Colored and Accent Lashes

Colored lashes come in two forms that behave very differently. A fully colored lash is dyed through, so the whole fringe reads as blue or burgundy or whatever it is. An accent lash is mostly black with colored fibers scattered through it, and the color only catches when the light hits or when you look up. The second is far more wearable, and it is what most people actually want when they pick up the first.

When full color works

Under strong light, against a simple face, and when the color has somewhere else to echo. A blue lash with nothing else blue on the face reads as a mistake; the same lash with a hint of the color in the liner or the outfit reads as deliberate. Full color also needs the rest of the eye kept quiet, since a colored fringe plus a colored shadow plus a strong lip is three things competing.

Why accents are easier

Colored fibers threaded through a black lash give you the effect without the commitment. From a normal conversational distance the lash reads as black; when you blink or turn, the color flashes. That makes them wearable in daylight and at work in a way a full color is not, and it makes the choice of shade much lower stakes.

Choosing a shade

Warm colors, copper, burgundy, amber, tend to flatter more people than cool ones because they sit closer to natural hair and skin tones. Colors that pick up your own eye color intensify it: warm tones next to blue eyes, coppers and golds next to brown. A shade far from anything on your face is the one that has to be justified by the rest of the look.

Applying them

Nothing about the application differs from a standard strip lash, except that the band is more visible under a light-colored fiber. A line of liner along the base is worth the extra step here, because a pale band showing above your lash line undoes the effect entirely. Check the fit and trim from the outer end before gluing, as with any strip.