Worried I’d damaged my lashes, I reached out to a professional makeup artist for their thoughts, and it seems I’m not the only one with doubts about this hack. “This technique, when executed successfully, works by creating a downwards crease in the lash and then a sharp curl upward, which gives the illusion of thicker lashes,” says Saffron Hughes, makeup artist at FalseEyelashes.co.uk. “The results can mimic a lash lift, in which eyelashes appear longer and thicker.”