Lash Extensions: Round Two and a New Perspective
So one of the top posts I have that frequently gets visited is my first post on lash extensions and my experience as a first-timer (post here). Around the one year mark of my getting lashes for the first time, I decided to splurge and go for it again.
Towards the end of last year, my workplace went on an office trip where my office and another city’s office finally got to get together and meet in person! All of the girls from the other office had lash extensions and let’s just say that it made all of the girls from my office a little envious of how great they looked and how low the maintenance was to get ready each day. I started debating the idea of getting lashes again but I didn’t love how my first experience went that much.
Soon after, a few girls in our office started doing their lashes and that pretty much made me want them even more. My best friend (who I’m also lucky to get to work with!) was pretty much feeling the same way and went about doing research on where to go. Lucky me because I benefited from this haha. She found a great little boutique and saw that they had an incredible Groupon deal. This allowed us to get our first full set for approximately $65. Now for those of you who have tried to get your first set, you know it can cost you upwards of nearly $200, or $300+ depending on the person and their fee (lol). I was pretty much sold because you can’t beat that kind of a steal. I definitely recommend doing research and looking for coupons or deals - note: coupons don’t necessarily mean cheap or bad by any means. My BFF got them done without telling me and when I saw her at work I pretty much died and booked my appointment ASAP. I wasn’t able to get an appointment with the girl she had gone to, but I wanted to get them done before I went on a trip for my friend’s bachelorette.
Getting the lashes on was a whole thing - the girl I went to initially was very sweet but I’m pretty sure she was new because it took close to 2+ hours for her to apply the lashes. Granted we had the whole studio to ourselves one late Sunday morning and she had no other clients, but my lower back was really starting to hurt by the time we were done. When I finally opened my eyes, it was SO worth it because my lashes looked so full and wispy. I went back for a second fill with the same girl, but it just didn’t look the same. My friend’s lashes looked great so I decided to book my next appointment with her girl and it was such a good decision. I loved them so much and the convenience of sleeping in, rolling out of bed, and going to work was all too great. I kept up this routine of lash extensions for just over 4 months now and I’ve finally deciding that I’m going to give it a break. Now that I’m a lot more seasoned in lash extensions, I thought I’d give some updates.
Single lash lash extensions are where its at. The 3D Russian volume lashes (the one where one lash base fans out to multiple lashes) can definitely look a bit more fake. In my opinion, the single lashes honestly give you such a natural and fluttery eye! But then again it may depend on what you want out of your lash extensions. I honestly got stopped SO much in real life with people asking if my lashes were real, and if not, where I was getting them done. If you live in the Bay Area (specifically South Bay), feel free to DM me on IG and I can let you know who/where I go so you can get the same lash look! The last place I went to my first time around had the 3D lashes that fanned out, specifically 3 lashes attached at one base that was glued to your single natural lash. In my opinion, this definitely causes a lot more damage to my lashes because it was a lot heavier. I also felt like I needed to go back more frequently because they were falling off or weighing my lashes down more.
I never really explicitly took pictures of myself with lash extensions, but I was able to pull a few images I had put in my stories on Instagram over the last few months.
I also asked on Instagram what were some questions you guys might have about lash extensions, and a lot of common questions were the following:
I heard you can’t wear makeup with lash extensions. Is this true?
Ok - everyone has different opinions on this and I think you can. It’s totally up to you! A lot of the girls in my office with lashes would wear makeup, some just using eyeshadows and some using both eyeshadows and eyeliner. I actually asked one of the girls that used eyeshadow almost daily what she was doing to remove it and she said she’d take an old eyeshadow brush and mix a little bit of face cleanser and water and brush upwards away from the lashes to remove the shadows. I thought this was super clever but also way too much work for me (personally). Her lashes look bomb always though so I think it’s definitely working for her.
For me I actually have a little set of Almay makeup removers* that are teeny and do a great job of fitting over my eye and allowing me to swipe away from my lashes and remove almost every trace makeup. Although I’ll admit, this works best if I decided to do an eyeshadow only look (sans eyeliner). I’ll usually fold it up in half or a quarter and run this along my lash line if I decided to wear eyeliner. If that doesn’t cut it, I’ll usually go in with a Q-Tip with the teeniest bit of eye makeup remover and gently wipe along the lashes but being careful to not get it caught and tug the actual extensions.
Personally the makeup remover on the lash line has worked well for me and I honestly haven’t noticed much of a difference in the look of my lashes or them falling off more quickly. Since deciding that I was going to let go of the lashes, I’ve been a bit more care-free about wearing cat-eye looks on the daily and using makeup remover on the daily. Unless it tugged on the makeup remover wipe, I didn’t think it came off much faster but I could probably best get away with doing mini-fills every 2 weeks instead of stretching it to 3 weeks.Can you use oil cleansers with lash extensions?
