How To Get The Best Eyelash Extension Retention With Your Lash Glue
Lash glue is the lifeblood of your work, so understanding how to use it is paramount to your success! Finding your perfect eyelash glue is a bit like when Prince Charming slid the glass slipper onto Cinderella’s foot after trying it on every woman in the kingdom - it just fits. Sometimes though, your lash extension glue will start to misbehave. Is it you, or the glue? And how can you fix it?
There are a few things you can do to make your life easier, and to make your client’s lash extension retention amazing. Some might seem very obvious, but the obvious is often one of the easiest things to overlook, so stick with us!
Don't Buy Too Many Lash Glue Friends!
The most common mistake we make is overstocking our glue! Who doesn’t like a bargain? But think, how many clients do you lash in a month? And are you changing your lash extension glue every 3 or 4 weeks? This will help you to plan your shop and stock up on the exact amount of lash glues you need! You only need to buy what you can use in about 4 months. It’s never good to open a bottle of lash glue to find that it’s gone gloopy because you bulk bought 10 in a sale and then it sat in the back of a drawer for 8 months.
The money you saved on the eyelash glues will either be spent on more glues to replace those bottles, or it’ll go towards infilling your clients’ lashes for free. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth! From experience, we recommend having a maximum of 2 unopened lash glue bottles in stock, as it means you will always have a back up!
The Shelf Life of Eyelash Glues
This is one that sounds obvious. We’re all aware that before opening, lash glue has a shelf life of 6 months from the date on the bottom of the bottle or on the thermo pack the glue comes in. This is the lash extension glue’s DOP - the date of production. It also doubles up as the batch number, so if you ever need to contact us about your glue, we’ll ask about this so that we know which batch the glue was from.
We order a fresh batch of eyelash glue every 1-2 months, so that when it gets to you, you’ve got plenty of time to get the most out of it. We also go to great lengths to ensure that the lash glues are kept away from moisture and are temperature controlled - you all deserve the very best! Once the glue gets to you though, how can you ensure it stays perfect?
After opening, your eyelash glue has a shelf life of up to 2 months. However, for the best retention it is worth changing it every 4 weeks. It can be difficult to keep track of this, especially in a busy salon or even just going from one client to the next - days merge into weeks, weeks into months and suddenly your lash glue is gloopy - but when did you open it? To make keeping track of this easier, take a small piece of your lash tape and write the date on it. Stick it to the bottom of your lash extension glue and hey presto! Your very own reminder that 6 weeks from that date, it’s a pretty good time to start thinking about ordering a new bottle!
Your Lash Room Conditions!
Summer, the time of year we start to look forward to the moment it ends. However there are some drawbacks to the rising temperatures and humidity we will experience. The main problem we'll face when it comes to lashing in the summer is that our lash extension glue suddenly forgets how to behave!
Your beauty room conditions are one of the biggest factors that can affect your eyelash glue. Fluctuations in the temperature and humidity can be the difference between a great set of lashes, and a set that makes you never want to look at a single eyelash ever again.
Fluctuations in our salon's temperature is the more obvious of these two factors since we’re more likely to notice if the temperature has changed by two degrees than if the humidity changes by 5%. Our natural reaction to an increase in temperature is cooling our lash room down, which is all well and good, but it can also have a knock-on effect on the humidity levels in your beauty room.
For example, if you open a window to let in a breeze, this is likely to increase the humidity and speed up your eyelash glue's drying time! While putting on the air-conditioning will suck the moisture out of the air, and make your lash glue's drying speed slow down. A great lash tool to help you keep track of the temperature and humidity levels in your beauty room, make sure you add a hygrometer to your lash extension kit if you don’t have one already!
TOP TIPS: How to Increase Humidity!
- Place a damp towel over the radiator (not really ideal in the summer, of course!).
- Get a humidifier - you can pick up one online for a reasonable price. Make sure that it will change the humidity in the size of your lash room, and not just near your hygrometer.
- Add some little droplets of water along the under eye patches using a microfibre brush.
- Apply Primer in sections as you work to keep the lashes moistened
Dispensing and Using Your Lash Glue
As a general rule, you're going to want to refresh your glue drop every 15-20 minutes during a treatment. Each time you do so, you need to give your eyelash glue a good shake to make sure all the ingredients are properly mixed together. What will happen if you don’t shake your lash extension glue correctly? As you can see from the image below, the glue consists of a few ingredients that need to mix together in order for the glue to work.
What is the easiest way to spot that you haven't shaken your lash glue enough? Your glue drop will look a bit transparent, compared to a completely black drop if well shaken.
To ensure you give your glue is mixed well, use a glue shaker before you dispense each drop. 15 seconds in a glue shaker will save you almost a full minute of manual shaking, which will give you extra time for lashing!
Keep Your Lash Glue Nozzles Clean!
You shake your eyelash glue, dispense it, give it a small wipe and replace the nozzle. What could possibly go wrong? Well, lash glue nozzles like to ‘burp’. They spit out any air left in the lash glue nozzle and send out some remnants of glue with it, which causes the nozzle to get stuck to your glue's lid. To avoid this, try the following:
- Make sure to remove the lid when you shake your lash glue. We know this may sound a little ridiculous! Of course you’re going to cover the end of the lash glue nozzle; the only thing worse than having lash extension glue stuck in a nozzle, is glue stuck to literally everything else. Take a biodegradable glue nozzle wipe and cover the nozzle, shake it, and peel back.
- Any lash glue that burps out can simply be wiped away before you dispense. This applies only to shaking the eyelash glue manually! If you are using a lash glue shaker, the glue spins around so it is less likely to leak inside the lid.
- Don’t squeeze! Tip the glue up and let gravity do the work. It might feel like it takes a bit longer, but less air will be sucked into the nozzle, which also means less air has to exit the nozzle!
- Then give your glue a little tap on the bottom. Before you pop that lid back on after dispensing the lash glue dot, give the bottle a little tap on your lash trolley to encourage any air that did make it into the nozzle to come out. Wipe away the glue, and replace your lid.
- You should also have some back up of lash glue rescue kits. Despite your best efforts, sometimes the nozzle and lid just want to be together forever. Having some spares in your kit will SAVE YOUR GLUE!
Storing Lash Extension Glue
Proper lash glue storage is so unbelievably important! If you follow all of the above advice but store your eyelash glue incorrectly, you might as well just be keeping it in a bowl of water for how effective it’s going to stay!
Glue should always be kept:
- Upright
- Somewhere cool and dry
- Away from sources of heat
- Away from direct sunlight
For even better results, keep your glue in either:
- An airtight thermo pack
- An airtight container
It's also worth mentioning that you should never, ever keep opened lash extension glue in a refrigerator! Have you ever gotten a bottle of water out of the fridge? Almost immediately the change from fridge temperature to room temperature causes condensation to build up inside and on the outside the bottle.
The same will happen with your glue. What does water do to glue? It cures it and we definitely don’t want that! A drawer or cupboard is ideal for storing your lash glue so long as it’s not pressed up against a radiator or beside a window where the sun beats in.
How about unopened eyelash glue in the fridge? It’s fine to do so as long as you remember to take it out of the fridge at least 3 hours before using it!
Not sure about the perfect glue for you? We’ve made a handy glue chart with a summary of all our adhesives. We’re also happy to help you find your perfect match! Just pop an email over to info@londonlashpro.com.
