You do you. Fake lashes look pretty imo. I also always compliment girls who get crazy lash extensions.

I stopped buying certain liquid eyeliners for this reason.

Practice but also the products you use. I noticed some mascaras i use can take me a quick 30 seconds for me to be happy with them. Others are messy or need several coats. It can take quite a while.

Completion products. Some of them take longer to dry than others. Same goes for eyeliner. Some wetter formulas will make me wait a bit before i do the next step.

But! 2.5 hours is a long time. I’d say with practice that should go down. But if you move slow and dilly daddle a lot that may impact it.

Shape tape broke me out sooo bad!