How Much Should I Charge My Practise Clients for Eyelash Extensions?

Once you are trained to be a lash technician, you need clients to practice on. You ideally don’t want to do this for free, but you also don’t have the experience to be competitive with other studios with more experienced technicians.

So, how do you charge your clients? 

Do you run a special, set your prices cheaper, or do you charge at all? You’ve learnt the skills needed, and you’re ready to work. Let’s take a look at some factors.

How to Set Your Prices

Once you’ve finished training, practice is the only way you’re going to perfect your skills. But it wouldn’t be ethical to charge them the same as an experienced salon. It would help if you charged something, however, because your work is still worth it.

Your primary product cost for applying a set of lashes is $12-$15. This amount is only for product and doesn’t include your rent, power, marketing, training, or other costs.

Charging for services involve covering all your overhead costs, including your time. But it also puts value on your work. You want people to know that your work is worth something. If you don’t charge anything, it sends the message that your work has little value.

Let’s look at 5 ways you can set your price and gain experience.

1. Determine Your Full Price

Your full price will be around $120-$150 for a set of full Classic lashes, and $170-250 for a full Volume set. These prices are based on 2018-2019 costs and will vary from state to state. Overall, don’t charge less than $100. This factor isn’t just important to you, but for the industry.

For an infill, recommended price for a qualified technician is $90-120 for Classics and $130-160 for Volume. Time is a factor as well, so as you get faster you can offer shorter infills at lower prices, and power fills at a higher rate.

You and other businesses’ prices will maintain the value of the work you do and the work of salons that offer the same service.

Lash extensions are into the same general category as hair. If your cost is too low, people might think your work is of low quality. The industry is judged heavily on price; charging too low will hurt you in the long run.

2. Promote a Special

Specials are an excellent way to advertise your services. Show the full price, and then offer 30-50 percent of the cost while you’re practicing. This strategy communicates the full price to people and makes them think they are getting a good deal, and they believe they are getting the same service that is worth the full price.

Make sure you place a time limit on your special, or else people will expect it indefinitely, alternatively offer it to x amount of people. (for example, 20 first ladies receive 50% off during the month of January). You can extend it later on if you like–but make sure you always set a limit.

If in the beginning, you feel like you need to do a few free sets to get yourself going, do five sets for free. Make sure you only do them on someone you know, like a friend or family member. This strategy will help ease your nerves and boost your confidence. When you’re starting out, make use of your practice clients’ new look (with their consent, of course) to market your work with flattering photography on social media and your online portfolio. Also make sure you tell your friend/family member that following that set, their discount will be xx moving forward. (Don't give more than 20% off, we are not doing charity here!)

3. Find Models for Practice

You will need to find other models to practice outside your pool of close friends and relatives.

Social media is an excellent platform to use to gather new models. You can ask your Facebook or Instagram friends if they want lashes at a discount while you practise. You’re bound to have a lot of mums who will jump on the opportunity.

Buy and Sell Swap pages are another great place to advertise your services. These resources have proven to have high success rates. You can also find Hair and Beauty model pages on Facebook. Just make sure you charge them appropriately.

4. Attract the Right Clients

You don’t want things like low prices to attract the wrong clients. You want loyal clients who pay full price, who have friends with money, who will follow you if you move, won’t care if you change your prices, are quality-driven instead of price-driven, and, of course, love and prioritise their lashes.

When establishing your price, research is your first task. You want to get to know all of the salons in the area and how much they charge. Average the cost and use that price. Charging a little more won’t hurt either.

5. Check Out the Competition

Another idea is to get your lashes done at one of the local salons in your area, preferably one of the top 3. This strategy will give you a good idea of what kind of service will be your competition. Use this as a model, strive to do good work, and offer excellent customer service. Understanding how the industry works and the finer details that make the experience a whole goes a long way toward building your business model. It also helps you understand the value-adds that keep clients coming back. Also don't be afraid to reach out to other Lashia trained professionals, they are more than happy to answer all your questions. You will find most of them on instagram under hashtags #lashia, #lashianetwork and #lashiatrainee.

Let Us Help

At Lashia Australia, we offer top quality services and class-leading courses to help get your lash artistry career started and keep it on track.

Our services include:

• Mentored Eyelash Extension Training in small groups (we make you an expert and help you start a lash business, including one-on-one support and practical exam.
• Virtual courses – all our fundamentals online, includes three in-person sessions and our practical exam.
• Premium Products for Eyelash Extensions.

We stand out from other lash businesses because we:

• Offer Mentored/extensive training – We don’t just teach eyelash extensions; we create Lash Artists.
• Have Lengthy experience in the Lash Industry. We are associated with some of the most significant associations. Mimmi is an international speaker and lashes judge. Lashia has been the organiser of numerous lash events, such as the Swedish Championships, Lash Bash, and Lash Open.