Olaplex is launching a serum for your eyelashes as it faces slumping sales and a lawsuit

• Olaplex is launching an eyelash serum, its first product outside of hair care.
• The serum will go on sale Friday on Olaplex's website and at Sephora and Ulta Beauty.

Olaplex has its eyes set on yours — your eyelashes, specifically.

The hair care brand is launching a serum designed to strengthen your eyelashes, Women's Wear Daily reported on Monday. Called Lashbond, it marks Olaplex's first product outside of hair care, although the serum uses the same bond-building formula that its original products do. The launch comes as the company faces declining sales and a lawsuit from users who claim that Olaplex's products caused their hair to fall out.

The serum, which will retail for $68, will be available starting on Friday on Olaplex's website, as well as at beauty retailers Sephora and Ulta Beauty, WWD reported.

A post on Olaplex's Instagram account confirmed the launch and emphasized the serum's benefits, including making "lashes look longer, more lifted, thicker, denser, healthy, and hydrated."

Olaplex CEO JuE Wong told WWD that the new product "did just as well" as the top prescription lash serum.

Over-the-counter lash serums typically moisturize lashes, while prescription ones can increase their length, according to Glamour. The serums are generally safe, though various side effects have been reported in the past. These side effects can include eye irritation, darker skin around your eyes, and, in rare cases, eye color change, according to Well+Good.

The lash serum comes as Olaplex deals with falling demand for its products. Fourth-quarter sales fell 22%, and Olaplex cut its sales forecast for 2023, according to the company's latest earnings report.

New products are part of Olaplex's plans to grow sales in the long run, CFO Eric Tiziani told analysts last month during the company's earnings call. But for 2023, sales from products like the lash serum will be small and outweighed by falling demand for Olaplex's core hair care products.

It's also far from certain that fans of Olaplex's hair care products will buy up Lashbond, Jefferies analyst Ashley Helgans wrote in a research note on Monday.

"It is notable that even for brands that have strong customer loyalty in one category, there is not necessarily translation into consumer permission in a different product class," Helgans wrote.

Likely, Olaplex will also need to spend more to market Lashbond than other products since the new product doesn't lend itself to salons, a key source of new customers for Olaplex's hair care line, Helgans added.

The company is also defending itself against a lawsuit from users who claim that Olaplex's products caused their hair to fall out. In response, CEO Wong has said that Olaplex products are safe, and that the complaints are "a fact of life in our industry."