we develop dry eye symptoms. Speaking of oils, we often hear that eyelash artists need to advise their clients to avoid any products that contain “oil” in the ingredient list, since oil can ruin the cyanoacrylate glue.
How does oil affect the cyanoacrylate glue we use for lash extensions? There seems to be a lot of confusion about oil and cyanoacrylate. I think this comes from a misinterpretation of the complex chemistry of cyanoacrylate and the physical characteristics of oil as it pertains to the eyelids. Cyanoacrylate requires moisture to set or harden through a process call polymerization. Polymerization is like putting together pieces of Lego in chains and on top of each other. While one Lego block “chain” may not be tough, a stacked chain of Lego blocks is very hard to break apart. What’s often not talked about is the same water molecules that help to harden cyanoacrylate will also lead to its decomposition. The underlying chemistry for this has to do with something called the “polarity” of molecules. Acetone is very polar and will quickly break apart the 28
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cyanoacrylate glue like a jackhammer. Water is also polar, but in comparison to acetone, is more like a small hammer. Most oils are nonpolar and are like sheets of plastic with very little destructive potential against the chemical bonds in cyanoacrylate.
Wow, this is something that many lash artists have not heard about – oil, polarity, polymerization. But can oils negatively affect the cyanoacrylate we use? There are at least two ways whereby oils can adversely affect the attachment between the lash and the glue. This may be where much of the confusion of oil comes from. The first way oil will decrease bond strength is if there’s a coat of oil on the lash itself. The oil acts as a physical barrier between the lash and the glue to prevent adhesion, similar to the way our shoes act as a barrier to the shards and pebbles on concrete pavement. Shoes themselves have very little ability to break concrete apart, just like oils will not break apart cyanoacrylate. The second reason oil seems to compromise the bond strength between
lash and glue has nothing to do with oil’s effect on the chemical bonds in cyanoacrylate. It has everything to do with something we all know about oil – its slipperiness. The underlying cause for why there’s decreased bond strength between the lash and the glue is due not to oil but to WATER! As we’ve discussed, it’s water that weakens the bond and as the bond weakens, microscopic spaces develop between the glue and the lash that allow oil to literally slip in. The oil increases the slipperiness to allow the lash extensions to fall off. But where does all the oil come from? Oil is continuously produced by the eyelids. This is why it’s doubly important to cleanse the eyelashes at least once daily to remove all the oil that’s accumulating on the lash extensions!
What can we do to maximize lash extension bonding? Bond strength can be increased many ways, but they all follow some basic principles. This is often why primers are used. One strategy is to increase the surface area for bonding. “Scratching” or “roughing up” smooth surfaces helps to increase the total surface area onto which