Pre-made lashes have a bit of a bad rep, but they’re lifesavers for us all. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced lash artist, we all need pre-mades. If you have back to back clients and can’t afford to run over, or if you’re just starting out and haven’t mastered the art of volume fan making, then pre-mades are perfect.
So what are they? Just as the name implies, pre-made lashes are bonded by the base already, this is done by the lash extension supplier in advance. This means when removed from the strip, the lashes are ready made to be placed onto the clients lash. Pre-made fans are either heat bonded, or bonded by a small amount of adhesive – this varies dependant on lash extension manufacturer. At Lash Dolls U.K. all our pre-made lashes are heat bonded, this means they are much lighter and easier to work with than glue bonded pre-made lashes, they are also much less damaging.
There are many pro’s to using pre-made fans, they are classed as ‘easier to use’ over handmade volume fans, so ideal if you’re a new artist. They allow you to be much quicker when producing sets, which reduces the time your client spends in the chair and also eases the stress of running over appointments. Saving you time and energy; allowing you to book in more clients (as appointments will be shorter) and therefore expand your business.
However, unlike handmade volume lashes, where lash artists are able to select and design their volume fans uniquely per client, pre-mades do not give you that flexibility. A volume fan is several lash extensions joined together at the base, with as many or as few lashes as you desire. But with pre-made lashes, these fans are created for you. Our original Lash Dolls U.K. pre-made volume lashes consist of fans from 3 to 10 lashes glued together at the base (creating your pre-made volume fan) but, we have now launched fans that include up to 20 lashes. These are our new snatched base pre-made collection. So, rather than creating the fans yourself which can be extremely time consuming, you simply select the fan you want, and apply to your clients natural lash. Easy.
But if you prefer to hand make your fans, and take the time too perfect the technique needed to complete handmade fans in a relatively quick time, then they do provide some perks that pre-mades do not. Handmade fans wrap around the natural lash, allowing retention to be much better. Whereas, with pre-mades their retention time is similar to that of classic lashes.
If you would like to further improve retention on handmade lashes, or have a better retention when using pre-mades then we recommend our “Megabonder” Retention Maximiser. It will add elasticity to your adhesive bonds and therefore result in better retention. It instantly polymerises the glue, locking in lash fumes, so stinging, irritation and sensitivity will be significantly reduced. Because the lash bonds have been instantly cured, clients can get the lashes wet straight away.
Creating handmade fans takes a lot of practise and talent. You need to get used to working with tiny lashes and forming your fans, and also finding out with method you prefer, do you like pinching, or making fans on a strip.. or both? So don’t be disheartened if this takes time. Using pre-mades takes some stress away, and allows you to create beautiful sets without worrying about creating perfect fans every time. Both pre-made and handmade volume fans can give your clients amazing lashes that you will be proud of, so whichever method you prefer is completely down to personal preference and how you believe you work best.
See our full range of lashes here and see what you prefer!
