Eyelash enhancement products: Which ones are worth it?
By Kristy Koehler, January 24 2020 —
Not everyone is blessed with long, dark eyelashes of the Instagrammable variety. As a result, many of us go to great lengths — pun intended — in order to present a pair of perfect peepers to the world.
There are plenty of eyelash-enhancing products on the market to give you the fluttery look you crave — from mascaras to growth serums and extensions to falsies. After years of spending money glue-on false lashes, I graduated to salon-applied extensions. The process took up a lot of my time — and cash.
An application of a new set of extensions, wherein synthetic eyelashes are applied either individually to your own, can take upwards of two hours and cost in the ballpark of around $200. They then need to be filled every couple of weeks — a process that costs in the neighbourhood of $75–$100 and takes about an hour. You’ve got to wash your lashes to prevent bacteria and providers must be chosen carefully to prevent damage to your natural lashes. You’ll never be able to rub your eyes again while wearing extensions and when they start to shed, they look awful if you don’t have time to fit in a fill.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adored my extensions, and loved waking up looking put-together. But, I wanted to try something new. Recently, my Facebook and Instagram feeds have been bombarded with ads for magnetic eyelashes — essentially a strip of false eyelashes with magnets on them that adhere to a magnetic eyeliner you apply daily. Most companies advertise all-day hold and up to 30 uses of the lashes before you’ll need a new pair. I assumed not all products would be created equally, so I gave all the major brands a try. All of these companies charge in USD and are subject to additional customs duties and taxes.
Silly George:
The Lash & Liner Starter Kit from Silly George is certainly good value. For just under $70 USD, you get a tube of magnetic eyeliner, a lid and lash cleaner, a mascara and one set of magnetic eyeliner lashes in the style of your choice. I opted for the ‘Girl Friday’ style. The lashes have five magnets on each strip — two clustered at each end and one in the middle. They’re a little flimsier than the others I tried and don’t hold their shape as well. The liner is easy to apply but peeled off easily and the lashes didn’t stick to it nearly as well as I’d hoped. There was some lifting on the edges about an hour into wear. Shop online at sillygeorge.com.
The LashLiner System:
This company claims to be the first to file for a patent on magnetic liner and lash combos. The shipping took a while and I got hit with extra customs duties and taxes, but when they arrived, they were lovely. The packaging is stunning — a glittery light blue with a little mirror inside. They come with anchor lashes as well — smaller pieces that you can use on the opposite side of your natural lash to hold them in place even without the liner or to add an extra bit of security if you’re out dancing all night. I tried the ‘Nashville’ and ‘Los Angeles’ styles. Both were very pretty but looked a little more synthetic than I would like. A liner and lash combo runs $75 USD. You can check out the styles and order at lashliner.com.
MoxieLash:
These were by far my favourite of the brands I tried. The lashes were the closest-looking to actual lash extensions and the small size of the ‘Sassy’ style fit my eyes perfectly. I can’t speak to the other styles MoxieLash sells, but the ‘Sassy’ style has five magnets evenly spaced along the band yet are a full magnet-length shorter than any of the other styles I tried, making them the exact size my lids needed. There was no lifting whatsoever and they held perfectly in place for a full day. The formula of the eyeliner seems a little different than the other brands — much more magnetic. The drawbacks are that the liner is a little thicker and takes some more finesse to apply but also is harder to clean off your eyes and the lashes before you put them away. Lashes run $35 USD and the liner is $45 USD. MoxieLash also has a festival shop with eyelashes in various colours. Find them online at moxielash.com.
Glamnetic:
The customer service from this brand was great — my original order got lost in the mail and when I contacted them through their Instagram page, they responded immediately and dispatched another order, no questions asked. When the new set arrived, the look of both styles I ordered — ‘Luxe’ and ‘Lush’ — was fluffy and realistic. These have five magnets also — evenly spaced along the band. Glamnetic has a huge selection of styles, as well as festival colours to really jazz up your look. The liner is $51 USD and comes in black or brown and the lashes run $40 USD for mink or around $36 USD for vegan options. They’re online at glamnetic.com.
While all the styles claim to last 30 wears, in order to get that length of use from them, you’ll need to clean the eyeliner from the magnets themselves after each wear. It’s a bit time-consuming and you’ll need to use a cotton swab to ensure you clean only the magnets, not the lashes themselves.
I definitely loved MoxieLash best, owing to the size of their styles fitting my eye shape best and the liner itself feeling a little more magnetic than the others. The lash band also felt a little more robust than the other styles. I loved the fluffiness and realistic quality of the Glamnetic lashes and they’d be great for someone with larger eyes. You can also cut any of the lashes to fit your eye shape and size, but I find this interferes with the curvature of the lash.
I found that wearing a thin coat of mascara, before I applied the liner and lash, made a big difference in camouflaging my natural lashes, which are quite light. Overall, I was very pleased with the quality of the magnetic lash and liner combos on the market and this will probably be my go-to lash-enhancement product for the foreseeable future.