Lash Out

The eyes are the window to the soul, so they say. For busy moms, though, our eyes are more like a high-def reality show broadcasting our worries, our sleepless nights and our lack of personal time to everyone we see. So, when we caught wind of a new eye treatment to give our peepers a perk, we had to check it out.

We were led directly to Noir Lash Lounge in Yaletown. Noir Lash first opened its eyes to West Coast mamas in 2009 as Vancouver’s exclusive lash lounge. Because the only beauty service that Noir Lash offers is semi-permanent eyelash-extensions, the salon prides itself on being the city’s eyelash expert.

We love that Noir Lash has an extensive inventory of over 100 different types of lush black eyelashes, ranging in width, length and curl, so that we can customize our lashes. With expertise, the technicians at Noir Lash blend an assortment of about 50 lashes on each upper eyelid, making clients look just like Mother Nature blessed them. In addition to its busy and well-located Yaletown salon (steps from the Canada Line), Noir Lash just opened a second location last month in South Granville to keep up with the Vancouver demand.

The treatment starts with a consultation with one of Noir Lash’s peeper pros on your desired look. For protection, your lower eyelashes are taped down and your eyes remain closed for the entire service. While you relax in a funky velvet lounger in the salon’s main parlour, your chosen extensions are methodically applied with surgical glue individually to each upper eyelash. There’s the occasional sting, but a passing nuisance doesn’t register on a mom’s post-partum pain threshold. 

Noir Lash completes a full-set ($65) in about an hour, and refills ($35) take less time. Once applied, extensions last anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on your habits. Seasoned extenders typically get the full eight weeks of wear, having learned the ins and outs of lash care. A few rules will prolong your lashes (no crying or washing your eyes within the first 24 hours and no oil-based eye make-up or cleaners ever). Hard-core extenders don goggles in the shower to keep their fake filaments as long as they can. The extensions eventually fall off one by one, or Noir Lash will remove them for free (although you will likely want a fresh set while you are there).

We’ve always known that beauty isn’t just in the eye of the beholder.

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