Most curl advice assumes you'll choose one curl and use it across the whole set.
That's a reasonable starting point and a considerable simplification, because there are three separate reasons to use more than one.
The lashes don't grow the same way across the eye. They can grow upward at the inner corner, straight through the middle and downward at the outer — so a single curl behaves differently in each third of the same eye.
You want to accent part of the lash line. A stronger curl through the outer corner and a slighter one at the inner draws the eye outward. Nothing is being corrected here; you're deciding where the set is seen.
The two eyes don't match. Not everybody’s does— one sits lower, one is slightly smaller, one is rounder, one is more hooded.
The first two are about one eye. The third is about the pair. All three run on the same principle.
The Principle Underneath All of It
Everything in this post comes from one idea:
A stronger curl opens, lifts and rounds. A slighter curl elongates and calms.
So the stronger curl goes where you want lift, opening or attention, and the slighter curl goes where you want the lash line to settle and recede.
Between two eyes, the gap between the two curls closes the gap between the eyes. Within one eye, it decides which part of the lash line the eye lands on.
That's the whole technique. The rest is knowing where to apply it.
Part One: Because the Lashes Don't Grow the Same Way
Natural lashes often grow in different direction across a whole eye. Let’s explore the pattern that runs like this:
Inner corner — lashes grow upward. They're already lifting, so a strong curl there over-curls and can turn back toward the lid. Use a slighter curl.
Middle — lashes grow fairly straight. This is where curls behave most predictably, so a medium curl does what the chart says it will.
Outer corner — lashes grow downward. Here you need more lift just to reach the same visual line as the rest of the set, so a stronger curl earns its place.
Read the eye in thirds before you start — then check both tips. Look at which way the lashes leave the lid at the inner corner, the middle and the outer corner, and let that decide your curl map. Then look again at the last few lashes at each end, because both corners can turn upward and both will over-curl if you treat them as part of the zone next to them.
It takes thirty seconds and it's the difference between a set that's technically correct and one that looks right.
Part Two: Because You Want to Accent Something
Everything in Part One was about reading the eye. This part isn't — nothing is wrong with the eye, and nothing is being corrected. You're mixing curls because of where you want the finished set to be seen.
A stronger curl draws attention. A slighter one lets that section of the lash line recede. Same principle, used for design rather than diagnosis.
Accenting the outer corner
The clearest version. L through the outer corner, easing down to C — or B — at the inner. The outer edge lifts and flares; the inner corner stays quiet and doesn't compete. The eye reads elongated and lifted at the outer corner.
Most artists build that effect with length alone. Doing it with curl as well is what makes it hold together: length gives you the shape of the lash line, curl gives you the direction it travels in.
It blends better than the chart suggests it should, and the reason is length — covered further down.
Keeping the inner corner from overpowering
This is the most useful version of the idea for ordinary sets, and the one worth changing your habits over.
Say you're working a CC set. Run CC through the outer section and the middle, then drop to C through the inner corner. The set keeps its lift where it's seen, and the inner corner stays soft and natural instead of flaring open.
A strong curl at the inner corner is one of the most common reasons an otherwise clean set looks artificial. Those lashes are short, they're often growing upward already, and they sit closest to the nose — so a CC or a D there opens an area that doesn't want opening.
Following the lash line
A finer version of the same move. Within the inner section, step CC into C rather than switching at a single point, so the curl eases down as the lengths do.
The lash line then holds one continuous angle from inner to outer, instead of breaking where the curl changes. That's what makes a mixed set read as one set rather than two.
The rule behind all three
Strength where you want the eye to land. Softness where you don't. And the inner corner is nearly always in the second category.
Part Three: Because the Two Eyes Don't Match
This is the part nobody teaches, and it's where mixing curls becomes genuinely powerful. Every correction below uses the same principle: stronger to open, slighter to calm.
One eye sits lower than the other
Higher eye: C curl
Lower eye: CC curl
The stronger curl raises the apparent lash line on the lower eye, which pulls the two closer to level. The eyes haven't moved — the lash lines have.
