Column originally published April 2023.
Short, stubby and sparse are the three words I would use to describe my eyelashes to you. It’s no wonder then, that I’ve spent hundreds of pounds on eyelash serums over the years to try and change that. My aim: to achieve lashes similar to those that my five-year-old nephew is naturally blessed with – why is this always the case?
First there was LiLash; an American import that cost me £80 a tube. A price I could justify however, when the results were eyelashes that tickled my eyebrow arches throughout the day.
That sensation eventually left me when I got complacent and wrongly assumed I could keep my new eyelashes without parting with the best part of £100 every month.
Read next: 6 of the best mascara primers to lengthen and strengthen lashes
Desperate to feel that flutter again, I turned to RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum, £31.99, LookFantastic. It was half the price and, for a time, gave me results that maybe didn’t quite match LiLash, but still made me happy.
That is until Rapid Lash had a change of heart and just… stopped working for me.
I was still applying it every night, sometimes in the morning as well, but nothing was happening. Short, stubby and sparse were back and even when I threw caution (also known as my debit card) to the wind and reinvested in LiLash again, I never got the same results.
My eyelashes went through the exact opposite of a growth spurt and, for the longest time, I blamed this on an LVL treatment (where your lashes are tinted and lifted). However, as the years went by, it seemed impossible to point the finger at a lash treatment I had five years ago, considering your eyelashes naturally fall out every four to eight weeks and start afresh.
My current lash favourites
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Read next: The game-changing eyebrow serum Olivia Wilde swears by
So, I gave up on my lash serums and placed my faith in lengthening mascaras instead. That is until I heard that Olaplex, the innovators of bond-repairing haircare, had launched its own version.
Shop the Olaplex LashBond Building Serum
Now, I’m not actually an Olaplex girlie. Not to brag, but my laziness when it comes to hair appointments means my hair is mostly my natural colour, so I don’t have the kind of damage bleach afficionados flock to the brand for.
My lashes however? Dire straits. Code red. Crisis mission. SOS. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Which is why I found myself hopping off a foggy 390 bus outside Green Park station, on a grey Thursday morning, for the brand’s top-secret launch breakfast, despite my hatred of any and every pre-10am chia seed-filled meeting.
How does the Olaplex lash serum work?
While the team explained how the peptide formula of Olaplex LashBond Building Serum, £64, LookFantastic works to boost lashes, and while I also eyed up the biggest croissant I’ve ever laid my eyes on, I waited for my moment to grab a chat with their scientific formulator.
I wanted to know if she could explain why lash serums had stopped working on me and whether Olaplex was really going to be any different. It’s a question that no one, not even Google, has been able to answer, but thankfully my patience paid off because it turns out, my lack of growth is all down to the skin around my eye area – more specifically, the skin barrier.
While I’m borderline neurotic about keeping my microbiome in check on my face, I never really considered the skin by my eyelashes. As a result, brains here had effectively f***ed the barrier at my lash line. Well done me. Here’s what happened…
How can you damage the skin barrier by your lash line?
We all know that the skin around the eye area is thin; it’s why our eyes are the first areas to show signs of ageing. If, like me, you wear mascara on a daily basis, you’re effectively stripping that super-sensitive skin every night when you apply cleanser to the area. And if you add a flannel into the mix or even a microfibre cloth, you’re effectively exfoliating off that top layer of skin every single night.
So, what does this mean for your eyelashes?
As a result, my lashes weren’t growing because they didn’t have a healthy environment in which to grow. It’s similar to the way way that scalp problems can lead to hair loss. So, I needed to not only nourish my lashes, but restore the skin around them, too.
How does the Olaplex lash serum work?
The difference with the Olaplex LashBond Building Serum is that it doesn’t just contain peptides to encourage growth and lash retention, it also uses the brand’s signature bond-building technology to rebuild and support the skin barrier around the lash line.
It’s been four weeks since I first started using LashBond and I am so, so happy with the results. I have just been applying it at night but turns out you can apply it twice a day, so I might start doubling up my dose.
Olaplex Lashbond Building Serum: my verdict
My lashes look longer, are less sparse and are now all a similar length. Basically, I no longer need to apply mascara every day and, if I do, I often wonder why I even bothered.
As my lashes are fair, it’s impossible to see the difference without makeup, which is why I made sure to wear the exact same mascara in both my before and after pictures (Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara Brown, £11.99, Superdrug). No trickery here.
Before and after pictures using Olaplex LashBond
With most serums I’ve tried previously, it’s taken six weeks to see results, so I’m super excited to see how my lashes continue to grow as the weeks go on. More importantly, I’m just buzzing that my eyelashes can actually grow again and that I have an answer as to why other serums stopped working for me.
If you’re blessed with Kim K-esque lashes naturally, I totally get why spending £64 on an eyelash serum seems ludicrous, but as someone that has hated their lashes for so long and wasted money on products that don’t work, this is worth every single penny to me.
Where can you buy the Olaplex lash serum?
Olaplex LashBond Building Serum is now available at a number of retailers, including LookFantastic and Cult Beauty. It costs £64.
If you want something a little more purse-friendly, there are other eyelash serums you can try:
The best eyelash serums to try now
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