For those of us with stumpy, stick-straight lashes, we’d do anything to fluff up, darken, and lend length to those strands. The problem is that pressing down on our lashes with eyelash curlers, or going for eyelash extensions and lash lifts, often leave our hairs more brittle and sparser than they were before.
So, if there were another way to plump up short eyelashes sans the brittle after-effects, we’d want to be in the know.
Enter: eyelash serums, lash-lovin’ blends that lend to longer lashes over time. Applied to the lash line or the entire lash length, eyelash serums stimulate the hair follicles and condition the strands, so you reap lashes that are darker and with a wispier length.
How do eyelash serums work?
There are two ways that eyelash serums can work to bring you longer lashes: conditioning the lash strands, or stimulating growth at the follicle.
Eyelash serums give healthier strands
For strands that have been through the battlefields of eyelash curlers, lash lifts, and extensions, eyelash serums can be especially helpful for granting your curls more volume and length.
By delivering a boost of deep hydration and nourishment, eyelash serums contribute to the repairing of brittle, damaged hairs. Naturally, healthier lashes appear darker, fluffier, and, at times, longer too.
Ingredients like glycerine and panthenol draw moisture to the hair shaft and bind it there, whereas peptides and biotin, for example, boost lash health by strengthening keratin, a key component of hair.
Eyelash serums stimulate hair growth
When it comes to stimulating hair growth from the roots, eyelash serums’ ingredients tend to be a little more shrouded in mystery.
Prostaglandin, for instance, is a common hair-growth hormone, found in a number of eyelash serums, that’s known to cause side effects such as discolouration of the skin and iris. It can also result in fat atrophy, which is the loss of fatty tissue that causes the eyelids to appear sunken.
Are eyelash serums safe?
To steer clear of the side effects that come with hair growth hormones like prostaglandin, you can avoid formulas that include chemical compounds like isopropyl cloprostenate, bimatoprost, isopropanol phenyl-hydroxy-pentene, dihydroxy-cyclopentyl-heptanoate, dechloro dihydroxy difluoro, or ethylcloprostenolamide.
Instead, keep an eye out for nourishing ingredients like oils, vitamin E, and natural actives!
If you’re pregnant, nursing, have medical conditions, or just want to play it safe, consult your doctor or a dermatologist before you begin using an eyelash serum. As with any other over-the-counter formula, you also want to do a patch test before applying the eyelash serum onto your delicate lash line.
Read on, because we’ve rounded up the best eyelash serums in Singapore for you to choose from.
Best eyelash serums in Singapore
Cangro Long Lashes Eyelash Enhancer Hormone-free
Turn your stubby lashes into Bami-like ones safely and naturally with Cangro’s Long Lashes Eyelash Enhancer!
Common hair growth hormone prostaglandin is known to potentially cause side effects, which is why Cangro’s eyelash serum keeps this ingredient out of the mix.
Instead, the eyelash serum taps on a rich blend of peptides, vitamins, and antioxidants to stimulate the lash follicle and nourish the strands, so you see stronger and fuller eyelashes in as quickly as three weeks.
This cult-favourite eyelash serum has received rave reviews, with users praising it for really boosting the thickness and length of their lashes without causing irritation to the eyes.
Hormone-free, vegan, and cruelty-free – what’s not to love?
Cangro Long Lashes Eyelash Enhancer retails for S$89 on Beauty Closet. Shipping is free for orders S$30 and above, and delivery takes two to three business days.
Sky Organics Organic Castor Oil Eyelash Serum Best clean formula
If we’re talking about clean formulas, then Sky Organics’ Organic Castor Oil Eyelash Serum is it. Made with just one ingredient, castor seed oil – and, one that’s certified organic by the USDA no less, it’s a genuinely safe serum to use around your sensitive eye area.
Castor oil has long been hailed as a hair growth wonder-worker; it increases blood flow at the roots so that the hair follicles receive more oxygen and nutrients and, thus, grow healthier strands. The same goes for the lashes too!
Sky Organic’s castor oil is extracted by cold-pressing instead of chemically, so it still brims with vitamins and antioxidants for the ultimate lash-lovin’.
Sky Organics Organic Castor Oil Eyelash Serum retails for S$24.94 on Amazon.
Augustinus Bader The Eyebrow & Lash Enhancing Serum Best splurge
Augustinus Bader’s the Hollywood-hailed brand that’s best known for its luxury skincare formulations, especially The Cream and The Rich Cream.
