How to Have Longer Lasting Eyelash Extensions

Eyelash Extension Retention

Who doesn’t want to add one more week to their eyelash extension fills? What lash artist doesn’t want their clients to have the best-looking lash extensions on their third week? Not only will longer lasting eyelash extensions bring you more business, but it will make for an incredibly happy, loyal client.

Great retention starts with the lash artist. Well wait, lets back up here for a second. It really starts with the manufacturers of where you are buying your eyelash extension supplies from. More specifically, your adhesive; so, finding a good manufacturer is so very important. As you know, eyelash extension adhesive has a short shelf life. So do your research thoroughly on where your adhesive is coming from. You can find more information about this here.

Once you know you are getting your adhesive from the best place possible, it’s your job to make sure you store it correctly and toss it when you need to; don’t hold on to it just because it’s not empty yet; the shelf life is no more then 2 months long. This is one thing you do not want to try and cut costs on; you and your business will regret it in the near future. Make sure to keep your adhesive stored in a cool, dry, low humidity environment. Next you want to make sure you are cleaning your clients eyelashes properly before the service. You do not want them to have any oil, or residue on, or near their eyes.

Something else that is important, without too much detail, is picking the right diameter and length of the synthetic lash. This is going to also help tremendously with not only retention, but it will also aid in keeping healthy, full natural lashes as well. If you get too long or heavy of a synthetic lash, it can cause your clients natural lash to break or shed prematurely.

If your clients have great retention, that means you are informing them of all the correct after-care procedures, you’ve sent them home with the necessary products and you have imbedded in them the importance of after-care. After-care includes regularly cleaning their lashes with the proper lash shampoo and brush, making sure their make-up and cleansers are not oil based if they are going to be put on, or near the eye area. 

Oil will break down the adhesive prematurely, which will not give you good retention. Unfortunately, this includes mascara, eye cream, cream eye shadows, concealer, foundation, eyeliner and oil-based make-up remover. I know it seems like a lot, but trust me, there are plenty of brands out there that are water based, if you cannot find something you like that doesn’t have oil in it, like eyeliner for example, you can always get an eyeliner make-up brush, get it damp and use your eyeshadow. 

Using a silk pillowcase will help to not snag your lashes, like it can with cotton. Although you should not be sleeping on your lashes anyway, sometimes we just cannot help it! You can use a small microfiber tip brush to remove lint so that you aren’t touching and pulling at your extensions. Tugging at your extensions is a big no, no! So, if you are someone that likes to mess with their lashes, extensions may not be the thing for you. You may want to consider a lash lift and tint instead.

May this information help you inform your clients and help the retention of your lash extensions. We do not want sparse looking lashes the week of our fill; really, we don’t want anyone to know its time for a fill, ever. The better we inform our clients and the better you take care of your lash extensions, the fuller they will look and you won’t get weird looks from people when you are having a conversation with someone. I think we have all been there.  

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