Lash out: This season it’s all or nothing with beauty’s most exaggerated look yet

The perfect mascara is a girl’s best friend and luckily for us Spring/Summer 2016 there’s lashings of it. Sarah Young highlights the best way to achieve doll-like lashes

Lash strips were cut into clusters at Marni Spring/Summer 2016

The quest for longer, thicker lashes is nothing new for us beauty buffs but for a while now they’ve taken a backseat in favour of bushy brows and bronzer, particularly on the catwalk. This season though, they’re staging a comeback with textured falsies and spidery, doll-like lashes finding their way back into our make-up bags. Think pops of colour, wispy spans and super-long lash-centric looks; it’s time to work on your flutter, girls.

Backstage at Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2016

While some stayed away from them completely, other designers looked to exaggerated lashes to make an impact with a series of bold, inventive looks. For many, the lure of larger-than-life blinkers saw them reaching for the falsies – at Marni, lash strips were cut into clusters and attached haphazardly to both the top and lower lid for a 60s inspired doe-eyed look. While at Louis Vuitton, they were long, thick and sharply pointed on the upper lashes with sporadic bunches on the lower lid for Manga-style eyes on the go.

It wasn’t all faux-flutter though with some sticking to traditional mascara albeit with a modern twist. With the beauty world taking cue from 60s icons such as Twiggy and Diana Ross, the clumpy lash saw Marc Jacobs and Giles Deacon opt for spiky spider lashes and a pretty-punk take on a nostalgic favourite. Contrary to our trusty go-to, mascara doesn’t have to be black and Mary Katrantzou proved that clumpy can also be super-cool with her electric blue take on doll-like beauty.

Backstage at Mary Katrantzou Spring/Summer 2016

Whether you’re looking to fake it or not, the trend for overstated lashes means everything else should be paired down so make sure the rest of your look is minimal, fresh and naturally subdued. For over-the-top impact, falsies are your best bet but a good quality thickening mascara will do the job just as well. If you’re opting for the latter, it’s all about coating your lashes in layers, wiggling the wand horizontally from root to tip. If you don’t want them to look too clumpy use a clean mascara brush to comb through the lashes in-between layers.