One eye is smaller than the other
Smaller eye: CC curl
Larger eye: C curl
The stronger curl opens the smaller eye and makes it read bigger. Keep the larger eye calmer so it doesn't run away from its partner.
One eye is rounder than the other
Rounder eye: the slighter curl — it elongates and keeps that eye from opening further
Less round eye: the stronger curl — it opens and rounds it
Here you're working in both directions at once, which is why the difference is so effective: each curl moves its eye toward the other.
One eye is more hooded than the other
This one works differently, and it's worth following carefully.
Start with the hooded eye. Build the curl map around it, putting the strength where the hood sits heaviest — a D curl through those sections if that's what it takes to carry the lash line clear of the hood.
Then repeat that same curl mapping on the other eye.
The point is that both eyes read the same once they're open. You design for the harder eye and mirror it, rather than treating each eye as a separate problem and ending up with two sets that don't match.
Quick reference
|
What you're seeing |
Stronger curl on |
Slighter curl on |
|
One eye lower |
The lower eye |
The higher eye |
|
One eye smaller |
The smaller eye |
The larger eye |
|
One eye rounder |
The less round eye |
The rounder eye |
|
One eye more hooded |
Map to the hood, then mirror that same map to the other eye |
|
The Brow Caps All of It
Before you commit to any of the pairs above, look at where the brows sit — because brow position limits how strong a curl you can use at all, and it overrides your first instinct.
Say you'd planned a D on one eye and a CC on the other to correct a difference. If that client's brows sit low, there isn't room above the lash line for a D, and the correction you designed would crowd the space.
So you step the pair down and keep the difference. D and CC becomes CC and C. The gap between the two curls narrows a little, but it still points the same way — the stronger curl is still on the eye that needs opening — and now both sit comfortably under a low brow.
The thing to hold on to: these corrections work on the difference between two curls, not on their absolute strength. So when something else constrains you — a low brow, a deep socket — move the whole pair rather than abandoning the correction.
High-set brows work the other way. There's room, so you can use the stronger end of the range and the correction has more to work with.
L is the exception, and it's worth knowing why. A low brow doesn't rule out an L outer corner, because L isn't doing a D's job. Its edge is sharp, but it doesn't lift high — it extends and elongates outward rather than climbing upward, so it never crowds the space above the lash line.
So if your accent is built on a strong lifting curl, step the pair down under a low brow. If it's built on L, leave it where it is.
Keeping a Mixed Set Coherent
Mixing curls well is a different skill from mixing them a lot. A few things keep it looking deliberate:
The transition is the technique
When you move from one curl to another within an eye, how you make the change matters more than which curls you chose.
This isn't layering for texture. It's a transition — and the way to make it smooth is to introduce the slighter curl underneath the stronger one.
So moving from CC into D, the CC sits on the lower layer and the D goes above it through the changeover. The lash line steps up gradually instead of jumping, and you avoid the bump you get when one curl simply stops and the next begins.
Done well, nobody can see where the change happened. Done as a hard switch, it reads as a mistake at exactly the point you were trying to be clever.
Where you change curl matters more than how far apart the curls are
This is the thing most artists get backwards, and it's worth understanding properly because it decides what you can get away with.
A curl expresses itself in length. An L at 12mm is strongly lifted. An L at 8mm barely reads as an L at all — there isn't enough length for the bend to show. The same is true of every curl in the range: the longer the lash, the more the curl announces itself.
So an outer-corner L easing into an inner-corner C blends, even though those two curls sit a long way apart on the chart. The change is happening at the short end of your length map — an L8 running into a C7 — where neither curl is showing much of its character, so the two meet almost seamlessly.
Put those same two curls in the middle of the eye, at 11 and 12mm, and the join shows immediately.
The question isn't how far apart the two curls are. It's how long the lashes are where you make the change. Short lengths absorb a wide curl gap. Long lengths don't.
