Want longer, stronger eyelashes? We put the Augustinus Bader eyebrow and lash enhancing serum to the test

Beauty brand Augustinus Bader is the namesake label founded by a biomedical scientist, physician and world-leading stem cell biology expert. Through his expertise in the body’s capacity to self-heal, his skincare products are made with some of the world’s best ingredients with groundbreaking formulas, and they’ve racked up a huge number of celebrity fans in the process, including Margot Robbie, Salma Hayek and Victoria Beckham.

Design

Looking like a regular mascara at first sight, this eyebrow and lash serum could secretly pass as a much less exciting product. The brand colours are typically blue and gold, but this product is solely in a rose gold metallic case.

Inside, instead of a wand, is a flat pharma-grade synthetic brush with 25-micro bristles at one end that can easily be dragged through the brows or added to the eyelids and gently massaged in.

Read more: Best eyelash serums that add strength and volume

It only houses 8ml of formula, so it is incredibly costly for just a tiny amount of product, but a little really does go a long way, and the brush has been designed to apply the perfect amount on each application meaning no double-dipping is necessary.

The formula

This is where the price of the product can be explained, as Augustinus Bader doesn’t hold back when it comes to ingredients. After all, it includes Professor Bader’s exclusive patented trigger factor complex, called TFC8, comprised of more than 40 ingredients.

Included in the TFC8 technology are roselle and safflower extracts, which work to increase blood flow to the eyelids, encouraging hair growth and decreasing inflammation, which can lead to hair loss. Biotin helps to boost the production of keratin, improving hair health and strength, red winter algae improves hair density, hyaluronic acid hydrates hair shafts, and castor oil provides fatty acids that support hair to grow thicker, longer and stronger.

So, it’s safe to say there are a lot of high-performing hair-loving ingredients packed into a little bottle, and they’ve been tested by the brand, so can be dubbed irritation- and discolouration-free too.

Let’s also remember that this product is a two-in-one lash and brow serum, meaning it can be used to enhance both areas of the face for a fuller, longer, bushier look.

The application

Thanks to the liquid formula and nimble brush, applying the product was incredibly easy. Use the flatter, wider parts of the brush for the brows and the thinner edges along the lashline before lightly massaging into the hairs.

We used it morning and night on clean, dry skin and found it had no crossover with our other skincare products, meaning you can apply it before or after your other lotions and potions without worry.

Read more: Best mascaras for every look

When we first started using it, we did feel the product on our eyelashes in a similar way to if you added water onto your eyelids. But, after a few days of use, we quickly forgot about this and noticed no wet, sticky or gloopy sensation at all.

The result

Lash serums tend to yield visible results rather slowly, so four weeks should be your minimum amount of time before casting judgement, which is exactly what we did. At around the three-week mark, we did start to notice that our lashes and brows were thicker and fuller, and the major change we noticed from before using the serum was the significant drop in the number of hairs falling out and regularly shedding.

Now, we could gently tug on our lash and brow hairs and see minimum hairs coming away, compared with before, showing they certainly had a longer life span on the face.

Any gaps in the lashes and brows seem to have cleared up, and brows are certainly much thicker and, therefore darker, but we are yet to notice a dramatic difference in eyelash length yet, although this is likely to occur with continued use.