Best Eyelash Growth Serums

The eyelash growth serum with the strongest proof is bimatoprost 0.03%, sold as Latisse and as compounded generic versions. It is the only one FDA-approved to grow lashes, and in its 16-week trial lashes grew about 25% longer and 106% fuller, compared with 2% and 12% on a placebo. Many over-the-counter lash serums contain a related prostaglandin, such as isopropyl cloprostenate, that has never been formally studied. Peptide and vitamin serums are gentler but have the least evidence.

Your choice comes down to three options. You can use a studied prescription serum with someone screening your eyes first. You can buy an unstudied prostaglandin serum off the shelf. Or you can use a gentler serum that promises less. All three stop working when you stop using them.

Which eyelash growth serum has the most proof that it works?

Bimatoprost 0.03% is FDA-approved to treat thin or sparse lashes by making them longer, thicker and darker. You apply it every night along the upper lash line.

In the trial on the Latisse label, lashes on bimatoprost grew 1.4 mm (25%) longer and 106% fuller by week 16. Lashes on the placebo grew 0.1 mm (2%) longer and 12% fuller.

A year-long trial tested people with naturally sparse lashes. By month 4, about 4 in 10 people on bimatoprost had lashes that their doctor rated clearly better and that they were happier with. On placebo, about 7 in 100 did.

These trials were run on women like you. Across six trials, almost 97% of the people were women. Their average age was about 48, and they ranged from 19 to 78.

A 2024 review of lash serum ingredients rated the evidence for bimatoprost at its highest level. It rated isopropyl cloprostenate, the prostaglandin in many drugstore serums, at its lowest, because no formal studies have tested whether it grows lashes.

How do Latisse, generic bimatoprost and drugstore lash serums compare?

Brand Latisse is the FDA-approved product, and you need a prescription for it.

Online clinics sell compounded generic bimatoprost 0.03%. Alan Health lists it from $60 a month when you pay upfront for a 6-month plan. TelaCure lists prescribed bimatoprost from $95 a month, made by a compounding pharmacy. In TelaCure's own words, "Compounded preparations are not FDA-approved products."

GrandeLASH-MD costs $36 and needs no prescription. Its ingredient list includes isopropyl cloprostenate. It comes in 1 mL (6 weeks), 2 mL (3 months) and 4 mL (6 months) sizes. In the brand's 12-week study of 30 people, 91% saw lashes that looked longer.

Peptide, panthenol, ginseng and other non-prostaglandin serums may help. Too few formal studies have tested them on lashes to show how well they work.

What side effects can eyelash growth serums cause?

The most common side effects of Latisse were itchy eyes, red eyes and darker skin on the lid. Each happened in about 3% to 4% of users.

Bimatoprost can make the colored part of your eye browner, and that change is likely to be permanent. Darker lid skin fades in most people after they stop.

Hair can grow wherever the serum keeps touching your skin. That is why the label tells you to blot any extra off your lid and keep it from running onto your cheek.

Few people quit bimatoprost because of side effects. In the pooled trials, 3.2% stopped, compared with 2.4% on placebo. One person out of 680 developed sunken eyes in both eyes.

Eye experts and laypeople graded the brands' own before-and-after photos and found more signs of fat loss around the eyes in prostaglandin lash serum users. Photos of people using non-prostaglandin serums or false lashes showed fewer signs. The authors call it a proof-of-concept study, which means an early look rather than a final answer. They also reported a 35-year-old woman whose eyes looked hollow after 10 months on Lash Boost, an isopropyl cloprostenate serum. The change reversed 6 months after she stopped.

If you use prostaglandin drops to lower eye pressure, bimatoprost may make them work less well. Tell anyone who checks your eye pressure that you use it.

How long does eyelash serum take to work, and what happens when you stop?

In the trial, lashes were measurably different within 2 months. In the Latisse trial, lashes were clearly longer, fuller and darker than on placebo by week 8. The difference held at weeks 12 and 16.

Here is how you use it:

• Start with a clean face, no makeup and no contacts.
• Put one drop on a fresh sterile applicator and run it along the upper lash line only. Do not apply it to the lower lashes.
• Use a new applicator for your other eye.
• Do this once a night. Extra drops will not grow your lashes faster.

Your results last only as long as you keep using the serum. In the long-term trial, the gains held for about 2 months after people stopped, then faded markedly by 4 to 6 months. The label says lashes are expected to go back to how they were before treatment.

Drugstore serums need ongoing use too. Grande tells you to apply GrandeLASH-MD daily for a full 3 months, then every other day once you like the result.

Which eyelash serum is right for me?

If you want the biggest change backed by trials, choose bimatoprost. It is the serum tested against a placebo. Getting it through a prescriber also means someone asks about your eye pressure, glaucoma drops and eye color before you start.

If you buy an "MD" or drugstore serum, read the ingredient list first. Prostaglandins can appear as bimatoprost, norbimatoprost, isopropyl cloprostenate, dechloro-dihydroxy-difluoro-ethylcloprostenolamide or methylamido-dihydro-noralfaprostal. Researchers found that the ingredient list customers see often leaves them out entirely, so a serum that looks prostaglandin-free may still contain one.

If you are pregnant, nursing or trying to conceive, skip prostaglandin serums for now. The bimatoprost trials excluded pregnant and nursing women, and Grande says not to use its serum while pregnant or nursing.

If a permanent change in eye color or any risk of hollow-looking lids is a dealbreaker, a peptide or vitamin serum is the gentler choice. Expect a smaller change, because these serums have the least evidence.

Whichever serum you choose, budget for it every month. Your lashes go back to how they were once you stop, so it is an ongoing cost.

You want to look more awake and put-together, and lashes are only one part of that. Take the quiz to build a hair and skin plan with our clinical team. Mention any lash serum you use or are considering so your plan accounts for it.