As the eyelash transformer of numerous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models and Cosmo cover girls, makeup artist Tracy Murphy has rightfully earned the title “Queen of Mascara.” Her new extensive line of lash-magnifying makeup, Lash Star Beauty, reflects her years’ of curling, coating and falsifying lashes. With innovative tools, like the Individual Lash Curler that allows you to crimp lashes in mini sections, and eld-tested formulas, like volume-boosting Full Control Lash Sculpting Mascara, Lash Star Beauty truly covers every last lash need. But it’s the brand’s online Lash Diagnosis tool, a four-step process that helps whittle down the products necessary to deliver a consumer’s unique lash needs, that truly intrigues. “In my 20-plus year career, I was unknowingly conducting extensive lash research in my own ‘lash research lab’—aka, the people and the projects I was working on,” Murphy says. Taking that intel, she created an interactive, intuitive tool that lash artists would do well to study. Here, she spills the Lash Diagnosis’ secrets.
Lash Analysis
From growth patterns to unique challenges to lash texture, the tool dissects several aspects of a person’s lashes. “When I’m working with people, I analyze their lashes for the length, texture and growth pattern. Then I consider the look that we want to achieve (the last component of the tool), and all of this information informs what curlers, tools, brushes and formulas I’ll use to get that look. This tool walks you through the same four-step analysis,” she says.
Growth Patterns Matter
How does a client’s lashes naturally curl? Do they hold a curl? “I like to ask the client to describe her lashes and tell me any concerns or issues she has,” she says. “Lashes are hair, after all, and I want people to think of them that way.”
Recognizing Lash Challenges
While the tool singles out six challenges (think: hard to curl, too sparse, too full), Murphy says, “No one has perfect lashes. Most people have one, if not more, of these challenges. Recognizing challenges and addressing them allows you to create the best lashes.”
[Images: Courtesy of Lash Star Beauty]