes can be a real conundrum – you don't want them all wonky, and you want them to stay on for as long as possible. 

Luckily one TikTok beauty expert (@youngcouture) has rocked our worlds with a very simple suggestion to make our lives a whole lot easier, and we are here to share the joy.

Here's what you need to do, according to her post: apply your glue under your lashes – not the eyelid – and then fit your set of fake lashes onto your eyelash curler. Then, line your curler up underneath your lashes (where the glue should be) and curl them onto your real lashes. Beautiful! 

Users have freaked out at this hack, resolving to give it a go themselves to see if it really can be that easy. One also asked if the lashes were difficult to remove after use after using this method, and our TikTok beauty gal replied that came off very easily, Wins all around.

“Wow thanks for making our lives easier” one user commented, with another calling the hack a “game-changer”. Simple and effective – just the kind of thing we need to add to our beauty regimen.

But @youngcouture's eye make-up hacks don't stop there. She covers pretty much all beauty areas, but we are obsessed with her micellar water/eyeshadow hack. Of course, you can also use setting spray or plain old water for this, but this hack requires the make-up remover du jour.

She recommends dipping your eyeshadow brush into your micellar water, then spreading the brush across your eyeshadow of choice, immediately turning it into the consistency of an eyeliner. 

It gives what ever eye colour you use such a sheeny finish, we wonder if that's from the ingredients in the micellar water. Incredible!

Think of all the colourful possibilities when it comes to lining your eyes, along with the foolproof method to apply your lashes. What more could you want?

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This is THE best way to apply false eyelashes ever. Check out this super natural looking way of application with no visible glue or band! Lashes: https://www...

False lashes under your lashes This is THE best way to apply false eyelashes ever. Check out this super natural no visible glue or band!…

False lashes under your lashes This is THE best way to apply false eyelashes ever. Check out this super natural no visible glue or band!…

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As the standing lash enthusiast on staff at Allure, my one irksome shame is the fact that I had never mastered the art of applying false lashes before. I've done lash extensions and lash lifts, but as for false lash strips, my skill comes to a full halt. I can carve a cat-eye like Picasso and contour like Bob Ross, but dropping tiny wigs on top of my lash line (which is kind of what they are, no?) is akin to building tiny dollhouse furniture (another thing I have absolutely no talent for). It always sounds and looks easy in theory, but all my attempts thus far had been decidedly rookie.

As a beauty editor, I just can't settle for janky-looking falsies — I simply will not. I love the look of long, feathery lashes, but extensions are tedious and expensive and lash lifts are also expensive, albeit less tedious. I just want to live a luxury lash lifestyle on a never-not-flying-coach-with-a-carry-on budget. Is that so hard to ask?

According to Joanna Simkin, no. Simkin is a makeup artist who's primped the faces of Issa Rae, Kerry Washington, and even Zayn Malik, but more importantly, she can make drugstore false lashes look like this. So naturally, when given the opportunity, I asked her how a lash Luddite like me can wig-out my eyeball bangs to long, feathery perfection. Here are her expert not-so-secret secrets:

Here's the lowdown on how to subscribe to Allure's print edition for more beauty routines, recommendations, and features.

1. Prepare your supplies.

Duo Strip Lash Adhesive

Kiss Lash Couture Triple Push-Up in Teddy

Tweezerman Slant Tweezer

2. Trim each of the eyelash strips.

Sable Yong

First of all, start with some inexpensive lashes with this one because you may have a heart attack after purchasing some silky mink sets — and then here I am, commanding you to sever them. Kiss makes some really great-looking cheap strip lashes. I'm using Lash Couture Triple Push-Up Lashes in Teddy ($7) — the same ones Cardi B wore to the Met Gala this year — because I'm worth it.

Measure the strip against your actual eyelid and trim off the excess (not while it's against your eye, good lord). You can use the extra bit to later stack upon the lash strip at your eye's outer corners for extra va va voom if you want, or you can use it when you just want a bit more emphasis on top of your natural outer lashes, like a dress's train.

3. Apply your lash glue strategically.

Glue and bend.

Meaning, don't just glob it on and immediately stick it to your eyelid. You've got to wait and let that goo dry a little — but not too much. About 30 seconds should do it, Simkin recommends, enough to leave it feeling tacky but not wet. During that 30 seconds, she showed me a little trick she does, where she bends the strip to make the ends kiss, better distributing the adhesive onto the ends so they don't lift while you're wearing them. So simple, so innovative.

4. Look downwards into a mirror, not straight ahead.

Sable Yong

OK, game time. The hardest part for me is actually plopping the strip onto my lash line close enough so that it's right on top but not tangled up in my lashes. Simkin told me that if you place a mirror under your face nearly to a perpendicular angle and look down, your eyelid will extend, almost like you're closing your eyes, but you'll be better able to see exactly where to place the strip. This little tip changed my world. It really is so much easier than trying to do this staring into a vertical mirror and poking myself into the eyes while my head is tilted back at wildly uncomfortable angles.

Sable Yong

Don't close your eyes when applying, Simkin stresses, because it changes your eye shape. This is kind of difficult to do at first, but you'll get it. I believe in you. She can place lash strips with her fingers but I find that using tweezers helps me. One day I'll graduate to tool-free application. Until then, I remain a tweezer devotee.

5. Use eyeliner to camouflage the strip's band.

Sable Yong

Now that you've got your lashes on, here's a crucial step to make your strip lashes look less obviously like you're wearing strip lashes. Take your trusty liquid liner (or gel liner with an angled eyeliner brush, if you prefer) and draw a line extending the band from where it begins to the inner corner of your eye. You can also flick out the end if you want a winged effect, but this is mostly just to blend the line of the band to your lash line.

Subtle, right?

6. Go forth and admire how good your lashes look.

Now you're ready to enter the world with newly affixed luxurious eyeball visors. Seriously, having a row of strip lashes on top of my own feel like their own individual sun hats — it's great. Not only that, but I love the way false lashes amp up a look from zero to doe-eyed death trap in...however long it takes me to glue these suckers on. I'm getting the hang of it and with enough practice, it won't take long. Simkin says she can plop them on in the mornings in two minutes and I aspire to that level.

The lashes I'm using here are a bit dramatic — this Kiss collection has triple-layered lashes that fan out in different directions for a really voluminous albeit "natural"-looking set. But they also have more subtle strips, like the MLBB My Lash But Better Lashes ($5). The Ardell Individual Lashes ($9 for a pack of 32)are also beloved for their ease of use. You can pinpoint exactly where you want to fluff up your lashes and these are nearly undetectable and are great at replacing mascara.

Sure, there are also magnetic lashes, but I'm a purist (read: masochist) so I mostly wanted to learn how to master false lash strip application before going nuts with all the newfangled lash innovations. Don't think I'm not already all over those, though — what sort of aspiring lash connoisseur would I be if I weren't?

Sable Yong

Up your (lash) batting average with these:

• The Best False Eyelashes, According to Makeup Artists
• 6 Ways to Wear False Lashes IRL
• The False Eyelash-Cleaning Hack You Never Knew You Needed

You think you know about lash extensions? Well, maybe just watch this anyway:

You can follow Sable on Instagram and Twitter.

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