WONDERING IF LASH SERUMS ACTUALLY WORK?

I was in your shoes before I decided to try an eyelash growth serum and read the clinical trials.

I wanted to write this article to clear the air on debates about lash serums working or not. I’ll cover what science actually says and share a fun video of women who tried one and talk about the experience.

The truth is, the lash growth serum market is somewhat of a Far West, and it’s hard to know which products actually work. You really have to look at the ingredients and I’ll show you how.

Let’s get started!

Do Lash Serums Work?

If you’re like me, you want to see the actual evidence.

So here are the most relevant and up-to-date studies I found.

1- According to this clinical study published by the American Academy of Dermatology:¹

• Bimatoprost 0.03% is an effective eyelash growth enhancer.
• Subjects in the bimatoprost 0.03% group also had significantly greater increases in eyelash length, thickness, and darkness.
• Only conjunctival hyperemia was a statistically significant side effect (P = .03).

2- According to this study published by the MS Clinical Research:²

• After 30 days of using a polygrowth factor serum, participants had the following improvements: 10.52% in lash length, 9.3% in volume, 11.43% in luster, 35% in thickness, and 50.83% in curl.
• No adverse events were recorded
• The results persisted up to 90 days after using the product

3- According to this study published by Montreal University:³

• Subjects were instructed to use Latisse and were evaluated at T0, 1 month, and 2 months.
• The average lash length increased at each evaluation point.
• Over time, LATISSE causes eyelashes to become longer (less than two months).

Now that I had reviewed these papers, I wanted to know the magic behind the curtains. I wanted to precisely understand how they work.

How Do Lash Serums Work?

Now, this is all great but you have to know that these ingredients were originally used as glaucoma treatments. In addition, they come with possible side effects such as darkening of the eyelid skin, redness, and irritation.

So does that mean you only have 2 options: suffer the side effects or give up on your lashes?

Nop. I was pleased to find many products that don’t contain prostaglandins and are packed with potent ingredients like peptides, biotin, vitamins, and amino acids.

These ingredients are proven to be beneficial for the hair. But the truth is, there’s not a lot of robust scientific data specifically related to eyelashes.

So at the end of the day, you really have 3 options:

1. Leave your lashes as is
2. Use a prostaglandin-based serum
3. Use a prostaglandin-free serum

In my case, I took the third one since I prefer to be on the safe side of things.

Testimonials

In this Youtube video, several women tested two lash serums for 1 month and shared their results:

1. Rapidlash Eyelash Enhancing Serum
2. Rodan And Fields Lash Boost Serum

Check out what they have to say!

Lash Serums That Work

I’ve tried several eyelash serums over the year to find those that work. This is certainly not an exhaustive list as I’m sure there are others I didn’t try.

• LashLuxury
• LashFood
• neuLash
• GrandeLash-MD
• Babe Lash

I’ve written a separate article where I rank the best lash serums which you might find helpful. You can read it here.

References

1. Stacy Smith, Steven Fagien, Scott M Whitcup, Fred Ledon, Christine Somogyi, Emily Weng, Frederick C Beddingfield 3rd (2011). Eyelash growth in subjects treated with bimatoprost: a multicenter, randomized, double-masked, vehicle-controlled, parallel-group study. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21899919/ [Accessed 14th June 2022].
2. Mukta Sachdev, Keerthi Velugotla,  Sapna Revanker, and Geetha Somasekhar. (2020). An Open-label, Single-center, Safety and Efficacy Study of Eyelash Polygrowth Factor Serum. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7158911/ [Accessed 14th June 2022].
3. Etty Bitton. (2017). Effects of LATISSE (Bimatoprost 0.03 percent Topical Solution) on the Ocular Surface. Retrieved  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28122407/ [Accessed 15th June 2022].