The short answer: Grip the lash strip in the middle with tweezers, and land the center of the strip on the center of your lid before anything else touches down. Then bring the outer end down to meet your own outermost lashes, and the inner end down last. Nikol's words for why this works: "when you get it into the center of the eye, you can't go wrong."
Why the corner-first habit fails
Most people place a strip lash by starting at one end and working across, usually the outer corner. It is the wrong order, because every decision after the first one is a correction — you are trying to make the rest of the strip fit a starting point you chose blind.
Center-first inverts that. Anchor the middle, and the two halves fall symmetrically into place on their own. Nikol says it plainly: "I'm not concentrating on the point here, or how am I going to do it. I want to get the center of the lash to meet the center of my eyelid, then all I have to do is pull down the corners."
The method, step by step
- Glue the band first, then pick the lash up in the middle. Grip it with tweezers at the midpoint of the strip rather than at an end. Depending on the lash, holding it dead center is easier than holding it anywhere else.
- Land the center on the center of your lid. Bring the strip down to the base of your own lashes at the middle of the eye. Nothing else touches down yet — only the middle.
- Feel for the wet glue at your lash base. This is the tactile checkpoint, and it is the one thing you cannot see well while doing it: "I want to feel the wetness of the glue right at the base of my lashes, right on my eyelid. Because then I know I'm right where it needs to be." If you cannot feel it, the band is sitting off the lid and it will lift.
- Bring the outer end down. Take the outer end and set it to meet your own furthest-out lashes.
- Bring the inner corner down last. Same movement, other side.
- Press the band in. If any part has landed slightly above the lid, press it down. You can also pinch your natural lashes and the strip together between two fingers to fuse them, though Nikol does not do this often.
The part nobody shows you
This video exists because of a complaint. Nikol had made an earlier video on choosing lash styles for women over 40, 50, 60, and 70 — including individual lashes — and focused so much on style selection that she never showed the application. Her viewers were, in her words, "very upset." So she came back and filmed the technique.
She also addresses something more interesting. A commenter accused her of cutting away from camera to apply the lashes and cutting back once they were on:
"I'm not a YouTuber that's going to go off camera and come back on. Not really, because this is what I do. I show you what I do. It's not always the best, because I am looking with contacts and being up close."
Her contacts are corrected for distance, so applying a lash at mirror range is genuinely harder for her than for someone with reading correction. She films it anyway, imperfectly. That is worth knowing if your own attempts feel clumsier than the tutorials suggest they should — you are comparing yourself to edited footage, not to what actually happens at the mirror.
You do not need expensive lashes
Nikol's lashes in this video are drugstore — the kind you pick up at CVS or Duane Reade. The pair she is wearing is called Glamour, and her note on it is useful for anyone put off by lash names: "the name of it might scare you, but it's not overly glamorous. It's just really pretty."
Lash names are marketing. The band, the length, and the density are what determine whether a strip reads as natural on a mature eye, and none of that is in the name.
Where lashes fit on a mature eye
| If your issue is | Consider |
|---|---|
| An event, and you want obvious impact | A strip lash, applied center-first |
| Lashes that have thinned but you want everyday wear | Mascara technique first — see front-loading at the base |
| A curl that drops before the event does | The two-stage heated curl method |
| Hooded lids where a strip band shows | Under-lash placement rather than a strip on the lid |
Frequently asked questions
Where do you start when applying false lashes?
In the middle. Grip the strip at its midpoint with tweezers and set the center of the lash onto the center of your lid first, then bring the outer end down, then the inner end. Starting at a corner means every subsequent placement is a correction.
How do you know the lash is in the right place?
By feel, not by sight. You should feel the wet glue against the base of your own lashes on the lid. If you cannot feel it there, the band is sitting above your lash line and it will lift at the edges.
Should you use tweezers or your fingers?
Tweezers. Control comes from gripping the band at its midpoint, which fingers cannot do without touching the lashes themselves or the glue.
Why do my false lashes lift at the corners?
Usually because the band was never seated against the lash line to begin with. Anchoring the center first and then pulling each end down to meet your own outermost lashes is what keeps the ends flat.
Do you press the lash and your natural lashes together?
You can — pinching them between two fingers fuses the two lash lines. Nikol does not do it every time; pressing the band down along the lid matters more.
Are drugstore false lashes good enough?
Yes. The lashes in this tutorial came from a drugstore. What determines whether a strip looks natural is the band, the length, and the density — not the price or the name on the packet.
Is applying false lashes harder as you get older?
Vision is the real obstacle rather than dexterity. If your correction is for distance, close mirror work is genuinely harder — Nikol has the same problem and films it anyway. A magnifying mirror and center-first placement remove most of the difficulty.
Start here
Next time, do one thing differently: pick the strip up in the middle instead of at the end. Land the center, feel for the glue at your lash base, then bring the two ends down. That single change fixes more lash problems than any product will. Then blend the two lash lines together — the front-loading technique with VOLUME UP Mascara and a line of WaterProof Eyeliner at the base is what makes the band stop reading as a band.