However, if you’re up for a splurge, then Augustinus Bader’s The Eyebrow & Lash Enhancing Serum is worth a bookmark too.
Stamped clean at Sephora, the eyelash serum also does away with growth hormone prostaglandin and uses, instead, a healthy blend of ingredients.
Natural roselle and safflower extracts increase blood flow at the hair follicles, biotin boosts hair strength, and a hyaluronic acid complex hydrates the hair shaft, protecting it from damage.
Not to mention, the brand’s proprietary TFC8 encourages skin renewal at the cellular level, so your lash line is healthy and more than prepared to sprout healthy strands too.
Augustinus Bader The Eyebrow & Lash Enhancing Serum retails for S$230 at Sephora’s Raffles City outlet, or Sephora online.
Lancôme Advanced Génifique Yeux Light-Pearl Eye & Lash Concentrate Best multi-tasker
Talk about multitasking. The Lancôme Advanced Génifique Yeux Light-Pearl Eye & Lash Concentrate isn’t just an eyelash serum, it also doubles up as an anti-ageing formula, which depuffs the under-eyes, brightens dark eye circles, and smooths out wrinkles too.
Plus points: this eyelash serum slash anti-ageing under-eye formula is uniquely designed with a massaging applicator. All you have to do is pump the serum onto the delicate skin around your eyes, and gently massage it in with the cool applicator.
You’ll enjoy a quick pampering session as well as better results!
Lancôme Advanced Génifique Yeux Light-Pearl Eye & Lash Concentrate retails for S$125 on Sephora.
Revitalash Advanced Eyelash Conditioner
Ophthalmologist-developed and dermatologist-verified, the Revitalash Advanced Eyelash Conditioner works to nourish the strands (rather than stimulate the hair follicles) so that your eyelashes can be restored to their wispy glory, even after damage.
Another pricey but mighty product, this eyelash serum is spiked with peptides, lipids, biotin, and panthenol-rich green tea extract.
It protects your lashes from environmental aggressors and repairs them, especially after you’ve used styling products or gone for lash services that have caused strands to break or become brittle.
Revitalash Advanced Eyelash Conditioner retails for S$237 (3.5ml) or S$156 (2ml) on Sephora.
The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Lash and Brow Serum Best budget
The budget-friendly option for those looking to test out an eyelash serum for the first time, The Ordinary’s Multi-Peptide Lash and Brow Serum is designed to stimulate the hair follicles plus nourish the strand – it’s double the action for Bambi-like lash results.
Suitable to be used on both the eyelashes and the brows, this serum contains four peptide complexes alongside plenty of other active ingredients.
It also uses technologies like the SYMPEPTIDE XLASH® and Anargy® to condition strands, as well as REDENSYL™, which is known to target the follicle stem cells to boost hair growth.
The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Lash and Brow Serum retails for S$21.50 on Lookfantastic. You can also find it at Sephora for S$28.
Grande Cosmetics GrandeLASH-MD Lash Enhancing Serum Cult-favourite
This cult-classic formula is one of the first that comes to mind when you think of eyelash serums. That’s because it really does turn your stubby strands into longer, darker wisps.
The (big) caveat is that users also report that this serum can be irritating and drying to the eyes – side effects that most would not deem worth for feathery strands. It’s also a formula to stay away from if you’re pregnant, nursing, prone to styes, or undergoing chemotherapy.
Grande Cosmetics GrandeLASH-MD Lash Enhancing Serum retails for S$51 (1ml) instead of S$59.50 on Lookfantastic. You can also get it for S$168 (4ml) on Amazon.
RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum
Whether you’ve got stumpy, thin, or brittle lashes, you’ll soon find that the RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum is worth a spot on your bathroom shelf.
The eyelash serum uses a unique Hexatein 1 Complex, which features a combination of lash-loving ingredients like peptides, biotin, amino acids, panthenol, soybean oil, and pumpkin seed extract.
Scroll through customer reviews online and you’ll discover visible differences in the before and after pictures.
But, be patient because, while RapidLash’s eyelash serum starts taking effect on the day you apply it onto your lash line, the results are only noticeable four to eight weeks after regular use.
RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum retails for S$36.96 instead of S$43.48 on iHerb.
E.L.F. Enhancing Lash & Brow Serum
Cruelty-free and vegan, E.L.F.’s Enhancing Lash & Brow Serum is also free from these nasty chemicals that you don’t want in your formulas: phthalates, parabens, nonylphenol ethoxylates, triclosan, triclocarban, and hydroquinone.
