For a doll eye, pick a short band weighted in the centre
A centre weighted band pushes the widest point of the eye to the middle, which is what rounds it. Look for a band that is shorter than your lash line so you can set it in from the inner corner without the eye reading long and narrow.
For spiky manga, pick a band with visible gaps between the spikes
The gaps are the effect. A dense band with spiky tips still reads as a fringe, not as drawn linework. Hold the photo at arm's length: if the spikes blur into one mass, it is a dense band being sold as spiky.
For a full convention day, pick a thin, flexible cotton band
A thick plastic band lifts at the outer corner once it warms up, and no amount of glue fixes a band that will not bend to your lid. Bend the band into a C before you wear it. If it springs back flat, it will lift.
For photographs, pick wispy over spiky
At portrait distance a spiky band's gaps read as gaps. Wispy keeps its texture close up and still looks like lashes. If most of your photos are selfies rather than stage shots, wispy is the safer buy.
For lower lashes, pick individual clusters over a full strip
A lower strip sits on skin that moves every time you speak, so it lifts first. Three or four small clusters spaced along the lower line hold better and look closer to how lower lashes are actually drawn.
Check the band before anything else
Whatever the style, four things predict whether a pair is worth the money: the band is thin and bends easily, the hairs are knotted rather than glued in a blob, the length is trimmable from the outer end, and the pair sits flat in the tray rather than curling up at the ends.
Named picks land here as each pair finishes testing
This page recommends specs, not brands, because a pair only gets named here once it has been worn for a full day. Read how we test to see what that means.