An eyelash serum is a conditioning step for your lashes: a light formula brushed along the lash line, usually at night, that helps lashes look and feel cared for. It sits alongside lash conditioners and overnight masks, and it works best with two simple habits: taking mascara off gently, and using your serum consistently rather than occasionally.
What Does an Eyelash Serum Do?
Lashes are fine hairs, and like the hair on your head they respond to care. Mascara, curling and daily removal all ask something of them. A lash serum brings conditioning ingredients to the base of the lashes in a precise dose: humectants such as sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, which help hold moisture; panthenol, the pro-vitamin form of B5 that hair care uses for softness; and, in many formulas, peptides. Think of it as a leave-on conditioner made for a very small area. It does not replace mascara and it is not make-up: most serums are clear and disappear once dry.
Lash Serums
Benton Honest Eyelash Serum combines two peptides, amino acids and sodium hyaluronate in a light gel, and is applied along clean, dry lash lines in the evening. Sesderma's Peptide & Hyaluronic Lash and Brow Serum pairs acetyl tetrapeptide-3 and sodium hyaluronate with hydrolysed jojoba esters and sweet almond oil, for once-daily use on the lash line and brows. Elizabeth Arden Prevage Clinical Lash + Brow Enhancing Serum is a peptide formula with panthenol, sodium hyaluronate and green tea and cucumber extracts, applied with a slim brush wand. Mavala Double-Lash is a lightweight serum made to help lashes feel conditioned, with snail secretion filtrate, urea and gluconolactone on its list.
- Honest Eyelash Serum
- Peptide & Hyaluronic Lash and Brow Serum
- Prevage Clinical Lash + Brow Enhancing Serum
- Double-Lash Eyelash Serum
Lash Conditioners, Gels and Overnight Masks
If you prefer to think of lash care as conditioning rather than a serum step, there are textures for that too. Gels and essences are coated from root to tip, a little like a clear mascara. Overnight masks use richer oils and are left on while you sleep, so they suit an evening when you are wearing no make-up at all.
Sensai Silken Lash Conditioning Essence is a water-based formula with maltitol and hydrolysed silk, applied nightly from root to tip and left to absorb before other eye products. Belcils Vitalising Eyelash Cream is a light cream made for sensitive eyes, with jojoba and castor oils and panthenol. Talika Lipocils Gel with Liposomes is a lash-care gel with a brush applicator; its list includes witch hazel, horse chestnut and nettle extracts, and it can be worn day or night, under make-up. Sensilis Night Repair Lash & Brow Mask is an oily gel built on castor oil, with macadamia and sunflower seed oils and vitamin E, smoothed over lashes and brows in a thin layer before bed.
- Silken Lash Conditioning Essence
- Vitalising Eyelash Cream
- Lipocils Gel with Liposomes Eyelash Treatment
- Night Repair Lash & Brow Mask Mascara
How to Apply an Eyelash Serum
- Start with clean, dry lashes: remove your make-up first, then let the eye area dry.
- Apply once a day, usually in the evening, unless the pack says otherwise.
- Draw a thin line along the base of the upper lashes, as you would a fine eyeliner. One stroke per eye is enough; more product does not mean more care.
- Follow the pack for lower lashes and brows: some formulas are made for the upper lash line only.
- Let it dry before eye cream, other eye products or sleep.
Avoid the eye itself. Keep the applicator on the lash line, never the inner rim, and if a little gets into the eye, rinse it with clean water. If your eyes sting or feel sore, stop and ask a pharmacist or optician. If you wear contact lenses, follow the pack's guidance on when to take them out and put them back in.
A Note on Prostaglandin-Like Ingredients
A few lash serums contain prostaglandin-like ingredients, which you can usually recognise on the ingredient list by names containing "prost". They are a different kind of ingredient from the conditioning ones above and carry their own cautions, so read the pack carefully before you begin. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, ask your pharmacist or doctor before using any lash serum.
Taking Mascara Off Gently
Much of what happens to lashes happens at the end of the day. Rubbing at mascara with a dry pad or a face wipe pulls on them; a dedicated eye make-up remover lets the formula do the work. Soak a cotton pad, hold it over the closed eye for a few seconds so the mascara softens, then draw it down and outwards along the lashes. Repeat with a fresh pad rather than scrubbing. For waterproof formulas, Removing Waterproof Make-Up Gently: Oils, Bi-Phase and Micellar sets out the oils and bi-phase removers in detail.
Talika Lash Conditioning Cleanser is made to remove even waterproof eye make-up without a greasy feel, with cornflower water and silk protein, and is applied with a cotton pad or fingertips. Clarins Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover sets panthenol with cornflower and gentian extracts, and is made for sensitive eyes. Klorane Bleuet Eye Make-up Remover is built on cornflower water, also for sensitive eyes. Avène Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover is a light aqua-gel with Avène thermal spring water, swept gently over closed eyelids and lashes.
- Lash Conditioning Cleanser
- Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover
- Bleuet Eye Make-up Remover
- Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover
Why Patience and Consistency Matter
Lash care is a habit, not an event. A conditioning serum or gel does its quiet work when it becomes part of your evening, in the same place as cleansing and moisturiser, rather than something you reach for the night before an occasion. Keep the tube beside your cleanser, apply it after your skincare while your face is still clean, and give the routine time before you decide whether it suits you.
Be gentle in between. Curl lashes before mascara rather than after, apply mascara to clean lashes, and take everything off every night; if you are still choosing a mascara, How to Choose a Mascara: Volume, Length, Curl or Waterproof sets out the options. It also helps to know that losing a few lashes each day is normal. Finding one or two on a cotton pad does not mean your routine is failing.
How to Choose
- A simple nightly step: a lash serum with conditioning ingredients such as peptides, sodium hyaluronate or panthenol.
- Sensitive eyes: a formula the house makes for sensitive eyes, such as a lash cream.
- Something richer: an overnight mask built on oils, on evenings without make-up.
- Lashes that feel dry after mascara: a gentler eye make-up remover before anything else.
If you are new to lash care, begin with the remover. Taking mascara off gently each night is the foundation everything else rests on, and a serum then has clean, comfortable lashes to work with.
