After your beautiful set of eyelash extensions are applied, you will often hear your lash stylist telling you not to get them wet for 24 hours and to avoid touching them unnecessarily. This is to allow enough time for the adhesive to fully dry/cure and to avoid premature fallouts.
However, some ladies take this advice too far and hardly ever get their lashes wet, nor wash them (yuk!)!
Dirty lashline! - Photo courtesy of LashesbyMichelle
We often see clients with build up of glug (dead skin, oils, make up residue) on their lash line, which not only is unhygienic, but also takes away from your allocated appointment time for applying lashes as time is wasted cleaning your lashes instead. Clogged lash follicles can also mean weaker natural lashes growing through, higher risk of infections and sensitivities developing towards products, and shorter life of extensions as oil build up on the lashes causes the extensions to fall out sooner. With that, today’s post will be about how to clean your eyelashes properly and recommended cleansers for doing so.
At Tokyo Lashes, we strongly recommend foaming or lathering cleansers over wipes or liquid removers using cotton pads and tips. Why? The lint fibres from cotton tips and pads often get stuck in the lashes and can pull out the extensions. Using your hands and fingers will avoid this. Secondly, whilst they do a good job of removing the make up off the eyelid, they never get deep enough to cleanse the lashline thoroughly.
Some oil free foaming cleansers recommended are:
-Baby shampoo
-Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser
-Sterilid (available from pharmacists)
-QV wash
-Dermaveen
-Effaclar by La Roche-Posay (available from Priceline)
Method:
Wet your face with lukewarm water. Put a small dollop of the cleanser on your hand and work into a lather. Alternatively, use a foam pump (available from Daiso) with pre-diluted solution.
Using your fingertips, work the foam right into the lashline.
Rinse with lukewarm water.
Pat dry and allow lashes to dry naturally.
Once lashes are dry, the mascara wand given can be used to gently brush and groom the lashes.
This ‘washing of lashes’ does not need to be an added step in your skincare routine. If you are happy to use the products listed above on the rest of your face, this can be incorporated into your daily face wash routine. It can be done in the shower (just don’t put your face directly under the shower stream) or over a sink. Do this everyday or every second day at minimum, and always make sure they’re squeaky clean before every lash appointment. It really couldn't be any more simple.