Choose Your Fighter: Pitting Single Length Lashes and their Mixed Length Counterparts Against One Another in the Ultimate Lash Battle – Who Will Come Out on Top?
Presented with literally hundreds of options when it comes to choosing your eyelash extensions supplies, it always feels easiest to go for the quickest and simplest option. Is there any benefit then, to single length trays when mixed length trays are so easy? Of course there is – otherwise we simply wouldn’t stock them. What are those benefits though, and is one in particular better for you specifically? Let’s take a look…
What’s the Difference?
If you’re not too familiar with different types of eyelash extensions, a mixed length tray is one which has a mixture of different lengths of lashes in it – usually from 7 - 13mm or 8 - 14mm, depending on the type of lashes.
There are some slight differences, for example in the case of our Easy Fan Lashes, which come in 7 - 15mm but have a mixture of lengths on each strip (check out this blog post, if that’s left you with more questions than answers), and premade spikes, which come in 11 - 17mm, because they’re designed to stand out from the rest of the lashes creating a wispy or spiky lash effect in Kim K Lashes, or Manga Lashes, for example.
You can also get short lengths in 4 - 7mm trays which are amazing for eyeliner effect lashes, or just for those clients who are huge fans of subtlety.
Single length trays, by comparison, have only one length in the whole tray. Again, with Easy Fan Lashes, you’ll have a mixture of lengths on each strip, for example 8,9,10, but every strip in the box will be the same mixture of lengths.
So, to see which is best and why, let’s start where almost everyone starts…
Mixed Length Lashes – The Pros
Mixed length lash trays are the best lash extensions for beginners – they’re unfussy, they save you space, and they give you the ability to complete around 5 full lash sets (depending on the volume, specific lash mapping style and how many natural lashes the client has, of course), which in turn gives you the ability to see which lengths you use most often, and whether you actually like the lashes you’re using. Let’s have a quick look at each of those factors.
Do You Like Them?
If you’re newer to lashing or if you’ve always used the same lashes, you might be thinking ‘a lash extension is a lash extension, how different can they really be?’ and we get it – all of our lash extensions are made from the same synthetic fiber (PBT), so you can be forgiven for thinking that they’d all feel, look and act the same way. We’ve gone into a lot more detail in this blog post about the different types of eyelash extensions in our collection if you want the complete lowdown, but to keep things brief, there’s a reason that we have more than one collection of eyelash extensions.
Mayfair Lashes, for example, have a shinier finish, compared to our Chelsea Lashes, which are semi-matte. It largely comes down to how you like to create your volume fans (if you’re using volume lashes and not classic, of course) and the kind of look that your client wants.
If you get a mixed length tray each of Chelsea and Mayfair lashes and end up liking one more than the other, you won’t feel as though you basically wasted a lot of money on the one you like less.
Do They Save You Space?
As well as this, they’re also a really great option for Lash Techs who don’t have too much space. If you lash from home, are a mobile Lash Tech, or rent a bed in a salon instead of owning a salon yourself, mixed length trays will be your savior. All you’ll need to carry around then, is one tray of lashes, one bottle of glue, your tweezers, eyepatches, glue remover, and lash prep products – check out our lash kits to grab everything you need quickly.
Which Lengths Do You Use Most?
This is important to know before you contemplate single length trays, and no: you can’t just use one length across the whole eye – this is a safety issue where the natural lashes are concerned, and it doesn’t look great either; you should always map out your lash sets!
By getting a couple of mixed length trays and completing a few lash sets, you’ll be able to see at a glance which lengths get used up the most, and which are left behind.
The Con
With the last point in mind, we have our only drawback of solely using single length lash trays, and that is the potential for extra waste. If you’re always buying mixed length trays, it’s likely that at some point, you will have some surplus of the less popular lengths laying around.
What this ultimately leads to is those lashes being thrown away in the long run, as those lesser-used lashes build up and up and up to the point that you have many mostly empty boxes piling up, and dwindling space as a result.
The Solution
We have tried to mitigate that somewhat – in the early days, your mixed length trays of lashes would have an even number of each length, so you’d have two strips of each length, and that really would lead to lots of additional waste. We sat down back in 2018(ish) and thought that it made more sense to balance the mixture a bit more – we dropped a length from some of our mixed length boxes and now, for example in our Mayfair mixed length trays, you get 1 x 8mm, 2 x 9mm, 3 x 10mm, 4 x 11mm, 4 x 12mm, and 2 x 13mm. While this doesn’t rule out the possibility that there will be some leftovers if you’re only using mixed length trays, it does significantly reduce the amount of surplus. And let’s face it, the less waste, the more eco friendly you’ll be.
Another solution to deal with these leftover lengths – in the case of volume lashes, at least – is to simply use those leftover lashes for your fan practice, that way none of your investment will go to waste as you’ll be investing in developing your skills.
Single Length Trays – The Pros
Single length trays of lash extensions is the ideal choice for those of you who know what you like, and who have the space for lots of trays of lashes – they may seem small but they quite quickly take up a lot of room, so if your storage space is limited, only get what you need as you need it to avoid your workspace becoming messy and cluttered.
A NOTE ON STORAGE: We add stickers with the length, thickness, and curl to the bottom and the side of our lash trays so that whether you store them by stacking vertically or horizontally, you can see at a glance which lashes are which, making it easier to grab exactly what you need!
Single lengths are also more cost effective in the long run because of the fact that you only have the lengths you need and don’t wind up with surplus. It is a larger outlay in the first instance, but it keeps you going for longer and means that you don’t have to order so frequently. This is most beneficial for those of you who have a specific niche and use the same lengths and curls on almost every lash set (allowing for tailoring the lashes to your clients, of course), as you can always have your essentials stocked up, knowing that you’re going to use them, and won’t end up with wasted lashes.
The Con
There’s not really any cons to single length trays unless you’re just getting loads of them for the sake of being stocked up, and even then, it’s only an issue if you don’t have the necessary space for them. So if you know which lashes you like, why not stock up?
As much as single lengths may mean less waste for you, they can lead to a lot of waste and storage nightmares for us, which is why we always test the waters with mixed length boxes before committing to single length trays. Once we know you love them the way we hope you do, we go all in on those single length trays – most recently, we’ve expanded our collection of Camellia Easy Fan Lashes to include single lengths from 7,9mm up to 13,15mm. Whichever you decide to go with ultimately comes down to individual need and personal preference – don’t feel that you have to stock up on single lengths if mixed length boxes do the trick, but feel free to change your mind at any time!
