The Story Behind The Lash Lab
The creative journey behind The Lash Lab
The Lash Lab began with a love of creativity. But its defining inspiration came from behind the camera.
For founder Apple Ramos, beauty has never been simply about following a trend or applying a particular style. It has always been about understanding the individual, noticing the details and knowing how different elements come together to create something balanced and beautiful.
That perspective has been shaped by a journey spanning Ireland, Qatar and Dubai, and by several creative chapters along the way.
From wedding styling to professional photography, Apple has always found herself drawn to the same things: beauty, composition, detail and the art of making something personal.
Today, those experiences come together in The Lash Lab.
Where the creative journey began
Apple first arrived in Ireland in 2007, beginning an important chapter of her life here.
She attended leaving cert in CBS Westland Row in Dublin and later gained early professional experience through work experience with KPMG, giving her an introduction to the professional world.
But alongside her education and professional development, Apple was discovering a strong creative instinct of her own.
That instinct became particularly clear when she got married in 2012.
From wedding styling to creative entrepreneurship
Planning her own wedding sparked a genuine fascination with the visual details that can transform an occasion.
Apple developed a particular love for wedding decorations, floral arrangements, styling and the way seemingly small details could completely change the atmosphere of a space.
What began as a personal passion soon became a business.
Apple founded Styles and Blooms, a wedding styling company, and spent two years running her own business.
Working with weddings gave her an early understanding of how colour, texture, composition, proportion and individual details can work together to create something cohesive.
More importantly, it showed Apple that creativity could be more than a passion - it could become a career.
Those lessons would quietly follow her into everything she did afterwards.
A new chapter in Qatar and Dubai
In 2014, Apple and her husband made the decision to leave Ireland with their children and move to Qatar.
It was the beginning of an international chapter that would become one of the most influential periods of Apple's professional life.
Over the following eight years, Apple developed a career as a professional photographer across Qatar and Dubai, working with VIP clients and royal families.
Photography became her craft.
And it changed the way she saw beauty.
What photography taught her about beauty
Photography taught Apple to look beyond what is immediately obvious.
Behind every photograph is a series of decisions.
How should the subject be positioned?
How does the light fall across the face?
Which features should be emphasised?
How does composition affect the way someone is perceived?
When is something beautifully balanced, and when has it simply become too much?
Over years of photographing people, Apple developed a trained eye for facial proportions, symmetry, shape, light and detail.
She learned that the most beautiful results are rarely achieved by applying the same formula to everyone.
They come from understanding the person in front of the camera.
That philosophy would eventually become the foundation of The Lash Lab.
From the camera to the lash bed
When Apple eventually moved into lash and brow artistry, she realised that many of the principles she had developed through photography applied naturally to her new craft.
The canvas had changed.
Instead of a camera, she was working directly with the eyes and face.
Instead of lighting and composition, she was working with lash lengths, curls, density, direction, mapping and brow shape.
But the fundamental question remained the same:
What will make this individual look their best?
That is what makes Apple's approach to lash artistry different.
She doesn't see a client's eyes as an isolated feature. She considers the relationship between the eyes, lashes, brows and overall facial structure.
Her photography background gives her a natural appreciation for proportion and balance, while her specialist beauty education provides the technical knowledge needed to turn that understanding into a finished result.
Learning the craft
Apple approached lash and brow artistry with the same commitment to education and attention to detail that had defined her previous creative careers.
She invested in specialist training across lash extensions and brow artistry, undertaking education with ALS Lash Academy, Marilash Beauty Academy, Egoist Beauty Academy, OTL Brows and Kohana Professional.
Each stage of her education added another layer to her understanding of the craft.
Technique matters.
Products matter.
Application matters.
But Apple believes artistry comes from knowing how to bring those elements together for the individual client.
That is why two clients can receive the same category of treatment and leave with completely different results.
Moving from Dubai to Sligo: Finding Home
After years of living and working in the Middle East, Apple and her family made the decision to return to Ireland and build a different kind of future for their children - one rooted in family, community and a place they could genuinely call home.
Sligo felt like the natural choice.
It is where Apple's husband grew up and the place he has always considered home, giving the family a strong connection to the area as they began this new chapter.
Moving from Dubai to Sligo was a significant change, but it also brought a sense of familiarity and belonging.
It gave the family the opportunity to reconnect with loved ones, put down roots and become part of a close-knit local community.
For Apple, returning to Ireland was not simply about coming back to a country she had known before. It was about creating a home for the next generation.
Sligo offered the family a place where their children could grow up surrounded by community, nature and a strong sense of belonging.
For Apple, establishing The Lash Lab in Sligo was therefore about more than starting a business.
It was about bringing her international experience in photography, beauty and client care back to the community her family had chosen as home.
The studio reflects that combination: a personalised, boutique lash and brow experience shaped by years of working internationally, but created with a distinctly local approach.
Why Sligo?
There is something particularly special about Sligo.
