Underrated Lash Products | Are These Optional Extras, or Absolute Necessities?

If you’re a beginner Lash Tech, it’s likely that you have a tighter budget where buying products is concerned, and are only really looking to buy the bare minimum to fill your lash kit whilst still giving your clients what they need. We remember those days ourselves and believe us when we say we get it.

What we will say though, is that even in the first months of your lash career, having these items on hand will benefit you so much in the long run, you’ll be glad you didn’t wait around. If you’ve been lashing for a long time already and you’re only just discovering these products, it’s okay. You can thank us later.

Protein Remover & Cleansing Pads

Are Protein Removing Pads really underrated? On the surface no – we talk about them often but we do so when we’re talking about the rest of our pretreatment products, so they rarely get their own pedestal and are quite commonly left out when Lash Techs are choosing their Lash Shampoo, lash Cleansers and Primers. It’s okay to do that in terms of client experience and retention, but the fact of the matter is that these are a real hero product, and one that doesn’t get as much love as they deserve. 

What makes a lash extensions product good? We’d say it’s the overall quality, first and foremost. But what makes a lash product impressively good is how effective it is, and how versatile. Look at Booster as an example – this is undeniably one of our best ever products in terms of how much lash techs love it because of its retention boosting power, and also prevents fans from closing after you place them – effective problem solving, multiple uses. Let’s go back to Protein Pads. 

You get 75 super thin pads per pot, which each provide a deep, thorough cleanse of the lash line during Pretreatment. They clean the lash line and the root of the lashes more deeply than lash foam cleanser alone, so are great for getting rid of any hidden oils, dirt or makeup that might have an impact on retention. You of course can’t apply lash Cleanser or lash Primer to the skin, so they’ll do you a big favour where keeping your Eyepatches in place is concerned. 

Did you know, that there is more liquid in each pot than the pads can contain? We even recommend squeezing out the excess liquid before you start using them on your client. Our favourite way to use Protein Cleansing Pads is to take a Micro Fibre Brush and press it into the top of the pads or dip it into the extra liquid at the bottom, and then give the lash line the closest clean you can imagine. Not only does this save you money, but it also keeps your clients eyes and lashes super healthy, and improves your retention. 

Digital Hygrometer and Thermometer

If you already have one of these, you’re more than likely wondering who on Earth doesn’t have one, because they’re so essential? You may be surprised though that this is something that a lot of lash techs will overlook for a long time. 

Keeping on top of your temperature and humidity is absolutely fundamental to your lash extensions glue working in the way that it should. It’s obvious when a room starts to get warmer or cooler, but knowing if your humidity levels are fluctuating is pretty much impossible, and an unchecked increase in humidity can be the difference between a gorgeous lash set with amazing retention, and half the lashes brushing off at the end of the set. 

High humidity means that your glue will cure faster (unless you’re using Flexie or Royal Bond, which have a wider humidity range that they stay consistent in). Faster curing lash glue means that there won’t be enough time for you to place an extension on the natural lash before it’s already starting to cure, and that in turn means that it won’t be able to form a strong bond between the natural lash and the extensions. If you notice soon that it’s happening then you can save it, but if you get to the end and brush through the lashes, only to see the lash extensions brush off, it can be an absolute nightmare. 

Keep on top of your humidity and temperature though, and you avoid that problem entirely. It’s up to you if you then want to invest in (de)humidifiers, air conditioning, or just a bottle of glue that dries in the time you need it to, in the room conditions that you are working in. 

Glue Shaker

Okay, this one is arguably more of an optional extra than the other two, however it really makes a difference to how effective your glue is, and it goes some way to prevent that oh-so-common issue of your eyelash glue nozzle getting stuck in the lid and causing you all sorts of troubles. A Glue Shaker will become your new best friend.

When you shake your glue by hand, you need to shake it for at least a full minute before the first use of the day, and for at least 30 seconds before dispensing a new drop throughout the treatment. It’s so important to shake your lash extensions glue thoroughly to ensure all of the ingredients are properly mixed – to put it quite simply, lash extensions glue is made up (generally speaking) of three main components: cyanoacrylate, stabilisers, and pigment (of course in Crystal Bond there is no pigment) so it’s essential to mix these fully. If you don’t mix them fully, the stabilisers which are typically less dense than cyanoacrylate will sit at the top, mixed in with some of the cyanoacrylate. You’ll use that up within a week or so and then you’ll be left with mostly cyanoacrylate and very little stabiliser, so your glue will dry too fast and give you all sorts of problems. 

Another issue arising from hand shaking is that when we shake our glue, it’s very common for us to shake in an up and down motion, which mixes the glue well enough, but also causes it to collect in the nozzle and spit glue out onto your clothes and hands (or worse, your client) when you take the lid off. One option to fix this is to remove the lid prior to shaking and cover the tip of the nozzle with a Glue Nozzle Wipe to prevent spills. 

Prevention, as they say, is better than cure and using a glue shaker will prevent this and the under-mixing issues that can result in shaking by hand as it uses centrifugal force to mix the ingredients. It also cuts down on the time you spend shaking glue throughout any lash set, so you can spend some extra time checking for stickies or perfecting your placement. 

All in all, what you put in your lash set is entirely up to you, but believe us when we say that these three products in particular will change the way you lash forever, and will change it for the better!