Elegant Lashes By Katie - Costa Mesa/Newport — Local services in Costa Mesa

I’ve gotten eyelash extensions 50+ times across multiple lash salons over the last 6 years. I’ve had the occasional bad experience but this was truly the worst. I booked with Katie at this location but I’m not sure if that’s who did the service.

Service I went at 6pm after work to kinda just decompress but my technician spiked my anxiety by scream laughing across the room to another technician for an hour straight. Never experienced that before.

Satisfaction I came for a removal + fresh set but my technician said she could do a foreign fill. I showed her pictures of what I got and asked for the same- natural mini cat eye up to 11mm. I also emphasized that my natural eyelashes are really short and thin and to do 3 extensions/lash of the lightest lash to prevent the saggy look. She said don’t worry I’ll make you look beautiful and I said ok thanks. I opened my eyes and had mega volume 10D wispy cat eye that was 13-14mm. I guess it looks good to some people, but it’s not what I asked for and too dramatic for my every day look. Still, wouldn’t have complained except for the retention and lack of skill.

Retention/skill: There were multiple, numerous stickies and some clumps of 20 lashes stuck to 1-2 lashes. It’s as painful as it sounds. Lashes started drooping and twisting 1 day in because they were way too heavy. I had events that I needed lashes for so I stuck it out for 5 days before removing it myself.

Removal: I have eyelash extension removal cream (never pull them off!) and removed the set myself which took forever because there was so much glue. It took me two rounds of removal to fully remove.

So, overall, I paid $85+$10 tip (I still tipped after having my flight or fight response activated for an hour) for a fill that only lasted for 5 days.

I don’t want a refund or free anything because she spent time doing my eyelashes, but I’m convinced that ALL of these technicians at Elegant Lashes by Katie are dangerously underskilled and shouldn’t be doing eyelashes. I went to the south coast Santa Ana location recently and also had a bad experience ( eyelashes fell out after 1 day and they made me pay $40 for a fill! ) but didn’t leave a review since that technician was good about not leaving any stickies.

Btw, it wasn’t the foreign set that caused these issues. I had light and short 3d fans on and had amazing 3+ week retention without any drooping, twisties, or stickies. I got them done abroad so couldn’t go get a fill at the original salon.

1 star for being such a bad experience that it at least broke my addiction to...

This was an incredibly hard review to write. I first booked a volume set when my normal lash girl went out of town for a bit, and I was amazed at how quickly they get a full set done here (I've never had a full set of volume be done in under an hour). So I started booking all my fills here because there is really good availability since there are so many techs. I've seen Trish, Lucy and Chloe and all of them were very cordial and quick with their hands.

The problem came in when I noticed more lashes than usual breaking off. I always just thought my lashes were going through a cycle, but over the next few months, I barely had any natural lashes left, even though I use GrandeLash religiously. I feel like though the lash fan looks nice, the techs do not look at your actual natural lash to determine if the fan is too heavy. My naturally thinner lashes couldn't support the weight of the extensions that they use, but they didn't seem to care each time I went in for a fill; they would just put extensions on all of the little baby lashes that couldn't hold a fan, and no one ever told me anything.

I ended up going back to my lash girl, who made me wait a month before getting a new set put back on. She said the fans they use are way too heavy (8-10 lashes per fan, whereas she only uses 3-5 depending on how thick your natural lash is). While I thought my extensions here looked really nice, I think it's a shame that it came at the expense of me almost losing all my lashes in both eyes. I've had extensions for years and years and never, ever ran into this issue until I...

If I could give this rating a zero I would. Buyer beware!

I went to Elegant Lashes by Katie on 17th St. yesterday and on their website they boast how talented their “technicians” are, each with a specialty. I went to Natalie, thinking that she has the specialty of giving me the Wispy Wet Set, since the company put that in her bio. What I got instead was the Mega Volume Set. It’s was obvious she didn’t know how to do the Wispy lashes; so their website lied. I asked Natalie why my lashes did not look like Wispy Wet Set that’s on the website and she said because my eye shape was different than the picture. I asked her, as the expert, shouldn’t she be able to tailor the lashes with different eye shapes? She asked me if I wanted her to remove some lashes and of course I said yes.I also asked her if these lashes were multiple lashes on one of my lashes and she said no, they were one-to-one. She lied about that because when I got home to remove some more, the lashes were in bundles of three to one of my lashes. Why lie about that? I also asked what material are the lashes made of? Are they mink? Synthetic mink? She said mink but I’m not so sure. When I left, a few other clients had finished and their eyelashes were the Mega Volume, as well. I’m beginning to think that this is the only technique this company knows. This company gravely exaggerates the skills of their “technicians” and that’s fault advertising. Do not go here, find...