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After a fresh round of testing, we have all-new picks. Face Makeup
Bad mascara can ruin your day, clumping your eyelashes into a spidery mess, smudging into raccoon-like circles by 3 p.m., or flaking down your face.
And spending more doesn’t insulate you from buying a dud. With dozens of brands and hundreds of different formulas available, you can find both terrible and awesome mascaras from $6 to $60.
That’s where we come in. To find truly great mascara, we tested more than 30 options, sent 12 finalists to a diverse panel for brand-concealed testing, and ended up with five remarkable standouts, including an excellent everyday mascara, a sleek tubing option, an exceptional lengthening mascara you can get at the drugstore, a vampy dramatic formula, and a reliable waterproof choice.
We hope there’s one on our list that you love, too.
A buildable formula and a fluffy bristle brush team up to accentuate lashes’ depth and length, without leaving them heavy or gunked up.
Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara creates lush volume and noticeable length, and it stays put all day without running or crumbling. Rare Beauty was founded by Selena Gomez, and we were curious if the brand’s renown had more to do with celebrity than quality, but this mascara exceeded our expectations, doing everything well and nothing poorly.
It volumizes and lengthens. Many of the mascaras we tried did only one or the other. Testers raved about the volume they achieved with this Rare Beauty mascara; true to its name, the thick formula had a firm texture, and the bushy brush deposited a lot with each stroke, key to creating volume. But the mascara also deftly coated the entirety of testers’ lashes, making them look longer, too. It wasn’t the most lengthening mascara we tried—that award goes to our other picks from Thrive Causemetics and Maybelline—but it did a darn good job in that regard. “The length was solid,” a panelist summarized.
Similar mascaras we tried (thick formula, fiber brush), such as Gucci Mascara L’Obscur, added volume at the lashline but didn’t deposit enough of the mascara on the tips. Others made the tips stick together in an unpleasant, leggy way. “As someone with sparser, shorter lashes, I really liked this one. The volume is great, and the length is pretty decent, too,” said associate staff writer Annie Chou.
You get a lot from one coat. When it first hits the lashes, the thick Rare Beauty mascara is clumpy. But after even just the first comb-through, the pigment distributes evenly while maintaining its heft, creating a sturdy foundation at the base of the lashes with very little actual mascara. You get a lot of value in this long-lasting tube.
It feels weightless, and it stays on. Sometimes, the very bulk that helps volumize lashes weighs them down, and that heaviness makes eyes appear smaller, not bigger. All that mascara is also prone to flaking off. In contrast, this lightweight formula doesn’t feel heavy, it leaves lashes lifted, and it’s really on there. “It stayed on quite well in 90-degree heat,” noted senior updates writer Sri Rain Stewart. “Removal was pretty easy, too.”
Colors: black Variations: mini Price: 0.27-ounce mini tube for $11; 0.45-ounce tube for $20
This tubing mascara encases lashes with a shiny black film that elongates and doesn’t smudge. It’s not officially waterproof, but it’s exceptionally durable and long-lasting.
Thrive Causemetics Liquid Lash Extensions Mascara is an inky black mascara that leaves lashes decisively separated and noticeably lengthened. Though it rinses away with water and a little scrub, it’s singularly long-wearing. Thrive heavily markets the mascara as a “tubing” formula, and prior to testing we weren’t certain that would mean much of anything. But it did.
It adds length to each lash. Whereas most mascaras we wore coated existing lashes, essentially making them stand out more, the Thrive Causemetics mascara extended length beyond the natural hair shaft.
Traditional mascaras color lashes with pigment dissolved in a water and wax or oil base, painting each hair shaft. Tubing formulas work a little differently, carrying pigment in a film-forming polymer base that wraps each hair in microscopic “tubes” of color to physically lengthen the lashes. “The length was beautiful,” one tester noted. Another said her lashes looked “magically” longer: “This is the best lengthener, hands down,” she wrote.
The brush is nimble and gives great definition. The plastic brush is shaped like a tidy, narrow Christmas tree that has had its top lobbed off, and the handle has a heavy and purposeful weight. You can feel a little resistance when tugging the wand from the tube, a sign that the wiping disc is ensuring that it doesn’t pick up too much mascara. All of those factors work together to deposit a precise amount of mascara onto lashes without smudging, clumping, or unevenness. Lashes turn out sleek and evenly coated in a way that’s both believable and noticeable.
