Handmade, pre-made or pro-made volume Who can still remember how excited we were to be working with J-Curls? I guess I am showing my age with this post (or at least I am admitting how long I have been involved in lashes, enhancements and everything surrounding these!)
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-Curl lashes were the first available curl and they came lose in little clear plastic pots.....and what is worse, is that everyone thought "the thicker the better" so 0.25 diameter was the norm back then! How excited were we when the B-curl was introduced and it was such a novelty to have a “stronger” curl. Little did we know that the curls would advance to DD curl now. The single lashes were supplied lose in a little clear tub and we always needed a few minutes before each appointment to sort the lashes in order to make the appointment easier and less fiddly. Just looking at the lash trays, we have come such a long way, the lash extensions are now aligned on strips for easier pickup and application, the trays are made from cardboard to ensure we stay as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible and there are even pre-made and easy fan lashes…oh….not to forget coloured lashes. Who would have thought we would ever apply creative lash art? Lashes are now available in different curls (including J/B/C/CC/D/DD/ L/M) just to name a few and diameters from 0.03 so its a world away from where we started! Further more, back when the J-Curl was popular we also had cluster lashes. Yes, they were very popular as they gave an instant effect and created a fuller look (Does this sound familiar to you?) Yes, those were the beginnings of volume lashes! With extensive research we have all learned that cluster lashes can cause damage to the natural lash if applied incorrectly or worn too long and especially the lash thickness has an impact on the lash health! Fast forward to today and we are seeing a multitude of volume lashes and most lash artists now offer Volume sets - so how is this different to the Clusters back then? First of all the diameter is finer. Volume lashes should be 0.03 up to 0.10 max depending on the volume that is applied. The more lashes you apply as a fan the thinner and thus lighter the lashes have to be. You will see a huge array of single lashes for Russian or handmade volume (I will explain the difference in a minute) but also pre-made and pro-made fans and the range can vary from dainty 2D fans in 0.03 up to 10 or even 20D. As you can imagine this is a colossal difference and just because certain fans are available on the market does not necessarily mean that it is safe or advisable to use these!
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Secondly the adhesive plays an important part. Handmade fans offer the ability to control the amount of adhesive, whilst pre-made fans can be heat bonded or pre-bonded by glue. Thirdly the application time is different between those different lashes but each type also offers pros and cons that we are going to look at next: Let's start at the beginning..... Cluster lashes are pre-bonded with adhesive, they tend to be heavier lashes and need to be applied with a special adhesive (strip or cluster lash adhesive) to be only worn for a couple of days, hence the reason they are also called weekend lashes. The idea to apply these lashes with semi permanent adhesive to make them longer lasting is a huge NO!
