How to Clean & Care for Your Fake Lashes

By Lucia Rossi

If you’re a makeup lover with an abundance of lashes, or just a novice thinking about making a small investment in a couple of pairs, then you need to know how to get the most life out of your false eyelashes.

Whether it’s mink, synthetic, human-hair, MAC, Ardell, ELF, House of Lashes, Velour Lashes or Revlon, you should get your money’s worth and not just ditch a good lash after only a few uses. Sure, your falsies can look gross after one use but that’s no reason to give up on them if they served you well.

People clean their false eyelashes in different ways with different products, but I created my own that incorporates a little bit of everything while still following all the important rules.

The things you will need are:

-Your eyelashes in their original packaging

-Rubbing Alcohol

-Two small bowls

-Liquid dish soap

-Hot water (not steaming)

-An oil-free makeup remover

-Tweezers

-A clean spoolie brush or disposable mascara wand

-Paper Towel

-A few cotton swabs

You should keep your eyelashes in their original boxes so they can be safe from dust and keep their perfect eyelid shape. Remember, whenever you handle the lashes you need to be extra gentle so you don’t rip them, pull them, tear off hairs, or bend the shape.

You’re firstly going to remove the excess, clumpy, old, lash glue that’s stuck on the lash band. Hold the eyelash between your thumb and pointer finger, and use a tweezer with your other hand to collect and carefully pull off all the sticky little clumps on the lash.

If your fingernails are not too short and not too long, I find that they are easier to use instead but be cautious about possibly ripping out hairs.

In a small bowl, pour in a bit of rubbing alcohol. In the other small bowl, pour in a quarter size amount of liquid dish soap with hot, but not steaming, water. You use dish soap because it cleanses but also moisturizes. That’s why dish soap is also great to use on makeup brushes. You don’t want to use anything with harsh chemicals, but do use a formula that is hypoallergenic. These are going back near your eyeballs after all.

If there are any chunks of glue or glitter that you can’t get off, get a cotton swab lightly dipped in oil-free makeup remover (or even micellar water) and run it back and forth across the lash band. You have to use an oil-free formula because any oily products will stay on the lash band and prevent glue from sticking to it again. Eyelash glue remover is also a very oily product, so don’t put it on anything you plan on reusing.

Some people apply mascara over their lashes while wearing their false ones. This can definitely make the lashes harder to clean. People do it to make their natural lashes and falsies blend together better, but personally, I don’t think it’s worth the extra product and cleaning because the purpose of falsies is to do the job of a mascara even better.

If you do have false lashes with any mascara on them, dip them in the bowl of rubbing alcohol and lightly tap your finger over the lash to loosen up any product. Don’t soak the lashes in the alcohol because it could ultimately damage them. To remove the alcohol and have the mascara slide off, dip your lashes in the bowl with soapy water. Swish your fingers along the lashes lightly and watch the black flakes fly off.

To get rid of any clinging pieces on the lash hairs and to help retain their beautiful curl, lay the wet lash on the paper towel and curl the hairs upwards in a twisting motion with a clean spoolie, or disposable mascara wand. Think of it like when you blow out your hair using a round brush.

You should notice the lash getting its shape back, looking much cleaner, and the hairs drying really quickly on the paper towel. You could also comb and curl the lashes with the brush along your finger. Just lay the lash alongside your pointer finger, hold it down with your thumb, and brush.

Now your lashes are fresh, clean, and good as new! Before putting them away, I personally like to clean their original casing for dust, glue clumps, and bacteria with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol; this of course is optional. When dry, place them back in their case so they’re ready to be used again.