What is bristle-free mascara and can it lengthen short lashes?

This Korean beauty mascara has TikTok mesmerized. Unlike just about every other version on the market, this mascara has zero bristles. 

The NeoGen Dermalogy Extra Volume Curl Metal Mascara allegedly lengthens and volumizes lashes even with its bristle-free design. The ultra slim, 2.5-millimeter metal rod applicator is supposed to reach down to the root of your lashes to amplify each curl. It supposedly even works on the smaller lashes that larger brushes usually miss. 

Watch along as In The Know’s Lisa Azcona tests the innovative mascara to see if it lives up to the social media hype. 

“The metal tip contains tiny ridges on its surface,” Lisa explains. “This design allows the metal rod to collect and deposit the product, much like bristles do. You can see the mascara sitting inside each and every indent here, which is ultimately how it’s supposed to provide a uniform amount of product onto your lashes.”

Lisa preps her lashes with a curler. Then, she applies the product onto her top and bottom lashes. 

“This product definitely held up to its claims,” she says. “I can’t get over how strange it felt to apply mascara this way, but it did coat every single one of my lashes evenly.”

However, she notes the Neogen mascara doesn’t do anything drastically different than ordinary mascara. But there are some upsides to it, like its bristle-free design, which is a bit more hygienic since the metal applicator is easy to clean. 

“What I like the most, and what I think makes this product useful, is that it made it super easy to coat those hard-to-reach places,” Lisa says. “Like the smaller corners of my eyes and my bottom lashes, without getting mascara all over my skin and makeup.”

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