As the standing lash enthusiast on staff at Allure, my one irksome shame is the fact that I had never mastered the art of applying false lashes before. I've done lash extensions and lash lifts, but as for false lash strips, my skill comes to a full halt. I can carve a cat-eye like Picasso and contour like Bob Ross, but dropping tiny wigs on top of my lash line (which is kind of what they are, no?) is akin to building tiny dollhouse furniture (another thing I have absolutely no talent for). It always sounds and looks easy in theory, but all my attempts thus far had been decidedly rookie.

As a beauty editor, I just can't settle for janky-looking falsies — I simply will not. I love the look of long, feathery lashes, but extensions are tedious and expensive and lash lifts are also expensive, albeit less tedious. I just want to live a luxury lash lifestyle on a never-not-flying-coach-with-a-carry-on budget. Is that so hard to ask?

1. Prepare your supplies.

2. Trim each of the eyelash strips.

3. Apply your lash glue strategically.

4. Look downwards into a mirror, not straight ahead.

OK, game time. The hardest part for me is actually plopping the strip onto my lash line close enough so that it's right on top but not tangled up in my lashes. Simkin told me that if you place a mirror under your face nearly to a perpendicular angle and look down, your eyelid will extend, almost like you're closing your eyes, but you'll be better able to see exactly where to place the strip. This little tip changed my world. It really is so much easier than trying to do this staring into a vertical mirror and poking myself into the eyes while my head is tilted back at wildly uncomfortable angles.

5. Use eyeliner to camouflage the strip's band.

Now that you've got your lashes on, here's a crucial step to make your strip lashes look less obviously like you're wearing strip lashes. Take your trusty liquid liner (or gel liner with an angled eyeliner brush, if you prefer) and draw a line extending the band from where it begins to the inner corner of your eye. You can also flick out the end if you want a winged effect, but this is mostly just to blend the line of the band to your lash line.

6. Go forth and admire how good your lashes look.

Now you're ready to enter the world with newly affixed luxurious eyeball visors. Seriously, having a row of strip lashes on top of my own feel like their own individual sun hats — it's great. Not only that, but I love the way false lashes amp up a look from zero to doe-eyed death trap in...however long it takes me to glue these suckers on. I'm getting the hang of it and with enough practice, it won't take long. Simkin says she can plop them on in the mornings in two minutes and I aspire to that level.