Etude House My Lash Serum - a review and a look into the ingredients

I have a little different product today to review and actually a little bit different post in general.
I have heard a lot of good things about Etude House My Lash Serum recently, and I decided to order it too since who doesn't want nice eyelashes? I haven't been using false eyelashes almost at all for good three years maybe, and sometimes I do feel like my own eyelashes could need a little boost but I just don't bother with glueing pieces of plastic hairs on my eyes.

What I have heard from other people is that it has helped their lashes to grow and appear longer and fuller. The product doesn't necessarily promise that it will make your lashes longer, but it promises to make them more stronger and healthier with nourishing ingredients to prevent falling. Sounds pretty promising, right?
The price is very affordable as well, it retails for only 4,500won in Korea, which is around 3,99$ or 3,35€. That makes me kind of suspicious though, how could something so cheap work well?

INGREDIENTS

Water, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol, Glycerin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Carbomer, Tromethamine, Symphytum Officinale Leaf Extract, PEG-32, PEG-6, Disodium EDTA, Benzophenone-5, Swertia Japonica Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Methylparaben, Probylparaben, Yellow 5 (CI 19140), Ethylparaben, Red 33 (CI 17200), Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben

I'm going to open up the ingredient list of this product a little bit, since I think that you should be the most careful with the products you're putting that close to your eyes, so it's good to know a little bit more! This ingredient list is from the product page from Etude House's global website.
Looking at the ingredients it indeed seems to have many conditioning plant extracts, so the lash conditioning effect they're promising doesn't seem to be false.

What I notice though is that this product has A LOT of preservatives in it: phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben and isobutylparaben. We all know the paraben hassle, and let me tell you: some parabens are safe to use up to certain concentration, and they are some of the most effective and researched preservatives. So they should be safe, but I just don't see the point of using every single one of them in a product like this.

BUT. There's a big but. Isobutylparaben was previously listed as a preservative ingredient in the Annex V of European Cosmetic Regulation, which is a list about preservatives allowed to use in cosmetics. Due to lack of safety evaluation by the industry the risks of isobutylparaben couldn't be evaluated further, so from 30th of October 2014 it was listed in the Annex II of prohibited ingredients in cosmetics. (Commission Regulation (EU) No 358/2014)

So, basically, this lash serum has an ingredient that's banned in Europe. To my knowledge it's permitted to use in cosmetics in Korea hence this product containing it, but I would avoid using this lash serum since there is no information on the possible risks of this ingredient.

This is exactly why I suggest all of you to take a look into the ingredient lists before purchasing, especially when in Korea many ingredients that are banned in Europe are still in use there. This time I didn't, but thank god I did at least before starting to use this product.



I decided to try the product few times just for the sake of this review, even though I'm not very comfortable with the thought of putting so many preservatives and possibly harmful ingredients near my eyes. The picture above is obviously staged, I have mascara on and I didn't even use this long enough to see any kind of difference.

I can see this product lasting for ages, because you don't need a lot at a time. And it would probably be fine to use for many years even, if we consider the amount of preservatives, ha...

On to my experience with this lash serum! At first it feels fine, but after a while it will get into your eyes without exception and IT STINGS. Not a lot, but it makes your eyes feel sore like you're tired or your eyes were dry, if that makes any sense. That's what it feels like to me.

So, moral of the story: always check the ingredients. I'm not recommending this lash serum for anyone, I'm positive there is more safe options out there. Of course it's up to your own consideration to use this product if you happen to have it, but I'm getting rid of mine for sure. Luckily it's not a big monetary loss.