We looove long, dark, sexy eyelashes. Love them, love them, love them. We have no qualms about layering on the mascara, or even using false lashes should the occasion call for it. In fact, if we had the funds, we would probably be devotees of eyelash extensions. However, when we read about dying our eyelashes, we were a little surprised.

Recently our sister site Stylelist did a beauty evolution slideshow of Gwen Stefani. She had a lot of kooky looks, that Gwen. Blue hair, bindis, and that red, red lipstick. Something about that story stayed on our minds, and we finally figured it out.

Gwen owned every single look, no matter how off the wall or potentially unflattering. True, some worked better than others, but she always seemed comfortable with herself and really excited about her style. And because of that she looked terrific all the time.

We could all benefit by taking a page out of Gwen's book, and just go for it once in a while.

Yesterday I took a breather in Sephora -- I mean really where else can you find inner peace? I found myself in Make Up For Ever's section of the store, which is a section I am not too familiar with. What I found was a bevy of bright eye shadows, glitters, and ridiculously stylish fake eyelashes -- I was in heaven.

I am not a fake eyelash type of girl at all. I have really long eyelashes (don't hate), in fact once when I was at MAC I bought a pair of fakes and my lashes were longer than the ones I bought -- true story. Anyhow, the lashes from Make Up For Ever are amazing, even a girl like me can appreciate these.

The lashes are over the top (to say the least) and super-affordable (about $14 a set). Many of the lashes are made with funky feathers or are so long they surpass your eyebrows. These lashes aren't for daytime use, unless you want to look like a complete fool. I think these hot pieces of beauty are best suited for hitting town and painting it red.

It's been a few weeks now that the news has been out, but we haven't gotten around to mentioning it here on Styledash until now. Shu Uemura, legendary makeup artist, passed away from acute pneumonia on December 29 in his home in Tokyo. Many of us know the name "Shu Uemura" either because we are die-hard fans of the miracle-working eyelash curler, or more recently for the launch of the Tokyo Lash Bar, a line of false eyelashes that make Tammy Faye look bare-faced. However, Shu Uemura is more than just eyelashes.

Uemura's life and career had always been underscored by a defiance of convention. He was the only man in his Tokyo Beauty School, then began his career as a makeup artist in Hollywood with an incredible transformation of Shirley Maclaine's Caucasian face to that of a Japanese geisha. From there, Uemura went on to become one of the most favored makeup artists in Hollywood.

We are sad that Mr Uemura has passed on, but we will most certainly remember his influence in Beauty every time we use a facial cleanser that cleans our faces better than soap because it has oil in it, curl our eyelashes, or put on a dramatic pair of false eyelashes.

Rest in peace, Shu Uemura.