Lash mapping: the eye design that changes your face without anyone spotting the trick

What is eye design for lashes and brows?

Eye design is a plan made to measure for your eyes. Before choosing a style, the technician looks at the shape of your eye, how your lashes grow and where your brow sits, then decides which length, curl and density suit you.

It prevents the most common problem with badly planned extensions: leaving with eyes that look more droopy, smaller or closer together than before. A 13 mm lash placed in the wrong spot closes your eye instead of opening it.

It is also called lash styling for your face shape or an eye analysis. Face-shape styling adapts a beauty treatment to the proportions of each face, and the same idea is used for brows, hair and make-up. A professional lash artist does it at the start of the appointment.

What do we look at in your eye before starting?

We look at four features of the eye, always with the client sitting up and looking straight ahead, because lying down changes the position of the eyelid.

• Shape: almond, round, hooded (with the lid folding over the lashes) or downturned at the outer corner.
• Spacing: whether the gap between the eyes is wider or narrower than one eye.
• Depth: prominent eyes or deep-set eyes.
• Axis: whether the outer corner sits higher or lower than the inner corner.

We also check your natural lashes: how many there are, how long they are and which way they grow. A fine, short lash cannot hold a thick extension; the general rule of the trade is that the extension must never weigh more than your lash can carry.

Symmetry: why your two eyes are almost never the same

Almost every face has one eye a little more open or higher than the other, and the design corrects it by millimetres. If the right eye drops slightly more, the curl goes up a step on that side or the outer zone is made 1 mm longer.

The same goes for brows: one often starts higher or has a stronger arch. On the brow we work with three reference points:

1. Start: straight up from the side of the nose.
2. Arch: the highest point, on the line from the nose through the centre of the eye or slightly further out.
3. Tail: on the line joining the side of the nose to the outer corner of the eye.

Those points show which hairs should go and which gaps should be left to grow. At Migami we mark them before any eyebrow threading or tweezing.

Curl, length and thickness: the three decisions in lash design

Curl decides how much the lash lifts, length decides where the eye is elongated and thickness decides the intensity. All three are chosen together.

Length usually ranges from 8 to 14 mm and thickness from 0.05 to 0.20 mm. The finest fibres, from 0.05 to 0.07 mm, are used to make fans for volume; those from 0.15 to 0.20 mm are applied one by one for classic lashes.

What is lash mapping and how is it drawn?

Lash mapping is the plan of the design: it splits the eye into zones and notes the length for each one. It is drawn on the pads that protect the lower lashes, from inner to outer corner.

A sample map for an almond eye would be 8-9-10-11-12-11 mm. Each number is a zone and the 12 mm peak marks where you want the eye to lift. On the same eye, moving that peak 2 zones inwards or outwards gives two different looks.

Thanks to the map, your second appointment comes out the same as the first. With the eyelash extensions in Andorra we do at Migami, the plan is written down, so each infill uses the same lengths.

Lash styles by eye shape

Each style places the longest length at a different point on the eye, and that changes the expression of the face.

The anime style, with star-shaped spikes like in manga drawings, needs more careful design than any other: the spikes must land in exactly the right spot or the eye looks messy. It is our speciality and we explain it in the guide to anime lash extensions.

Brow design: the frame for your eyes

The brow frames the eye, so a complete eye design includes it. A very low brow makes the lid look heavy even with extensions; a brow that is too thin at the tail leaves the eye looking tired.

With the three points marked, we decide whether shaping is enough, whether the hairs should be brushed upwards or whether tint is needed. When brows have unruly hairs or gaps, brow lamination sets the shape for 6 to 8 weeks, and at Migami it includes design, shaping and tint.

If you have lashes and brows done on the same day, the design is planned as a whole and both are booked together in the same appointment.

How eye design works at a Migami appointment

Brow design is included with eyebrow shaping, and for lashes we do it at the start of the appointment. The order is always the same:

1. We talk about what you want and what you did not like in the past.
2. We look at your eyes, sitting up and facing forward, and at your natural lashes.
3. We mark the brow points and draw the map on the pads.
4. We explain the plan before starting.
5. We apply and, when finished, check the symmetry of both eyes.

Denia Lemus, the lash artist who runs the studio, trains the team with this same method, so the design is done the same way whoever looks after you. The studio is at Av. Meritxell 9, Casa Felipó, 3rd floor, door 7, and opens Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 18:00 by appointment only. You can book an appointment online and choose the service you want.