You can use it on your face but just avoid the eyes. Honestly - one thing that hasn’t changed is that I miss rubbing my eyes and cleaning my eyes. Some people still think that’s weird but my lash girl actually agrees. I wear sunscreen and concealer most days so I like to do a little more of a deep cleanse because I like my skin to be very clean. I’ll usually do an oil cleanser when I hop in the shower before I get wet and then use my hands to gently emulsify the product in water before rinsing off. I’ll usually wipe my forehead towards the sides of my face so it doesn’t drip down over my eyes. And then I’ll splash waster on my cheeks as normal. The only day I’ll skip using any heavy cleansers would be the first day I get my lashes as done as you do NOT want to get them wet within the first 24 hours in order to guarantee that they’ll last for 2-3 weeks!
WHY DOES YOUR EYE TEAR UP?
Ok this one was kind of a joke by my boyfriend, but this is actually one reason why I’m stopping for now. I was hanging out with some friends a few weekends back and they were saying how my lashes looked so nice and natural - some of their coworkers had scary big ones that obviously looked fake. Another friend proceeded to ask if I just randomly start crying because my eye is in pain from the lashes. I was astonished she’d even ask that because NO - that has not happened to me. If my eye tears up, it might be because a lash is flipped and poking my eye but that’s rarely and usually it just tickles my bottom lashes and I just brush it out. However, my eyes have been extremely itchy lately and I’m not sure if it’s due to the new apartment and having a bit more dust here since it’s all hardwood, but having lash extensions does not allow you to rub your eyes when they’re itchy and honestly it just makes everything more difficult. If you’re trying to use eye drops, you can bet your lashes will just clump up lol. You definitely need to keep a brush wand on hand at all times to brush it out ASAP to avoid this!! Now again, this didn’t happen to me until the last few weeks so I was doing just fine for about 3.5 months.
Do you wear contacts?
Nope!!! For the most part, my vision is very good and I don’t need glasses. I do have reading glasses because my eyes get tired from reading a lot and I tend to strain my eyes forcing them to read. My best friend does have contacts and honestly they don’t get in the way for her. If anything it’s better because she’s not applying makeup and there aren’t any flakes of eyeliner/mascara getting in that irritate her eyes. If anything, she prefers to wear contacts because she can’t actually wear her glasses without smashing her lashes or having to wear her glasses on the edge of her nose lol.
Does it damage your actual lash?
It depends! For the most part, no it should not. However, if you do not do your research you can definitely go to someone who does not know what they are doing which WILL damage your lashes. When I went in for a fill one of the girls was explaining to another customer why they couldn’t do her lashes. The most part being that she didn’t have enough lashes since her lashes either A. were non-existent, or B. were too goopy from glue left by a previous technician. I felt so sad for that girl and while the girls at my place did help remove the glue, they recommended to take a few weeks (maybe months) for her lashes to get back to a healthy state before trying again. This is probably why everyone tells you to do your research before going somewhere. Honestly places that are chains with “memberships” are scams IMO - they have people coming and going and the good people honestly never stay. Do your research and make sure you go to someone that knows what they’re doing!
Your lashes grow guys - do not be fooled lol. They grow out and they grow back. Your lashes fall out naturally - it’s just like the hair on your head! Lash technicians use the teeniest amount of glue to place the lash extension on your natural lash. My girl is so good and I never see clumps of glue when I examine my lashes afterwards. Most of my lash extensions do fall off on their own without the actual lash attached, which definitely makes me feel better. Trust that your technician will tell you if your lashes are starting to look weak or if you need to take a break. The technician should be experienced enough to know when your lashes are new and thin and require a lighter lash to be placed over as to not damage or break your natural lash.How long do they usually last and how do you wash your face so the lashes aren’t ruined?
There’s probably no simple answer for this as lashes pretty much are unique to each person. Some people may be able to go 3-4 weeks without getting a fill, others might be around 2 weeks. I found that my lashes were never consistent with falling out. I always pre-booked my appointment as they fill up fast, and I didn’t always find that I needed to go at my appointment but I was going anyways. I changed up my lash fills and alternated between mini-fills and full-fills and went every 2 weeks to keep my lashes looking great. This worked well for me and I think my BFF started implementing this too.
Washing my face I really just wash around my eyes first to get any makeup / sunscreen off. I also rarely wore eye makeup with my extensions but if I did, I would go in first with some eye makeup remover on a q-tip to get as much eyeliner off as I could gently. I would usually take a light cleanser and just rub my eyelids outwards to get minimal amounts of water on my lashes. This worked well for me! Sometimes if I was very paranoid, I’d just go in with a warm wet towel after I showered to remove any excess oil/dirt on my eyelids. I also always made sure to brush out my lashes after washing my face so that the lashes didn’t clump up and dried normally.
I’ve been lash extension free for about a month now and while I do miss having them, I haven’t missed the maintenance of them or freeing up time to go sit in for a lash fill. My lashes are doing quite well and while they aren’t as voluminous as they were with lashes (obviously), a little coat of mascara does the trick for me. I think I’ll go in for a lash lift in the next few months so I can just pop up mascara without having them droop. I hope this was a bit more insightful into lash extensions!
Let me know if you guys have any more questions and I can try and answer them for you!
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Products marked with an asterisk (*) were gifted to me but all opinions remain my own.
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