Curling my eyelashes has always been something I begrudge doing. Yes, I want my lashes as curly and luscious as possible, but it's ironic that I've got more than my fair share of curly hair, and there I am, wasting precious gym time(ha-ha) trying to curl a few tiny hairs that no one other than me will probably even notice - well, I can't help thinking someone is having a laugh at my expense. Would it have been too much to ask of my creator to extend the ridiculously curly hair to my lashes?

I've been curling my lashes for years, and yet I still live in perpetual fear that one day when I take the clamp away, my lashes will come with it. Heated eyelash curlers, which I became obsessed with a year or so ago, added that extra element of danger - would I rip the lashes out or burn them off? That and a couple of "crimping" incidents mean that I now save curling for special occasions.

But a year is a long time in beauty, and heated curlers have moved on considerably. Lashwand and Eyecurl are two brands that are more like miniature hair tongs than traditional curlers. Gone is the clamp and in comes a wand that looks remarkably like a mascara, rather than something from a torture chamber.

The curlers curl by heating, rather than clamping, the lashes. You press them against the lash, and move up in gentle strokes, as you would a mascara, so there's no risk of burning or pinching. As well as being easy to use, the other major bonus is that unlike other curlers, these can be used after applying mascara, which means you can "top up" the curl at will. Hurrah. Curly lashes 24/7, instead of just for the five minutes after you've done them. Simply apply a thin coat of mascara to your lashes, curl, then apply a normal coat. The mascara acts as a fixing agent. Neither product is cheap: of the two, Lashwand is the more expensive (£25, miskis.co.uk), but it's also much sleeker than Eyecurl (£16.50, 01926 485179), so it will fit into even the most neurotic make-up bag.