For those who move in A-list circles, Edy London is the name to know for elegant, ‘you but better’ lashes that give an instant eye-lifting effect. Loved by everyone from Trinny Woodall to Rita Ora, Edy’s eyelash extensions are the exact opposite of tacky, super-sized TOWIE falsies – to the point some clients pass them off as lucky genes and a great lash serum.
‘I see some very, very famous It-girls who would never reveal they have extensions,’ Edy tells me. ‘They go for a “clean girl” lash look and they’re definitely not sharing their secrets, which is a huge compliment to my work. One of the reasons they come to me is because I do lashes in a way that looks beautiful but can be totally undetectable as extensions, if that’s what people choose. And obviously I don’t spill the beans!’
Whether clients do or don’t choose to sing Edy’s praises publicly, they all agree on one thing: her lashes are like an eye lift in lash form. ‘They’re absolutely designed to lift your eye,’ she tells me. ‘My lashes take a good few years away from the face; they rejuvenate how the eye appears.’
This level of expertise doesn’t come cheap, however. A half-set in her London salon costs £250, while a full set will set you back £360. The full VIP treatment – a full set plus the discretion of a home visit – is £900 for London clients.
It’s beyond the means of most of us, but Edy now promises we can all get her famous eye-lift extensions from the comfort of our own home, for a decidedly less eye-watering £45.
She’s taken all her clients’ favourite lash looks and translated them into DIY kits, which, she promises, have ‘no learning curve’. Each Edy look has been broken down into pre-glued clusters that are placed (via tweezers) under the natural lashes for an invisibly enhanced look that lasts up to five days.
‘Traditional falsies have a heavy band that can make the eye appear tired and heavy, whereas these give results pretty much the same as the salon,’ says Edy.
The Warsaw and Tokyo sets are designed to replicate the full and half set extensions loved by Edy’s ‘above radar’ clients. ‘Trinny is obsessed with them – she’s using them as top-ups between salon sessions,’ says Edy. ‘She’s also been applying my lashes on her gorgeous daughter, Lyla, her friends and the girls at her office.’
Edy has also replicated the ‘ghost lash’ look preferred by her most secretive clientele, via her Tokyo, Paris and Stockholm kits and their whisper-light clusters in a choice of black or brown. ‘But everything I do is very, very natural, even the fullest style, Miami. There’s nothing outside your comfort zone,’ she says. Hooded eyes are fully catered for, too, with Toyko being especially good for this eye shape.
As well as being far more affordable to begin with, each box has 30 clusters – enough to do multiple treatments. ‘For a full set look, you can do a row of three or four clusters, but you can also do just one or two on the outer edge,’ says Edy. Each cluster can also be used up to five times if removed carefully.
On the topic of which, ‘These lashes will absolutely not harm your natural lashes,’ reassures Edy, mindful that this is a key concern, especially for mature clients. ‘The lashes attach to your own with a pre-applied surgical glue and come away very easily if you choose to only wear them for a few hours. After about 24 hours, the glue “fuses” more with your lashes, but will still remove effortlessly and gently when you use an oil cleanser on them. You definitely won’t see your own lashes pulled out and stuck to them!’
For the easiest application, Edy strongly recommends using her own tweezer tool, which costs an extra £10. ‘If you’re right-handed, just ensure you always have the end pointing towards your left hand and you can’t go wrong.’ (See her how-to video, below.)
Edy London Non-Stick Tweezers
To prove it, Edy applied her Warsaw kit on one eye and left me to compare the with/without difference, then finish the job. I’m pretty clumsy and find strip lashes incredibly fiddly, but these are far, far easier – no painting on glue from a separate bottle and no guessing when lashes have reached that short-lived moment between slide-off slippery and stubbornly stick-resistant.
Once I’d realised I needed to apply the first lash cluster right at the outer edge, the rest just fell in line pretty easily. And if you need to do a bit of adjustment, the lashes retain the right level of stickiness while you do your manoeuvring.
My eyes looked immediately defined (I’m not wearing any eye makeup in the photos, just the extensions), but the lashes themselves just looked very, very natural – like a really good, fluffy lash mascara, with no clumps. ‘I would never have thought you were wearing extensions’ was the considered verdict in the GH office.
The lashes are also completely comfortable to wear – I forget I’m wearing them until I look in the mirror – and have so far stayed perfectly intact for two nights while being slept in.
Oh, and as for the lifting effect? I’m with Edy on that one. Her new lashes are like a tweakment in a £45 box, basically! And while they do look believable enough to be my own eyelashes, I definitely won’t be gatekeeping my secret.