What this eyelash serum does have is a nourishing blend of antioxidants, amino acids, and vitamins, which help to strengthen your strands and bump up their volume.
Surprisingly, users have seen their lashes improve in as quickly as one day. Whether one day or several weeks, you’ll see both your lashes and brows become fuller and fluffier!
E.L.F. Enhancing Lash & Brow Serum retails for S$5.93 (1.5ml) or S$11.86 (3.5ml) on iHerb.
Benton Honest Eyelash Serum Unique applicator
Korean brand Benton’s Honest Eyelash Serum is a popular pick because it strengthens lashes and gives them a volume boost, whilst keeping over 20 harmful ingredients like alcohol or silicones out of its formula.
What’s unique about Honest Eyelash Serum is that it comes with a spoolie and ball-tip applicator – the soft tip allows you to gently spread the formula onto the lash line, whilst the spoolie lets you shimmy through from root to tip for extra nourishment to your lashes’ lengths.
It’s also brimming with 17 types of amino acids, peptides, and hyaluronic acid to deliver deep conditioning to your strands!
Benton Honest Eyelash Serum retails for S$17.21 on iHerb. You can also find it on YesStyle for S$18.62.
Shiseido Professional Adenovital Eyelash Serum
Shiseido has formulated its Professional Adenovital Eyelash Serum using its uniquely-developed Ziziphus Jujuba fruit extract, aka jujube extract, which enhances the eyelashes starting at the follicles.
Infused with humectant glycerine, the serum also draws moisture to the strands and keeps them hydrated (and less prone to breakage) throughout the day!
The unique doe-foot applicator also makes applying the eyelash serum easier – you’ll be able to get right between those thin lashes without missing a spot.
Shiseido Professional Adenovital Eyelash Serum retails for S$22.60 instead of S$25.60 on Shopee. You can also get it for S$24.77 instead of S$25.28 on YesStyle.
TONYMOLY The Shocking Cara Most chic
If you love a chic tube that you can proudly whip out of your handbag, then K-beauty brand TONYMOLY’s The Shocking Cara is the perfect eyelash serum for you.
Housed in a futuristic, reflective capsule casing in metallic green, this eyelash serum makes a routine, twice-daily application stylish and ever-more worth the while.
Of course, The Shocking Cara also features good-for-lash ingredients like peptide complexes, biotin, and black rice extract, so you’ll see longer and curlier eyelashes over time!
TONYMOLY The Shocking Cara retails for S$15.63 on YesStyle.
Etude My Lash Serum Jumbo Best jumbo size
Tired of refilling your lash serums because they run out fast? Etude’s My Lash Serum comes in jumbo size so that you won’t have to worry about restocking this eyelash essential all that soon.
Made with a strengthening blend that includes panthenol, dogwood berry extract, and biotin, Etude’s eyelash serum is designed to go over your lashes from root to tip to nourish and seal.
You can look forward to darker, thicker curls comin’ your way.
Etude My Lash Serum Jumbo retails for S$13.86 on YesStyle.
Isehan KissMe Heroine Make Watering Eyelash Serum Oil-free
Japanese brand Isehan’s KissMe Heroine Make Watering Eyelash Serum is an oil-free formulation that won’t get in the way of mascara or other lash products that come after.
Called the “Watering Eyelash Serum” perhaps for that very reason – it’s water-, not oil-based, this formula should be shimmied onto the entire length of your strands for lightweight conditioning.
Simply apply this eyelash serum to your lash line and along your strands, wait for it to dry, and then layer on with your favourite eyelash products after.
Isehan’s formula features glycerin, soluble collagen, and ginseng root extract, plus, it is free from artificial fragrances and colourants.
Isehan KissMe Heroine Make Watering Eyelash Serum retails for S$16.02 on iHerb.
Eveline Cosmetics Advance Volumiere Also a mascara primer
Another multi-tasker on our list, the Eveline Cosmetics Advance Volumiere is a repairing eyelash serum, hair growth activator, and mascara primer all in one.
The bio Restore Complex™ that stars in this three-in-one formula restores and protects the lash structure, giving you eyelashes that are healthier and stronger too.
Use the Advance Volumiere as a primer and your cute lash curls will stay lifted and mascara remain smudge-proof all day!
Eveline Cosmetics Advance Volumiere retails for S$9.16 on iHerb.
Related read: 13 best clear mascaras that you need alongside your regular black ones for cleanest curls
