This is the ultimate hack for keeping your lashes curled

Ask any number of your girlfriends the one makeup product they would use daily if they had to pick a single item, and there’s a high chance you’d hear “mascara” over and over again. There’s just something comforting about having your lashes perfectly dark and curled. (Oh, and it instantly makes you look like you chugged a cup of coffee, which is always a plus.)

The thing is, sometimes your lashes don’t look as dramatic as you’d like—even after a couple of coats of mascara and a few rounds with an eyelash curler.

“What happens is, most of the time lashes can grow straight,” celebrity makeup artist Ashley Rebecca recently said behind-the-scenes on a shoot with Well+Good Council member Candice Kumai (she’s also worked with stars like Jemima Kirke and Gail Simmons). “So if you put mascara on, they won’t curl.”

Prepare to have your mind blown: Before crimping her fringe, Kumai took the lash curler and heated it up with a blow dryer. “When you heat the lash curler first, what it does is give it that curling effect like an actual iron does to the hair,” her makeup artist explains. “You just curl at the base with that touch of heat to set it, and it’ll stay like that all day.”

“When you heat the lash curler first, what it does is give it that curling effect like an actual iron does to the hair.”

Of course the concern that’s top of mind is that you don’t want to burn the delicate eye area, but Rebecca has a hack for that, too. She adds that you should test it on the back of your hand or wrist (like you would a baby bottle) to make sure it’s cool enough to use because the last thing you want to do is singe your fringe.

“If your lashes are straight, start at the base,” says Rebecca about the ideal technique for your lash type. “And if not, you can crimp at the center and curl at the top.” Voila—time to flutter those babies.

Originally posted February 9, 2018; updated May 16, 2018. 

You could also try Lo Bosworth’s genius mascara hack for longer lashes. And this is how to make basically any mascara more lengthening.