How to Remove False Eyelashes Safely & Painlessly

It’s the end of the night, and you’re finally home, totally exhausted. Your eyes feel heavy after you’ve rocked a glamorous set of false eyelashes all night long, and now you’re faced with the arduous task of removing them!

Have no fear, though, because we’re here to help! We’ll teach you how to remove false eyelashes painlessly and in no time. Our guide offers a couple of suggestions for false eyelash removal, and we’ve also added a care guide so you can get the maximum amount of uses out of your falsies. Let’s get into it!

How to Remove False Eyelashes Painlessly

To remove your falsies without any pain, you’re going to need a cotton swab and some makeup remover. Oil-based makeup removers and cleansers will do the best job, but they’re also more likely to mess up the rest of your makeup.

The makeup remover will help dissolve the eyelash adhesive, so when you pull the lashes off, it won’t hurt, nor will it pull away any of your natural lashes.

First, soak your cotton swab in makeup remover.
Then, use it to gently push under the lash bands from above, starting with the outer corner of the eye and working your way inwards.
Once your lash line is covered in makeup remover and the lash glue has started to lose its adhesiveness, take your cotton swab, and focus on pushing it under the end of the lash band, so that it pops up and away from your skin.
Then, using the pads of your fingers, grab the outer third or half of the false lashes as close to the base as possible.
Now, simply pull the lashes inwards, and the lash band will quickly and easily detach from your lash line!
You can use the cotton swab to finish wiping off any glue residue that’s still stuck to your lash line.
That’s all there’s to it! Now you can finish removing the rest of your makeup as normal.

How to Remove False Lashes Safely — @atlantip

Remove False Lashes While Keeping Your Makeup Intact

Sometimes, just because you want to get your lashes off doesn’t mean you want to totally ruin your makeup! After removing your lashes, you’ll probably still have to touch up your eyeliner, but our goal is to avoid covering the lash line in makeup remover, so it’ll be easier to do those touch-ups.

You’ll still need a cotton swab for this, but instead of an oily makeup remover, use micellar water and make sure that the cotton swab isn’t too heavily saturated. The micellar water won’t get everywhere as easily, and while it’ll take a bit more work to dissolve the adhesive, it’ll still work.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same process as removing false lashes at the end of the night. However, once the lashes and adhesive are totally gone, use a dry tissue to gently dab at your lash line to remove any micellar water residue.

Finally, you can quickly touch up your eyeliner and mascara, and you’ll be good to go!

What About the Grab and Pull?

We gotta talk about the elephant in the room. Most of us simply grab our lashes at the corner and yank them off! This method may work 9 out of 10 times, but it’s still not the ideal way to remove falsies.

Pulling the lashes off is rough on the lash line, and it can even hurt. Pulling on the glue without first dissolving it a little can also cause a bit of eyelash loss, which may be fine once or twice, but it can be a real problem if you yank your lashes off regularly.

If you’ve put a lot of effort into getting your lashes to blend with your falsies, you run the risk of accidentally grabbing your natural lashes instead of just the falsies, so you may lose a whole chunk of lashes!

If you’ve done the grab and pull many times in the past and you’re careful about it, it’s not the end of the world. Most of the time, we hope you keep the risks in mind and try to remove your lashes gently as often as possible.

How to Clean and Care for Reusable False Eyelashes After Removal

The great thing about false eyelashes is that they’re not one-and-done. Once you’ve removed them, you can clean them up and use them again for as long as they look good. For most people, that means around 5 to 8 uses, although some brands promise up to 20 uses for a single pair of lashes.

It’s best to clean them immediately after you’ve taken them off, but if you’re exhausted, it’s okay to remove them, put them back in the box, and clean them at some point later on. However, you don’t want to clean them right before applying them again since they do need time to dry after they’ve been cleaned.

The first step of cleaning your falsies is to peel off the glue at the band. You can just use your fingers to gently peel it away, and if you’re lucky, it’ll all come off in one strip.
If you struggle to do this with your fingers, you can use tweezers instead.
If your lashes are totally covered in mascara, lay them over a towel (or paper towel to save some cleaning), and then use a cotton swab dipped in makeup remover to gently wipe off the mascara.
Run the swab from the base of the lashes to the tips while pressing down on the band with your fingers.
Once the lashes are clean from mascara, dip a new cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and wipe them down again. This will remove makeup remover residue and also help sanitize the lashes.
If your falsies are made of mink or human hair, it’s better to skip the alcohol since it can dry them out. Instead, you can use micellar water.
Because of the alcohol, there should be no excess moisture on the lashes, so you won’t have to wipe them down or anything. You’ll be able to just put them back in their box or in a clean place to finish drying.
Once the lashes are dry, check whether they need to be reshaped. If the lashes have lost some of their curl, you can roll them (starting from the tips) around the handle of an eye makeup brush. This will help to restore their curl.
If you won’t be using your falsies for a while, the best place to put them is in the box they came in. If you don’t have your old eyelash box, any small, clean box will do.

Do Fake Lashes Damage Your Real Lashes?

As long as you follow our advice for removing and cleaning your falsies, your false lashes will not damage your natural lashes at all! Additionally, you also want to be careful when applying your false eyelashes since if you get any glue stuck in your natural lashes, that can be an issue.

Beyond that, issues may come if you don’t clean your falsies properly, in which case you can end up with eye infections. You can also lose some lashes if you remove your lashes in a hurry. If you always take your time and remove your falsies with care, your real lashes will stay healthy.

Photos via @lizannelee, @atlantip, Instagram