GTG’s Editor can’t resist a beauty trend. This week: Paperself lashes are beautifully batty, but is there a real-life occasion they'd work for?
The legendary make-up artist Mary Greenwell once said to me: “The difference between celebrities and us mere mortals are false eyelashes.“ What Mary meant was very skilled eyelash application – one or two false lashes applied at the corners of eyes are all you need to get a that winged, Hollywood superstar effect.
Currently in the world of beauty, eyelashes are the new nails. People are wearing them for a quick pint in the pub, and it seems the bigger the better for the TOWIE/ Kashardian/Katie Price brigade who look as if they might wear a full set to make a cup of tea in the mornings. Personally, I‘m not a fan of this look – I find it all a bit transvestite. However, these amazing Paperself lashes, which landed on my desk the other week, are an exception, and as your resident Fad Hag, I felt compelled to test them out.
Created by a London based designer Chunwei Liao, Paperself’s lashes are, as you might expect, made entirely out of paper. You can choose from incredible, intricate designs such as the London skyline (Kate Middleton could have done with a set for the Olympics) , an underwater scene of seahorses, coral and starfish no less, and the aviary set I’m wearing here.
I decided to put them on for an afternoon at the office - the best thing about being a beauty editor is that you get to apply nail varnish, lipstick and false lashes at your desk and call it "work". Unfortunately, I had to cut a peacock off the ends to fit my eyelids, which felt a bit like cutting the buttons off a Chanel jacket, such is the beauty of these things.
They don’t come with glue (bit ridiculous), but after locating some I used a couple of application tricks I’ve learnt from make-up artists over the years: 1) put some of the glue on the back of your hand and run the lash base over the top of it to get even and fine glue distribution 2) use the wrong end of a make-up brush to push them into your lash base until they adhere.
With my eyes all a-twitter I sat at my desk for the afternoon and waited. There was a lot of "What the hell….?” Especially from men who walked past our office doorway. Fascinated, most people would come in close for a second look; yet there was no one who didn’t admire their delicate beauty close up.
I’d say a great look for the catwalk, and the spider ones are an absolute winner for a Halloween party. Probably not for an afternoon in West London, though: people might think you’re just plain batty.
£12.50; Paperself.com