Discover 7 Reasons Why Your Lash Lift Does Not Produce Desired Results
Lash lifting has been and continues to be one of the most popular treatments of 2021, and it is profitable when you do it right.
Undoubtedly, this treatment is top-notch, but we have heard first-hand that many lash technicians still have mixed results regarding the LVL lash lift.
Is the lash lift not lifted enough, the lash lift dropped, or was the lash lift too curly?
As a professional lash therapist, you don’t want any disappointing feedback associated with your beauty salon. Undoubtedly, because you care so much, you’ll find it frustrating that they aren’t always perfect.
You are a perfectionist, and that’s why your clients love what you do, so take a read, and from our research, you will hopefully find out how to make every lash lift a dramatic transformation for your client.
1. Uh-oh, Your product has oxidized
This is probably the most common but unknown reason why your salon’s lash lift results are mixed. Some clients are getting fantastic results, and some insist on returning the next day to have them re-done due to disappointing results.
Let’s tell a story:
We knew a beauty therapist was doing a profitable 12-lash lift daily for her clients, and most were over the moon with the results.
Wait, does this sound familiar?
She was frustrated that not everyone gave good feedback, so she did treatments twice to fix those clients! This can be frustrating for lash technicians because we know how long lash lifts take to complete. She then realized that her product was going off, and here’s how.
How could it be that you are only halfway through your bottle of lifting serum but getting poor results? It’s not as if you’ve got to the point of scraping blue and pink gunge off the bottom with a swizzle stick!
So let’s do a calculation.
Every time you opened that bottle, it was getting exposed to the air, and after you’ve opened that 12 times a day for 1 minute while applying to the lashes, you’ve let that product oxidize for an entire 12 minutes a day!
Top tips for lash lifts that work every time
- It only takes an hour for that bottle to get entirely oxidized! So this meant that she only had to work five days a week doing 12 clients for her bottle of lash lift solution to lose its strength, which meant disappointing results!
- Lash lift products oxidize while you work with the bottle open and GO OFF!
- Buy a Thumb Pallet to quickly transfer the lash lift solution onto it, allowing you to close your bottle ASAP. (See link on above image)
- Buy sachets that are sealed rather than bottles.
- If you don’t want to waste that product left in the sachet, offer a two-for-one lash lift deal and get a colleague to work simultaneously with you, doing one client each.
2. Lash Placement
Getting your clients’ eyelashes straight on the silicon pad is essential to the lash lift treatment.
Some lash lift kits come with cotton swabs, but a metal hook tool is the best tool for the job (See below article). This tool is hard enough to push the lashes up and separate them evenly compared to plastic disposables.
If the lashes are not fully pushed up and separated, the lashes will stay like that after the treatment, which will be one big headache!
- Ditch the plastic disposables.
- Use a stainless steel tool (Hard enough to push the lashes up and separate them)
- Some metal tools even have ridges on them now to separate the lashes better.
3. Good Brand, Better Results
This one is a no-brainer.
It’s a more considerable outlay, but you’ll reap the benefits in the future with repeat business and word of mouth.
Not only will the product be more effective, but the tools that come along with the kit will also make your life easier, which can only give you more time to perfect your clients’ lashes.
I couldn’t believe how easy Elleebana was after switching from a salon trade product.
The Elleebana kit is more expensive, but the silicone rods were more malleable, making my job ten times easier and quicker because the rods adapted to different eye shapes better. The glue was of better quality too, which meant the lashes were stuck down and didn’t ping back up.
- Better glue means the lashes will stick better.
- Better silicone rods are more flexible, making rods adapt to different eye shapes better.
I haven’t tried every lash lift brand, but I can review the following products.
The ‘Salon System’ products smell pretty strong, which can be off-putting for clients. The glue is good, but the settings lotions take too long to work, and the lift was quite disappointing.
Nouveau Lashes, Lash Bomb and Ellebanna are all brands that I would recommend. This is due to the short time you can achieve treatment, didn’t smell too bad, and the lift was excellent, receiving the usual reaction ‘Omg, I can’t believe that’s my lashes!’ from every client.
4. Assessing Lash Type
Assessing the client’s eyelash hair type is very important to the LVL lash lift result and the overall health of the client’s lashes.
If the hair is coarse, the solution might be left longer for a good lift. Left on too long, you could damage your client’s lashes, making them brittle and unsuitable for her subsequent lash lift treatment.
Always use a timer on your phone or watch to know when to take it off, and make sure you or your salon’s therapist isn’t distracted taking phone calls. Every lash lift kit will have instructions for different timings, so read them before switching products.
- Assess the thickness of your client’s lashes
- Thin lashes need less time.
- Put a timer on your watch or phone if you damage clients’ lashes to avoid the “Frazzled” look.
Average processing times
Step 1:
Very fine to fine: 4-5 minutes
Tinted of naturally healthy: 5-6 minutes
Natural healthy lashes: 6-8 minutes
Step 2:
Very fine, delicate or tinted lashes: 5 minutes
Natural healthy lashes or course health lashes: 6 minutes
5. Clean canvas
If you put water over painted paper, would it go through it? No, it wouldn’t, so why would lashes with mascara and other oils absorb the perming solution?
A barrier such as mascara, dirt, dust or oils will stop the lash lift solution from absorbing correctly, resulting in poor lifts. This could be the issue if your lash lifts only worked on one eye and not the other; perhaps one eye had makeup or oils left on it.
Even if your client claims to have no makeup, you should still wipe her lashes with a non-oil-based makeup remover. Oil from the face or previous facial treatments can go onto the lashes, so wipe down with a remover, preferably from a lash lifting kit.
Then you will be 100% sure it won’t affect the treatment. Ask your clients not to come in with makeup on their lashes if possible.
- Use an oil-free cleanser to rid of makeup.
- If the mascara is stubborn, use an oil to take the mascara off, then cleanse thoroughly to get the oil off.
- Store your lash lift solution in a cool and dark cupboard
- If your lash lift product is in a sachet, make sure you squeeze the sealed pack for 60 seconds to mix the product
6. Wrong rod = bad lash lift
Rods come in different sizes. Therefore the trickiest part of this treatment is to decide the rod size, as this can affect the lift results and leave you thinking, ‘Why didn’t my lash lift curl?’
Not every eye shape is the same, so picking the correct lash shield for an individual’s eyes is vital to treatment success.
If someone has smaller eyes, trim the lash guard to fit, but place the left and right guards in the same position to prevent different uneven lash lift results on each side.
The correct placement of the shields is also critical to the resulting lash lift, so practice! The guards should be placed as close to the lash line as possible, and the best way to do this is to hold the guard as if you were resting them flat on the lashes, then pop them back up towards you. Now check from the front that they are placed evenly.
Top Tip* If your client has hooded eyes, gently lift the lid up the way with micropore tape. Micropore tape can also be helpful if the lash guards are peeling off due to eye shape.
7. Some additional tips
Explain to your client before you start the treatment that they must not speak during the appointment. This is because the sticky pads that hold down the bottom lashes will move around and come off. The best way to say this is to ask your client to relax and rest politely, but they can if they need to speak up about something important.
You can tape down the sticky pads for the bottom lashes with micropore tape.
Peel off the micropore tape away from you very gently.
Look at the lashes you have placed upon the guard from the front of your client to check they are straight.
Spend the most time placing the guard on your client’s eye and lifting the lashes onto the shields.