There are times when you want eyelashes to look as full and long as they can but perhaps you don’t want heavy color that can melt and smudge and leave you with raccoon eyes. If your plans include engaging in outdoor activities on a warm day, you may feel more comfortable with a minimal or no-makeup look but you can still make those lashes stand out.

Using a clear mascara will give you definition and length without leaving color on your lashes. Max Factor’s No Color Mascara has a gel formula that does everything a mascara should - except add color.

Eyebrows too, need grooming - especially with brows getting fuller this year. Just because there is more brow doesn’t mean it should be wild and out of control. If you use a brow-defining pencil or no brow color at all, a quick and light brushing with a clear mascara is a great way to make eyebrows look well-groomed and set them for the day. Not too much though, you don’t want them to look glued into place.

Imagine attention-grabbing lashes that are long and lush yet sparkle and catch the light. What if you could have sparkling jewels at the tips of your lashes?

Revlon has invented an amazing new product that leaves lashes bejeweled and dazzling. Lash Jewels is a liquid formula that crystallizes into delicate droplets on your lash tips, creating a jewel-like effect.

Lash Jewels comes in four shades:
* Precious Pink
* Smoldering Violet
* Crystal Gaze
* Aqua Allure

CoverGirl’s Lash Exact Mascara features a revolutionary new brush, which they say is clump-free. It was named one of Allure magazine’s Best of Beauty for 2006.

Allure had this to say:

Cover Girl LashExact Mascara: This new Cover Girl mascara utilizes a plastic wand with pliable bristles that are strategically spaced to coat each and every lash. No more clumping.

Recently I received some free samples of CoverGirl’s Lash Exact mascara. I accepted them and gladly tried the product with the intention of writing about my experience here. To avoid the appearance of bias and to give a balanced view, I gave one of them to a friend to try.

My friend, Shawn, tried the Brown shade which goes well with her coloring. She said the brush was “funky” and different than the usual bristles on a twisted wire brush. She felt the design of the brush made it easier to apply mascara to the corner lashes. Shawn told me she was pleased with the definition and separation the brush provided and would definitely consider buying the product.

I had selfishly kept the Very Black shade for myself. I usually go for waterproof formulas as I wear contact lenses and I imagined that the waterproof formula would prevent those black shadows of melted mascara under my eyes. This product was not waterproof but I found I had no smudging or melting after wearing it the whole day at work, squinting at the computer screen. Additionally, it came off easily and completely with makeup remover and left no tell-tale rings around the eyes.

I was impressed with the ease of application, especially to lower lashes which are shorter, and thus cannot be brushed out over and over if you get clumps. The product was transferred smoothly from the brush to my lashes and definitely gave superior separation and definition. I didn’t find myself wiping the brush on the edge of the container to remove excess mascara either. In fact, I may have put on more mascara than I usually do, simply because I was able to do a second coat without my lashes looking clumped or sticking together in lumps.

Overall I thought this product delivered longer-looking lashes and more definition. About $7.99 in drug and department stores.

What if you could have thicker, lusher lashes permanently? How far would you go to achieve that look? Would you have hair transplant surgery?

Once used exclusively to restore the eyebrows and eyelashes of women and men who had suffered loss of eyebrows or eyelashes through accidents, burns, disease or other physical reasons, transplantation of eyelashes is now being sought after for purely cosmetic reasons.

The procedure involved in eyelash transplantation is minimally invasive and usually takes only one session to complete. Surgeons remove donor hair, usually from the back of your head and transplant them onto the eyelids. The result is fuller and thicker lashes. The cost is about $3000 per lid.

The lashes will need to be trimmed regularly, as they will grow just as head hair grows. They may also need to be curled to follow the general curve of the existing lashes.

Check out this site for an explanation of the procedure and some before and after photos:

Hair Sight dot com

Read the story from Reuters on CNN:

Docs look to create perfect lashes