Pick, Dip, Stick: Why A Proper Dipping Technique is Essential to Master, But Often Overlooked.
It’s not that we overlook the fact that we need to perfect our glue dipping technique necessarily, more that we take for granted that it’s as simple as dipping a lash extension and then placing it. In actual fact, we need to be really careful with our dipping technique so that we can guarantee we’re getting it right. There are a couple of ways to dip, and a few things to watch out for even when you’ve refined your technique. Here are our top glue dipping tips!
Dispensing Glue
It’s really common to use glue rings, and if you love using glue rings for your lash extension glue, we won’t stop you, but we do advise swapping to a jade stone instead for a few reasons:
- It’s more sustainable because you don’t create as much waste when using a jade stone – you do still have a glue stone sticker or some tape to get rid of, but the single-use plastic waste is still reduced.
- It keeps glue fumes away from your airways and your clients’ airways, making the treatment safer and more comfortable.
- It’s easier to control the temperature and humidity surrounding your glue when it’s on a jade stone. Having it closer to your airways – as we’ve established – isn’t great for your respiratory system, but it also increases the humidity around your glue, and having it sitting against your hand will make it warmer than having it on a jade stone, which keeps it cooler and fresher.
- You actually use less glue when using a jade stone, even though you need to dispense a new drop every 10-20 minutes during the treatment. It’s also easier to control the amount of glue you’re using, which means that you get more use out of it in the long run and more value for money.
- You keep the glue in the bottle fresher for longer because when you dispense a drop at a time onto a jade stone, you can let gravity do the work. In contrast, when you put your glue on a jade stone, you squeeze it out, which means that more air is pulled into the bottle, and as a result, more humidity gets to the glue inside the bottle and starts the polymerization process.
- It’s easier to control your glue dip on a Jade Stone than it is with a ring, as you have a clear view of the whole glue drop, and the glue isn’t as deep as it is in a ring. This helps you to not overload your extension with glue, prevents volume fans from closing due to the bases being dipped too far into the glue, and also helps you keep your tweezers clean as they’re not coming too close to the surface of the glue.
TOP TIP: If you are dispensing your lash extension glue onto tape on a jade stone, use more than one strip for easier clean up. If you allow your glue to dry on the jade stone and only have one strip of tape as a barrier, the tape will tear around the glue, making cleanup trickier!
Where to Dip
So, obviously, you’re going to dip your lash extension into your glue, but the key to a good dip is to dip it into the center of the glue drop and not around the edges. The reason for this is that the glue closer to the edge will be polymerizing faster than the glue in the middle of your glue drop, so you’ll have less time to place the extension on the natural lashes, as the glue will already have begun to cure.
Attachment Area
How far you dip your lash extensions into the glue will depend on the length of the extensions. Still, generally speaking, you should aim to dip the extension into the glue by about 2mm so that there’s a good attachment area between the extensions and the natural lashes.
This is going to be easier said than done if you’re making volume fans using very short lashes between 4 and 7mm as you don’t want to cause your fans to close due to dipping them in too far. With those extensions, just try to make sure you’re getting a microdrop on the very bottom of the fan base so that it can essentially wrap around the base of the lash extensions and the natural lashes.
How Much Glue Do You Need?
Getting the right amount of glue on the base of your extensions is essential – too little and you won’t get the retention you want, and too much glue and you’ll have a messy set riddled with stickies.
You should aim for a little drop of glue on the base – this is called a microdrop, and is achieved by dipping your lash extension into the glue drop and pulling it back out quite quickly. Be careful not to scoop the glue as this will result in too big of a drop.
What To Do If You Get Too Much Glue
The most important thing to remember here is that you should never swipe the excess glue off the extension. The reason that we don’t swipe extra lash extension glue is twofold – firstly, the place it usually gets swiped, if you are swiping, is in on the eyepatch, which exposes your client to more glue fumes, meaning that they are more likely to experience chemical burns.
If you don’t swipe on the eyepatches, then this particular point won’t affect you too much; however, the second reason will affect you regardless of where you swipe off the excess glue because as soon as the glue makes contact with any surface, it begins to polymerize.
When you swipe off excess glue, the glue on the extension begins to cure, which means that it’s not able to form a strong bond between the extension and the natural lash, resulting in poor retention.
Instead of swiping, dip your extension back into the glue drop, and pull it out more slowly to get a smaller glue drop.
That concludes your crash course in lash extension glue dipping mastery! Now you’re an absolute pro at dipping, you just need to be sure that your extensions are attached perfectly so that you get the absolute best out of your lash looks, your clients’ comfort, and your retention.