For Apple and her family, it is not simply a location on a map. It is a place connected to family, memories and the next chapter of their lives.
County Sligo brings together dramatic natural beauty, a strong sense of culture and a close-knit community.
The Atlantic coastline, beaches, mountains and lakes provide a remarkable backdrop to everyday life, while landmarks such as Benbulben and Knocknarea give the area a character that is instantly recognisable.
Sligo also has a rich creative and cultural identity, with its strong connection to W.B. Yeats, music, literature, art and a growing community of independent businesses and creatives.
For a family looking to put down roots, that combination of community, culture and natural beauty made Sligo feel like the right place to call home.
And for Apple, there was something meaningful about bringing her own experience back to the place where her family was building its future.
Why The Lash Lab exists
The Lash Lab was created with a simple idea:
Professional beauty should feel personal.
Apple wanted to create a boutique studio where clients could step away from the feeling of a busy, transactional salon and into an environment that felt calm, comfortable and considered.
A place where there is time to talk.
Time to understand what a client actually wants.
Time to look at what will suit them.
And time to create something carefully rather than simply working through a template.
The result is The Lash Lab - a boutique lash and brow studio in Sligo built around personalised artistry and a genuinely individual approach.
More than a set of lashes
Lashes can completely change the way the eyes appear.
So can brows.
The shape, density, direction and placement of each can influence the overall balance of the face.
That is why The Lash Lab's approach has evolved beyond lashes alone.
Apple sees lashes and brows as part of the same visual story.
A beautifully designed lash set can look very different depending on the brow shape above it. Likewise, beautifully shaped brows can change how the eyes and lashes are perceived.
This is where her approach to mapping, proportion and symmetry becomes particularly important.
Rather than simply selecting a style from a menu, Apple considers the relationship between the lashes, brows, eyes and face to create a result that feels cohesive.
Don't simply design the lashes.
Don't simply design the brows.
Design the eyes.
Beauty that enhances, rather than overwhelms
There is a certain temptation in beauty to believe that more is always better.
More volume.
More definition.
More drama.
But Apple doesn't see beauty that way.
Her philosophy is rooted in enhancement.
Sometimes that means creating something soft and understated. Sometimes it means creating something more defined, glamorous or dramatic.
The important part is that the result still feels right for the person wearing it.
The best beauty work shouldn't arrive in the room before you do.
It should complement you.
It should make your eyes feel more defined, your features more balanced and your confidence a little stronger, without taking away from who you are.
The photographer's eye
Photography remains at the heart of Apple's approach to beauty.
The Lash Lab may now be a lash and brow studio, but the way Apple approaches her work is still deeply influenced by the years she spent behind the camera.
Photography taught her to observe.
To notice detail.
To understand composition.
To appreciate symmetry.
To work with light and shape.
And, perhaps most importantly, to understand that small adjustments can make a significant difference.
That mindset is reflected in the way she approaches every set.
A lash extension isn't simply a lash extension. Its length, curl, direction, placement and density can all influence the final appearance of the eye.
The artistry lies in knowing how those individual elements should work together.
By investing in ongoing education and continually developing her artistry, Apple ensures her work remains modern, refined and on trend while maintaining the thoughtful, personalised approach at the heart of the studio.
A studio built around people
Behind every appointment is a person, not just a pair of eyes, a set of lashes or a brow shape.
That is something Apple never wants to lose.
The Lash Lab is intentionally boutique because the experience matters just as much as the finished result.
From the initial consultation through to the final reveal, the intention is to make clients feel comfortable, listened to and confident in the decisions being made for them.
For some, The Lash Lab becomes part of their regular beauty routine.
For others, it may be their first experience with lash extensions or professional brow artistry.
Wherever someone is on that journey, Apple believes they should leave feeling that their treatment was created for them, rather than simply applied to them.
The next chapter
Looking back, the different chapters of Apple's career may seem unrelated at first.
Wedding styling.
Photography.
Lash and brow artistry.
But there has always been a common thread.
Creativity. Detail. People. And an eye for beauty.
Styles and Blooms taught Apple how individual details can transform an environment.
Photography taught her how to see people, proportion, light and composition.
Lash artistry gave her a way to bring those skills together in a more personal and intimate form.
And Sligo gave The Lash Lab somewhere to call home.
Today, Apple continues to develop her artistry, explore new techniques and invest in ongoing education, while staying true to the philosophy that brought her here in the first place.
To create professional, photography-grade beauty with a genuinely personal approach.
To make bespoke lash and brow artistry feel accessible.
And to create results that don't simply follow what is popular, but are thoughtfully designed around the person wearing them.
From Dublin to Qatar and Dubai, and now to Sligo, Apple's journey has always been about creativity, people and seeing beauty differently.
The Lash Lab is simply the next chapter.
Because ultimately, The Lash Lab isn't about creating a particular look.
It's about discovering the look that belongs to you.
Welcome to The Lash Lab.
Bespoke lashes. Considered brows. Designed around you.