Adventures in Beauty: O's Beauty Editors Take the Plunge

On a quest for longer lashes, I let Soul Lee, lash extension whiz at the beauty company Shu Uemura, lead me into a tiny room tucked behind the labyrinthine makeup area of Barneys New York department store in New York City. I lay on a table; Lee covered my lower lashes with a spongy gel pad. "So they don't get glued to your upper ones while I'm doing the extensions," she explained. Good call.

I then closed my eyes so the master could begin her painstaking work: gluing synthetic fibers to the roots of my natural lashes—one at a time (a process that costs $400).

Over the course of an hour and a half, Lee attached about 120 new lashes. I learned all this later, though: Since I am utterly incapable of remaining conscious when my eyes are closed, I slept through the whole process. And I awoke to find myself, in a word, stunning!

Without a speck of makeup on, I looked as if I had just arisen from a wonderful beauty sleep. Well, okay, I had. I have continued looking that way, though, at all hours of the day, for two weeks now. But while mascara is no longer part of my routine, a tiny lash comb is: With lashes this long, tangling can be an issue. And they take a couple extra minutes to dry after a shower (I haven't yet found an itty-bitty lash towel).

A few of them have started falling out, and I plan to walk (maybe even skip) back to Lee's soon for a touch-up. Here's to a long, hot summer free of mascara smudges. — JB

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