The busiest six weeks of the lash year start around mid-November and don't let up until Christmas. Thanksgiving week, office parties, family photos, New Year's Eve — your regulars all want fresh sets, and a wave of new clients shows up asking for something glamorous for the holidays.
Every year, the same thing happens in mid-December: an artist posts in a lash group that she's out of her most-used tray, her glue has gone stringy, and her supplier's shipping cutoff has already passed. This checklist exists so that isn't you.
1. Count your bookings first, then your stock
Don't start by staring at your shelf. Start with your appointment book.
Pull up the six weeks from mid-November through Christmas and count what's already booked — full sets, fills, and the gap between them. A December calendar looks nothing like a September one: more full sets from new clients, and shorter intervals between fills, because nobody wants grown-out lashes in holiday photos.
Now work backwards. Take your busiest normal week, count the sets, and multiply by 1.5. That's your December weekly burn rate. Compare it against what's actually on your shelf — not "I think I have enough," but trays counted and bottles checked. The artists who run out are almost never the ones who under-ordered on purpose; they're the ones who ordered for a normal month in the busiest month of the year.
2. Know what runs out first
Three categories empty out first every holiday season, in this order:
Mix trays — the popular lengths go first. A mix tray looks like plenty until you realize every client wants 11–13mm in C or D curl, and those rows are gone while the 8mm and 15mm rows sit untouched. In our own store, 0.05mm volume tray outsells everything else by a wide margin — which tells you exactly which diameters will vanish first from any tray you own. If you work mostly in 0.05 and 0.07, order those as single-length trays for December, not just mixes.
Glue — the bottle you opened in October. Here's the timing trap: a bottle opened in early October reaches the end of its working life right in the middle of December. Once opened, lash adhesive keeps for weeks, not months — and glue going stringy in the third week of December is a retention disaster wearing a supply problem's clothes. Count your open bottles, note when each was opened, and make sure a fresh, unopened backup of your workhorse adhesive — Master Glue if that's your daily driver, or browse the full glue collection — arrives before Thanksgiving, not after.
The small stuff you never think about. Eye patches, cleanser, primer, micro brushes. Nobody's December emergency is "I'm out of 0.03 D curl" — it's "I'm out of eye patches with a full book tomorrow." eye patches, eyelash cleanser, and primer are cheap, light, and infuriating to run out of. Order them with your main restock; the shipping is already paid for.
3. December is fill season — stock like it
New clients get all the attention in holiday marketing, but the quiet math of December is fills. Every full set you do in late November becomes two December fills. Fills use fewer lashes per appointment but more of everything else: more cleanser per client, more primer, more bonder.
If you normally finish one bottle of Super Bonder every two months, December alone can drain it. Keep one sealed spare of every liquid on your shelf through January — primer, bonder, cleanser, and glue. Liquids are the category where "I'll order when it runs low" fails, because the replacement needs shipping time and the open bottle won't wait.
This is also the month when 320 fans 10D earn their place. A fully booked December day has no room for hand-making every fan. Having a tray of 320 fans 10D or XL 8D premade on hand isn't cutting corners — it's how a two-hour slot stays two hours when you're doing six of them in a day.
4. Do the lead-time math now
Your last sensible order date is earlier than you think. If your supplier ships cross-border, take the full transit time, add a buffer week for the holiday carrier crunch, then count backwards from the week before Christmas. For most US artists ordering from overseas suppliers, that puts the final restock order in mid-November at the latest.
Two rules that save Decembers:
- Never place your "one more order" in mid-December. It arrives when it arrives — and "when it arrives" in December means after Christmas. If you think you might need it, order it in November.
- Glue doesn't wait for shipping. If your adhesive will run out in the second week of December, the replacement needs to be in your drawer by the first. An unopened bottle keeps; a rushed backup bought from whoever ships fastest usually isn't the formula your retention depends on.
5. Tie your booking strategy to your inventory
Stock and schedule are the same plan in December. A few moves that work together:
- Open your holiday books early and post remaining slots weekly. "Three December slots left" fills your books faster than any discount — and it tells you, weeks ahead, exactly how much product you'll burn through.
- Keep a buffer, not a mountain. One unopened backup of each workhorse tray (0.05mm volume tray, YY lashes if that's your signature set) plus the liquid spares from section 3. That's it. Over-ordering December stock just moves the problem to January's shelf.
- Protect your fills. When the books are full, it's tempting to squeeze in one more new full set. Every new set in December is two January fills — make sure the trays those fills need are the ones you stocked.
December also brings new clients shopping for a new lash artist. A free sample offer turns a curious browser into a booked January regular — and it costs you almost nothing.
And if October's Halloween rush already showed you what a fully booked week feels like, treat this as the inventory version of that same preparation: the styling demand in our Halloween lash looks guide is a preview of December's volume.
FAQ
When should lash artists stock up for the holiday season?
Place your main restock order by mid-November. That leaves a buffer for shipping delays and gives you the full selling season to work through it. Ordering in December means paying rush shipping for stock that arrives after the peak.
How many lash trays should I order for December?
Count your booked sets from mid-November through Christmas, multiply a normal week's usage by 1.5, and stock to that number — with single-length trays for your most-used diameters, not just mixes. The most-used lengths inside a mix tray always run out first.
How long does eyelash extension glue last once opened?
Weeks, not months. A bottle opened in early October is at the end of its working life by mid-December — exactly when you can least afford retention issues. Keep a sealed backup of your main adhesive and open it only when the current bottle is done.
What lash supplies run out first during the holidays?
In order: the popular lengths inside mix trays, opened glue bottles hitting their age limit, and small consumables — eye patches, cleanser, primer. The trays get all the attention, but it's the consumables that cause the "full book tomorrow, empty shelf today" panic.