Silk Lashes vs Faux Mink
Every lash technician is aware of the controversy surrounding mink lashes - if you're not, where have you been?!
In recent decades, consumers have become increasingly conscious of shopping sustainable, ethical brands wherever possible. For lash technicians specifically, this often means avoiding real mink lashes made using mink fur.
This is pretty easy considering far fewer lash suppliers stock real mink lashes nowadays, having moved to cruelty free faux mink lashes instead. However, there are still some retailers which claim to stock 'cruelty free' real mink lashes. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.
A 2020 report by Glamour magazine discovered that, despite some brands marketing their product as ‘cruelty free’ due to them collecting mink hair that has shed naturally to create their lashes, this doesn't quite make it so. Animal rights' campaigners argue that it is the conditions in which minks are kept that makes it impossible for the use of real mink fur to ever truly be cruelty free.
With this in mind, a number of eyelash extensions wholesalers (such as London Lash) have create genuinely cruelty free alternatives to mink lashes by producing high quality faux mink lashes. And even more impressively, we've still maintained the same fluffy appearance of the real deal. So let's take a closer look at two of the most popular mink lash alternatives on the market for lash techs: faux mink lashes and silk lashes.
WHAT ARE FAUX MINK LASHES?
As briefly touched on above, faux mink lashes are a vegan friendly, cruelty free alternative to mink lashes, designed to replicate the quality and weightlessness of real mink fur.
Lashing with faux mink eyelash extensions as opposed to real mink lashes does not mean you have to sacrifice quality! Here at London Lash, we've worked incredibly hard to make sure our faux mink lashes are of an exceptional standard.
These lashes are a premium type of synthetic lash made from manmade fibres called PBT. Not only are they excellent for those who wish to avoid real mink lashes for ethical reasons, they’re also perfect for those who suffer allergies to fur.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAUX MINK AND SILK LASHES?
Silk lashes are a mid-weight type of eyelash extensions made from a synthetic based silk fibre. They're typically more natural looking than faux mink lash extensions - at London Lash, our range of Chelsea Silk Lashes have a more matte finish, whereas our range of Mayfair Faux Mink lashes have a bolder, shinier finish.
Both silk lashes and faux mink lashes can be used in Classic and Volume lash sets - it all depends on what you prefer. Some lash techs prefer using our Mayfair Faux Mink lashes to create fans, as the strip that they arrive on is a little less sticky than the Chelsea silk lashes.
DO FAUX MINK AND SILK LASHES COME IN A VARIETY OF THICKNESSES, LENGTHS AND CURLS?
They sure do! Our faux mink Mayfair eyelash extensions are available in thicknesses ranging from 0.03 to 0.20, while our silk Chelsea lashes start from 0.04 and again go all the way up to 0.20. Both types of lash extensions come in a range of different curls and lengths, it just depends on the overall finish you wish to achieve.
WHICH LASTS LONGER: FAUX MINK LASHES OR SILK LASHES?
As long as you've mastered a fantastic lash pretreatment routine, you'll find that lash retention with either of these types of eyelash extensions is superb. Both silk and faux mink eyelash extensions should last up to 8 weeks, but again this all depends on whether you follow a proper pretreatment routine and how well your clients take care of their lashes/at which stage of their natural lash cycle they are at.
Interestingly, a disadvantage of real mink lashes is that they can withstand far less than synthetic lashes. Real mink lashes do not stay curled, meaning this is something you have to stay on top of yourself while wearing them - not ideal for clients who are getting eyelash extensions due to how low maintenance they're supposed to be!
On top of this, you have to take extra care not to get real mink lashes wet, as this can rapidly decrease their longevity and increases the chances of you getting eye infections such as blepharitis due to not cleaning your lashes!
ARE SILK LASHES CRUELTY FREE?
As with faux mink lash extensions, silk lash extensions are made from a synthetic fibre. This makes them completely cruelty free and animal friendly!
Lashes made from actual silk are extremely rare, almost all of the silk lashes on the market today are made from this synthetic silk fibre.
