Too Faced Better Than False Lashes Nylon Lash Extension System Review

Here's the lastest in mascara by Too Faced. It's a two-piece Nylon Lash Extension System consisting of a Mascara Activator and Sealer and a small tube of Nylon Lash Enhancing Fibers (the extensions). That sounds rather complicated, but it really isn't. It's very easy to use.


The front flap of the box lifts open to reveal the products, presented beautifully in a black velvet tray. Underneath the front flap, a detailed set of instructions. Flip the box over to see a little more information on the product and a list of ingredients.


The golden tube contains step one and three of the process, the Activating Mascara Top & Base Coat. The smaller, white tube contains the Flexistrech™ Nylon Lash Fibers.


The Activating Mascara Base & Top Coat is a black mascara and comes with a thin, stiff-bristled mascara wand. Very good at separating and defining the individual lashes. This seems to be a tubing mascara, like the original Too Faced Lash Injection. It has a stretchy texture when dry, and comes off in little stringy strands instead of melting when warm water and pressure are applied.


The Flexistrech™ Nylon Lash Fibers are little loose strands of nylon fiber. They're very thin, light and wispy, almost like a tube full of spiderwebs. The applicator is a tight spool brush.

Go ahead... click for a closeup of the fibers. See the little fuzzy strands all wrapped around the wand?

Now, the way this works is a little different from what you might be used to, but is actually incredibly simple. The fibers are not suspended in a wet primer, like Urban Decay Eyelash Primer Potion, they're loose and dry inside the tube. They can't stick on their own, so they need something to stick to, and that would be step one, the Activating Mascara Base & Top Coat. If you've ever used something like Magic Lash, this is exactly like applying that, to give you an idea of what's involved.

Quick run-through of the directions:

1. On clean, bare lashes, apply 1-2 coats of the Activating Mascara.
   
2. Using the spool brush like you'd use a mascara wand, apply 1-2 coats of the nylon fibers directly over the wet mascara. Focus more fibers where you want more volume. Just on the ends for length, all over for volume, as much or as little as you'd like.
3. Apply a final coat or two of the Activating Mascara to seal the fibers and stretch them out to add length.
4. You can repeat the second and third steps for even more length and volume if you'd like, but keep a lash comb handy just in case.
   

So, does it work? Have a look!

For reference, this is how my lashes look naturally. No mascara, no lash curler.

Here's how they look with one coat of the Activating Mascara as a base, two coats of fibers, plus one more coat of Activating Mascara to seal it. If you look closely at the second picture, you can actually see some of the mascara-covered fibers. Kinda neat, eh?

Edited to add: Here's the result I get using normal mascara (in this case, it's Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes) and the Too Faced fibers. One coat of mascara, two coats of fibers, and then two coats of mascara to seal them. Pretty good length, right? I certainly think so.

What I liked:

• Beautiful packaging. Clear instructions.
  
• The fibers give crazy length and a little volume.
• The system is very easy to use.
• Defines and separates my lashes.
• The fibers can be used with any mascara. You don't have to use the Activating Mascara if you don't want to.
• When I used the fibers with a normal, non-tubing mascara, it gave me an almost scary amount of length. Like... almost touching my eyebrows long lashes.
  
• Like Magic Lash, the more you use a mascara over the fibers, the more fibers will get mixed in and you'll end up with a tube of fiber mascara. Bonus!
• The amount of fibers seems small (0.02 oz), but that's really a ton of product since you use so little of it each time. The fibers will last you ages after the mascara runs out.
• I didn't experience any flaking or smudging.
• It doesn't run or melt when you get it wet and you don't need makeup remover to remove it. It slides off easily with only warm water and pressure.
  

What I didn't like:

• The Activating Mascara is very, very dry. I found it hard to get enough of it onto my lashes to make the fibers stick, or enough to cover the fibers completely. When I have a really dry mascara like this, I mix a few drops of Visine into the tube to thin out the formula a bit. But, you can use any mascara you want with the fibers, the Activating Mascara is not required for them to work. I actually get better results when I don't use the Activating Mascara.
  
• The fibers irritate my eyes. Whenever I use a fiber mascara/primer or a loose lash fiber (like Magic Lash), I can always feel them. It seems like some get stuck near the lash line and tickle my eye all day. It's especially irritating when I'm wearing contacts.
• The duo is pretty expensive at $35. On the upside, the tube of fibers will last a long time after the mascara runs out, so you'll still be getting use out of it for months afterward.
• When used as directed, it didn't give me a false lash look. It gave me a natural, fluttery, light lash look with wispy length. I usually want tons and tons of volume out of my mascaras, but this mostly extended my lashes without adding much volume. Could be due to the tubing mascara formula of the activator, tubing mascaras always give me length with little volume.
  

The set really does extend my lashes quite a lot, but I didn't see the 98% increase in volume stated on the packaging. I think the fibers are really cool and are an excellent tool for effortlessly lengthening your lashes in a believable way. The system is really easy to use, it's not complicated, confusing or messy. Definitely easier than applying false lashes, but doesn't quite give the same dramatic results as fakes do. I'll have to play around with this some more and possibly thin out the Activating Mascara to see if I can build that false lash volume I crave using just these two products. Hopefully they'll sell the two pieces individually at some point, that way you can buy just the fibers (which are amazing and totally worth getting if you crave long lashes) and use your own mascara.

The Too Faced Better Than False Lashes Nylon Lash Extension System is currently a Sephora exclusive. It's $35 for the set and is not limited edition.

(This was sent for review.)