Lash extensions are a great way to upgrade your look. They easily make your eyes look bigger and brighter, framing your face in the best possible way!
However, these lush lashes won’t last without a little TLC. If you want to improve the longevity of your new lashes, you’ve got to invest in maintenance.
In this article, we’ll cover a very important aspect of aftercare: lash cleaning.
Q: Should I use lash cleanser?
A: Yes! A hundred times, yes.
Washing your lash extensions is crucial. It affects both the longevity of your eyelash extensions and your own personal health. Here’s why:
- Natural Oils. Our bodies naturally produce oils—oils that can affect the lash glue. If the oil doesn’t weaken your extensions first, it can still pool around your lash line. Not a great feeling!
- Dirt and General Debris. Our eyelashes were meant to stop dust and debris from getting into our eyes. Unfortunately, that also means that the dirt gets stuck in our lashes. Washing your face regularly helps get rid of the dirt build-up—even more so if you carefully wash your lashes with cleanser.
- Dry Gunk or Flakes. We often wake up with a bit of dry sleep in our eyes. It’s natural, and nothing a quick wash can’t get rid of. However, if you don’t wash your eyes specifically because you’re afraid the extensions will fall off, you risk leaving that gunk trapped. The flaky build-up can become obvious (and irritating) if left there for too long.
Q: Will any facial cleanser do?
A: Facial cleansers are not the same as lash cleansers.
Lash cleansers are specially formulated to clean eyelash extensions. They often come with their own brush for gentle, precise application.
In lieu of lash cleanser, you can use facial cleansers to wash your eyelashes (which happens anyway when you’re washing your face). Just remember to 1) be careful, and 2) use oil-free, water-based cleansers (micellar-water isn’t oil free). If you scrub at your eyes while washing, your eyelash extensions will suffer the consequences!
Q: How do I take off my eye makeup?
A: Makeup wipes!
Ideally, eyelash extensions should eliminate the need for heavy eye makeup. But we get it—sometimes, you just want to enhance your peepers with a little glam.
In this case, get ready to stock up on all the makeup wipes. Believe it or not, they’re more lash-extension-friendly than cleanser and water. Rather than splashing water on your eyelashes (and ultimately weighing them down), you can instead wipe the makeup off very gently.
Once you’ve wiped most of the makeup away, you can be as cautious as needed around the eye area since there won’t be any makeup to scrub off.