At Long Lash

596

By Julie Davis
Perfect lashes for summer – without the drip, run or smear
Summer’s brutal heat and unbearable humidity may be your hair’s worst enemy, but it’s also your mascara’s biggest opposition. Step outside on a steamy August afternoon and it’s a battle between the sultry air and your perfectly curled lashes. The winner, more often than not, is the weather.
Sure, there’s the waterproof variety, which lives up to its name and withstands everything from sweat to saltwater. But try to remove waterproof mascara from your lashes and you remove, well, your lashes. “Our lashes are very fragile,” says Kelli Scire, business manager of Red Bank’s Lash Out, a specialty lash bar and day spa offering a host of eyelash, facial and waxing services. “Tugging and pulling can cause them to break or even fall out, which can happen when you remove waterproof mascara.”
There’s always the option of forgoing mascara entirely. But the reality is mascara is transforming — it can change your look in the blink of an eye. “Mascara opens up the eyes and makes them appear larger,” says Scire. And mascara happens to be one of the most coveted beauty products around. According to a poll taken by the popular online beauty website Bellasugar.com, mascara is the absolute “mainstay” makeup product. In other words, the majority of women polled wouldn’t be caught without it.
With that in mind, it makes sense that Lash Out’s most popular service (particularly in the summer) is their lash extensions—a process where synthetic mink lashes are individually applied to the natural lashes and customized to your liking in terms of length and fullness.
According to Scire, it’s a great alternative to mascara in the summer, or even year-round. “You get the length, the color and the curl so you don’t need mascara,” she says. “They’re beautiful and low maintenance. You can wake up and go. You can shower, swim, workout or hit the beach without ever having to worry about running or smearing.”
Lash Out, which is celebrating its third anniversary this month, offers three lash extension styles: natural, full, and glamorous. Natural uses 30 to 35 synthetic lashes per eye to create a soft, separated effect, while full uses approximately 40 to 45 lashes for a slightly fuller look. Glamour is 60-plus lashes per eye for some serious va-va-va-voom fringe. The entire process takes upward of an hour.
Scire says all Lash Out clients receive a personal consultation prior to application in order to determine which look is best for them. She also notes the lashes stay on indefinitely as long as you properly maintain them. “Our natural lashes go through a shedding process and because the extensions are applied to your natural lashes they will shed out with them,” she says. Touch-ups are recommended every few weeks to fill in any holes from where some of the extensions may have fallen – or rather shed – out.
Lash extensions lit up the beauty radar in the early 1990s, and have become increasingly more popular over the past few years. The quality of the lashes has also improved. The standards for application, however, have not. Most certification courses are one day — walk in knowing nothing, walk out an expert.
Scire says Lash Out’s lash specialists go beyond just the course and are required to further train for approximately four to eight weeks (or until they perfect the application) before working with a client. “We choose to extend the training so that we offer only the best service and truly stand out as lash specialists. Most people take the course and start performing the service immediately, which usually results in a sloppy application,” says Scire.
False lash strips, available at most beauty stores, are another option. They work wonders at creating an eye-opening effect, only you have to apply them (precisely along the lash lines), they can’t get wet and last one day. Lash Out offers false lash application — individual or strips — and uses a semi-permanent glue for longevity. The service is recommended for anyone with sparse lashes or for those who don’t want to commit to extensions.
The bottom line: With lash extensions or the like, the battle with the sticky summer weather is over. You, of course, are the clear winner.