By Vanessa Renderman
The Times, Munster, Ind.
GRIFFITH
From her sparkly basement floor to the ornate gold Baroque-style decor, Kristine Johnson’s passion for Led Zeppelin has crept into her style and her new business.
“I glitter everything,” she said, referencing the “Stairway to Heaven” line, “There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold.”
Instead of a stairway to heaven, Johnson has a stairway to her basement. There, she runs Eyelash Extensions by Kristine. Just like glitter, eyelash extensions add a little something.
“This is kind of a new service in our area,” she said. “It is very popular on the East and West coasts, and in Europe, especially.
Women do all kinds of things to enhance their beauty, so why not eyelash extensions?”
Part of the basement resembles a spa, with a bed in the middle for clients to lie on as Johnson works.
The air is thick with lavender, which she grows in her garden and crumbles between her fingertips at each appointment.
buy udenafil online gilbertroaddental.com/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/inc/en/udenafil.html no prescription
“This is a luxury service, and I want them to feel pampered,” she said. After a visit with Johnson, women leave with fuller, longer eyelashes.
“The idea is natural, pretty eyelashes,” Johnson said.
The initial session can last two and a half hours, including consultation. Subsequent fill-ins take about an hour.
“They’re applied by separating existing eyelashes, isolating an eyelash and then applying this lash individually onto an individual lash,” she said. “It’s very precise.”
Adhered with a substance similar to suture glue, extensions can last two to three weeks, depending on how quickly the lashes shed and how well they are maintained.
The extensions are made of a silk-like synthetic fiber and never actually touch the skin.
They’re adhered to the lash itself, Johnson said, showing special tweezers used to set each lash, under the power of a magnifying glass and a bright light.
“I have several styles and several lengths of lashes,” she said.
The cat-eye shape is popular, as is the rainbow shape — one that puts shorter lashes on the inner and outer corner of the eye and longer ones in the middle.
Clients vary. Some have long and plentiful natural lashes, others sparse lashes.
Johnson has worked on women between 20 and 70 years old. No men have approached her requesting extensions, yet.
The married mother of two always had a passion for makeup and hair. A licensed cosmetologist, Johnson took a two-day course in December to learn how to apply the lashes. After practicing on about 50 people, she started taking clients.
“I feel like I won the lottery,” she said. “I feel like I was born to lash. I could cry — I love it that much.”
Most of her clients want traditional extensions, but Johnson can order a variety of colors and even lashes with crystal embellishments.
Her next class is in volume-lashing, which involves using a fan of two to four lashes at a time.
And, she is interested in learning how to do eyebrow extensions. “It’s on the horizon,” she said.
