Surprising Fall Trend: Clumpy Lashes
This season, clumpy lashes are actually a good thing. (Photo: Zoltan Tombor / Hair: Tamas Tuzes / Makeup: Deanna Melluso/ Stylist: Janelle Olsen / Models: Luz Pavon)
Do you pride yourself on long, voluminous, separated lashes so perfect they look like falsies? This fall it may be time to rethink your mascara strategy and put clumpy lashes — a typical “makeup don’t” — on your must-try list.
Fall runway shows like Gucci, Prada, and Nanette Lepore all showed thick, clumpy lashes on the catwalk. The recent Spring 2016 Marc Jacobs runway was all about slept-in spider lashes — Francois Nars himself said “the bigger the better,” piling on between four to six coats of the brand’s Audacious mascara add powder in between so lashes would stick together. But will this punky, lived-in look find popularity off the runway?
“It’s funny, I’ve been trying to push this on people forever,” celebrity and runway makeup artist Yadim tells Yahoo Beauty. “All my really cool girlfriends do their own makeup in five minutes in the car on their way to somewhere else, and they always love that rock ‘n’ roll, cool, kind of messed up, lived-in makeup.”
Yadim speaks the truth. Badass girls from Edie Sedgwick to Diana Ross to Joan Jett to Rihanna have all rocked spider legs mascara through the decades — the kind that only seems to improve with wear. Serving as global makeup artist for Maybelline, Yadim had a gut instinct that the time was right for clumpy mascara at mass drugstores.
“It’s really hard to sell that to a makeup company, cause they’re just like, ‘Ummm…clumpy?’ But Maybelline was great,” says Yadim. “We had a sit-down about it and they were like, ‘We want to hear more about this clumpy idea.’ Lo and behold, Maybelline Colossal Chaotic Lash Mascara ($6) hit shelves in June. “They really loved it, and it’s doing well, and it’s all the rage now! I think it’s really cool that the brand was open to it. I have a feeling a lot of other people are going jump on the bandwagon very soon.”
So how are makeup lovers coming around on using a clumpy product? “It used to have a negative connotation, but I think it’s starting to become a cool thing, like, ‘I don’t really care, look how cool I am.’ It’s kind of fun!” As anyone who’s ever fallen asleep in their mascara after a late night out, the connotation certainly rings true. And while Maybelline’s mascara formula is made for creating clumps, there are other wands like L’Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Rock Mascara ($7) that can master the clumpy effect.
“I would say fiber formulas work very well,” says Yadim. “You want a brush that has shape to it — a thicker part and a little dip to it — to get in the nooks and the inner corners and get every single lash.” His other trick for a spider lash application? Flipping the wand around. “I hold the wand vertically and I’ll just move it side to side. It coats every lash and it clumps them together in an almost perfect way.” Just remember to keep the rest of your makeup pretty bare (aside from some dark liner) and let your lashes do all the talking.
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