Hello, this is Jenna and welcome to the Elevate Yourself podcast where we can talk about beauty and self care without judgment. 

Jenna: I want to just say thank you so much for such a positive response to the lash retention episodes over the last week of our podcast. In keeping with that, I wanted to just take a second to go through two of the things we kind of touched on and that was about handmade lash fans and also nutrition. So this week's episode is all going to be about why handmade fans will always give you better lash retention over premade or promade fans. And next week we have Dr. Pam in and she's going to explain to us what kind of vegetables you can eat to have better lash and hair growth that is gonna increase your lash retention as well. So very excited for these episodes. And I think they're going to be so helpful for all you guys. So let's get on with it. 

What is handmade fan and what is a promade fan and what is a premade fan? 

I know you guys are probably wondering all these things unless you are a lash artists you might know but so basically, we're talking about volume fans here. A classic lashes just one lash, one bigger bulkier lash placed on a natural lash, and then a volume fan is a fan that we put on so it's a thinner lash. It's a grouping of three to depending on your if you're doing mega volume might maybe up to 16 way thinner lashes that will help build volume in a set of lashes where there might not otherwise be with the natural lash. 

So handmade fan, we take each of these extra fine lashes and we handcraft them into these tiny little fans customizing them for each and every one of your natural lashes to give you the perfect set of lash extensions that is going to wrap the lash and it's also going to be built especially for each lash so there's no chance of damage or way less chance of damage unless it's like a manual damage that's happening afterwards. 

A premade fan is a machine made fan. It's often very fake looking because every single fan will be the same. In a natural set of lashes, things are not the same all the time. Sometimes people are after that kind of look. Oftentimes people are looking for a much more natural set of lashes and so that's why premades might not be the best option for styling wise. The lashes are all fused at the base so it's not a grouping of separate lashes that we are customizing. It's all pre made and those bases are all fused at the bottom so they are no longer individual. They are fused so they go on more like a classic lash than they do with a handmade volume lash. Then we have promade lashes. promade lashes are reported to be made by professionals and they're using a little smaller amount of adhesive to bond the base instead of fusing the base. They use lash adhesive to bond the space and it's handmade, so it might be a little bit more natural, but they are using an adhesive to bond it which means that it could potentially be heavier than the premade fans or the handmade fans. And also it's using an adhesive so adhesive does not stick well to adhesive that's like a number one thing and the lash extensions. If you do have a lash that you want to place and it dries out before you put it on the lash, the natural lash you're not going to redip it because you're not going to get that same bond you need to have the bond of your lash extension adhesive natural lash. It can't be lash extension, adhesive, dried, fresh adhesive, and then natural lash because those bonds between the dried adhesive and the fresh adhesive are not going to be as strong as if they were originally created at one time. So that's the basics of handmade premade and promade fans. 

So why would artists even use promade or premade fans? These are a lot easier for less skilled artists or newer artists to use. They're also quicker if you're not fast at making handmade fans. Making handmade fans can be incredibly tricky. It is definitely an art, it takes time. I would say it took me about a month solid of practice like after I finished lashing in my studio, I would come home and practice on my table in front of like Netflix for hours and hours. A month of practice like that before I could roll it out in the studio to do a set in two and a half hours. In the studio, it would take me up to six hours to hand fan when I first started. So obviously that's not going to work for clients, but you got to start somewhere. And same thing with mega volume. That's an even trickier way to go. It takes a lot of skill to develop that artistry. 

So why isn't this a good idea? Well, eventually your client might come in with some rubbing damage or you might not have the lashes that you need to develop the set that you want, artistically. So you might sacrifice the application to save the styling and that's where when you have handmade fans you can make exponential amounts of fans off of your trays. So in my studio, I probably have 100 trays of each different artificial lash. Out of each of those trays, I can make a combination of two to 16 to make a fan out of those 100 different types of lashes so you are not able to get that same customization with premades you would have to have just such an inventory of a ridiculous ridiculous inventory of lashes to be able to do that. You really have to be able to make those decisions in a split second with the lashes you have and create those by hand to guarantee that you're not causing damage in a set of lashes and not sacrificing the styling at the same time. 

So how does this all affect lash retention? Individual lashes attach and wrap the base of your natural lash when we're making a custom fans. A custom built fan can be two to 16 individual lashes, super thin fine lashes in a lot of different cases. The base of these fans are all loose. We dip it in fresh adhesive and this fresh adhesive and the lashes they wrap around this natural lash you have and that creates a bond with more surface area and more contact points and a better weight distribution because there's this better weight distribution more surface area and contact points with adhesive, you will always get a better adhesive retention then putting one fused lash one attachment point on that one natural lash. It's just the way it is.

Number two reason would be that natural lashes will remain strong and healthy giving you the strongest foundation to build on. If you are always able to respect each individual lash when you are customizing each volume fan without having to sacrifice your styling. You always want the lashes to remain strong and healthy. But if you aren't having the ability to custom build each fan for each natural lash you absolutely cannot guarantee that it will either be your styling has to be sacrificed or the lash health will have to be sacrificed because you will not be able to stock as many customized solutions for your clients lashes as you would if you were able to custom build on the spot each natural fan. 

So from an artist perspective, in the short term, you may save yourself some time which might make you a little bit more money but you will be sacrificing either the integrity of your clients lashes or your styling. I would recommend just knuckling down taking the time practicing and learning your hand fanned volume fans. In the end once you learn how to hand make all your volume fans it actually saves you money because promade fans are more expensive. It's going to give you so much more artistic flexibility and really you are going to get the best results out of this there is no faking handmade volume fans.

As they say there are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Taking the time to truly master hand fan volume lashing will definitely set your business apart. Your clients will appreciate it. Because in the end, it all comes down to skill and we develop these skills over time with practice. 

So what if you're looking at it from the other point of view? What if you're a client and you're not an artist? Yeah, you might have shorter appointments and that might sound awesome, but you will have to come back more frequently because you will not be getting the benefits of the basis of your fans being wrapped over your natural lashes. So "Potato Potato" really it ends up in less customization for the client and it also increases the possibility for damage in the lash line. What's right for you might not be right for someone else and you really have to make that decision yourself. And I hope that we've equipped you with some tools to make those choices. 

It is my personal perspective that using promade or pre made fans is akin to using a stencil to do permanent makeup or going to the hairdresser and seeing them pop out a box dye to do your color. It's just not a professional solution. And when you start removing or sacrificing skill, you just don't end up with as much of a professional product. So I just wanted to share my opinion on this. I know it's gonna be quite controversial, especially with the rise of premade, promade fans and yeah, that's just how I feel about it. And there's not a product in the industry yet that will make me switch from handmade fans. I believe that all the time spent learning them is definitely a good investment and I would definitely recommend this to any lash artist that is starting out. Spend the time to really build your skills and learning good skills is always going to pay off in the end. 

So if you have any questions as usual, I'd love to hear about that if you've had any "aha" moments through this or if you have any suggestions on new episodes. I would really really love the feedback. Screenshot this, share it to your Instagram and tag us or just DM me. I'd love to hear back from you guys. 

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