Between two eyes none of this applies, because those curls never meet. A CC on one eye and a C on the other is a perfectly reasonable correction — they aren't being asked to blend into each other, only to balance.
Change one thing at a time
Keep lengths and diameters consistent through a curl transition. Changing curl and length at the same point creates a visible seam that neither change would have caused alone.
Remember what D asks of you. A strongly bent curl meets the natural lash across a shorter span than a gentler one, so it has less bonding area — and least of all in shorter lengths. If your mix uses D at the inner corner where lengths are shortest, place those lashes with particular care.
Record It, Or You'll Lose It
A mixed set you can't reproduce is worth less than a simpler one you can.
Write the curl map down the way you'd write a length map — curl by zone, per eye, plus a note on why: the asymmetry you corrected, or the accent you were building. "CC left, C right, lower left eye" means nothing in six weeks unless you noted the reason.
That record is also the thing that makes a client loyal. When the second set matches the first exactly, she notices — even if she couldn't tell you what you did.
FAQ: Mixing Lash Curls
Can you use two different curls on the same client?
Yes, and quite often you should. Lashes don’t always grow in one direction across a whole eye, and many clients' eyes aren't perfectly matched.
Which curls can you mix together?
Within one eye, it depends less on which curls than on where you change between them. Curl shows itself in length, so a change made at the short end of the map — an L8 running into a C7 at the inner corner — blends even between two curls that sit far apart on the chart. The same pair at 11 and 12mm would show the join. Between two eyes it doesn't matter at all, since those curls never meet.
How do you transition between two curls without a visible step?
Introduce the slighter curl underneath the stronger one through the changeover. The lash line rises gradually rather than jumping, and the join disappears.
Does brow position change which curls to mix?
Yes, and it overrides your first choice. Low-set brows leave no room for a strong curl, so step the whole pair down — a planned D and CC becomes CC and C. The difference between the two curls is what does the correcting, not their absolute strength.
How do you lash someone whose eyes aren't level?
Use a stronger curl on the lower eye and a slighter one on the higher. The lash line on the lower eye lifts, and the two read closer to level.
What if one eye is smaller than the other?
A stronger curl on the smaller eye opens it; keep the larger eye on a slighter curl so the two meet in the middle.
How do you handle one eye being more hooded?
Design the curl map around the hooded eye, putting strength where the hood is heaviest, then apply that same mapping to the other eye so both read the same when open.
Should you mix curls within one eye?
Often, yes — slighter at the inner corner where lashes grow upward, medium through the middle, stronger at the outer corner where they grow down. And separately from growth direction, a stronger curl at the outer corner accents it, which is a styling choice rather than a correction.
Can you mix curls to create a cat eye or fox eye?
Yes, and it's one of the best uses of mixing. A strong curl such as L through the outer corner, easing down to C or B at the inner, lifts and flares the outer edge while the inner corner stays quiet. Length mapping gives you the shape of the set; curl gives you the direction the lash line travels in.
My client's outer corner lashes grow upward — which curl?
A slighter one, for those few lashes only. The very tip of the outer corner often turns up again even when the rest of the outer third grows downward, and a strong curl there over-curls exactly as it would at the inner corner. Drop to C across those three or four lashes and step back up quickly, so the corner reads lifted rather than drooping.
Which curl should I use at the inner corner?
Usually a slighter one than you're using elsewhere. The lashes there are short, often already growing upward, and closest to the nose — so a strong curl opens an area that doesn't want opening and the set reads as artificial. On a CC set, dropping to C through the inner corner is the standard fix.
Does mixing curls affect retention?
Not in itself. Placement does — and a strongly curved lash has less bonding area, so any D curl in your mix needs precise placement, especially in shorter lengths.
One curl across a whole set assumes a symmetry most clients don't have, and gives up the control that comes from choosing where the eye lands. Mixing deliberately is how you get both back — and the full range is explained in our complete lash curl guide, available across the Smooth Collection, brown lashes and coloured lashes at I AM Lash PRO.
I AM Lash ♥️