Eyelash Extensions: Everything You Want To Know About Scoring A Fake Fringe

We bet if we took a survey and asked "What one beauty product can you not leave the house without?" more than half of you would answer "mascara." It's no secret that ladies love their lashes. But what happens if you weren't "born with it' and your natural lashes aren't (gasp!) all that?

Well, we asked Soul Lee, lash guru at Kiehl's Spa 1851, to answer exactly that question. Her solution to lackluster lashes? Extensions.

Turns out, they're not as scary as they seem (visions of Kim K's tarantulashes might come to mind, but put them aside for a moment) and won't damage your natural lashes if they're done correctly.

"They’re applied hair by hair with semi-permanent glue onto the natural lash, one hair at a time. I put about 75 extension lashes on each eye." says Lee. "I use lashes that are made with silk and synthetics since they have great staying power. I haven’t seen anyone use real hair extensions because it's hard to make lashes that curl with real hair.”

Sounds easy enough. Lee was quick to point out that lashes will last up to 4 weeks if they're taken care of properly. That means not wearing mascara, first and foremost! "The black dye in the mascara thins the glue, so you will lose the extensions faster," says Lee. "It’s also hard to clean the mascara on extensions so you end up with mascara build-up around the extension lashes.” We can't bear the thought of not wearing mascara, but the idea of saving all that time, and waking up feeling doe-eyed and awake, sans makeup, is pretty appealing.

Here's the bad part (it sounded too good to be true didn't it?): Well-done, natural looking lash extensions are going to set you back a few hundred (yes, hundred) dollars. That. Is. Scary. If you're not the kind of girl who's down for dropping your entire paycheck on your peepers (neither are we, by the way), don't worry. A lot of companies are stepping up their lash game with serums and mascaras specifically formulated to help you fake this same effect. Our favorite right now is Too Faced's Better Than False Lashes Lash Extension System which combines a mascara base, nylon fiber rich primer and an activating mascara. And, it's only — drumroll, please — $35. We're can live with that.