The pigment is true black. Unlike with any of the other mascaras our panelists tested, this mascara’s black shade, called Brynn, contains a single coloring agent: iron oxides CI 77499. (Our other picks brighten or lighten true black with pigments such as ultramarine or zinc oxide.) Senior editor Jennifer Hunter put it simply: “Wow, this is really black.”
It’s water-resistant and long-wearing. After one tester experienced a morning sob, took a restorative steamy shower, and followed up with an even steamier romantic encounter, they saw zero black streaks, just a little less fullness. If you’re hunting for a mascara that’s waterproof-ish—that is, it lasts all day but doesn’t require an oil-based cleanser for removal—this Thrive Causemetics mascara is just the ticket.
It does require a somewhat precise removal technique, though. After wetting your lashes for 30 seconds, you must apply a gentle downward swoop or pinch to pull off the tubes. It’s not difficult, but it takes a bit of practice.
Colors: black, brown, blue, plus limited-edition purple, green, pink Price: 0.38-ounce tube for about $25
With a nimble, bendy brush and a satin-slick formula, this drugstore mascara delivers long, perfectly delineated lashes.
You can find about a billion drugstore mascaras out there, but Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High is our favorite. Maybelline’s marketing claims that it’s both a lengthening and volumizing formula, but we found it to be exceptional in the former regard. It gave our testers long, deftly separated lashes in a shiny, believable black without transferring or crumbling. At a typical price of about $13 a tube, it’s also the most affordable and widely available of our picks.
Lashes look longer, but not in a fake way. The formula is slick and wet, so it evenly covers even the most feathery, wispy hairs from root to tip. Our testers nearly unanimously reported that one coat made their lashes seem longer, plain and simple—not as if they were wearing a full row of false lashes, but as if their own lashes were elongated.
The brush is precise. The flexible brush in this Maybelline mascara is bendy and densely dotted with spikes—longer at the base, shorter at the tip—which together make it amazing at delivering generous, even coverage. It enhances and defines every millimeter of natural lashes and creates great separation. It’s almost identical to the Thrive Causemetics mascara brush, at half the price.
The color looks natural. We found the standard shade, called blackest black, to be an inky onyx that didn’t look artificial. “It was obvious I was wearing makeup, but I liked that it still gave more of a natural look,” said one tester, who has no pigmentation in one set of their lashes. It also stayed shiny, not matte, once dry.
Colors: three shades of black (blackest, cosmic, very), brown, burgundy, pink, blue Variations: waterproof, tinted primer Price: 0.24-ounce tube for $9 to $13
The combination of a rich formula and a curvy fibrous brush leaves lashes full at the base and defined at the tips. Adding coats intensifies the result without making it heavy or goopy.
Too Faced Better Than Sex Volumizing Mascara is usually the most expensive mascara of our picks by a few dollars, and it’s worth the splurge since it does so much, so well. One coat provides a natural boost; a few more can achieve a thick, lush fringe. This showy mascara is ideal for a day out or a special event, or as an everyday mascara for someone accustomed to flashier looks.
The brush is big and bold. Of the 12 mascaras we sent to panelists, this Too Faced mascara had the biggest, fluffiest, densest brush. Too Faced’s co-founder confirmed that the brush’s hourglass shape was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s measurements. Lore aside, the grippy brush makes it easy to pile on a lot of mascara with no smudges, but it’s equally excellent for comb-through separation. To be sure, it doesn’t precisely etch every single lash—that’s more Thrive Causemetics’s vibe—but that isn’t the point here.
Each swipe deposits a lot of mascara, but it’s not heavy or messy. When you pull the brush from the tube, it has a startling lack of resistance, which means that the wiping disc allows a lot of the mascara to stay on the fibrous bristles. The creamy Too Faced formula bulks up the base of the lashline, even more so than our pick from Rare Beauty. The effect isn’t subtle or natural—people will know that you’re wearing mascara, and a very pretty one at that.
It’s the most buildable. This mascara has a pliant, flexible formula that covers every lash. One coat is enough for some people. But if you keep going with two or three, you get even more fullness and length, with no clumps, tangles, or the unfortunate spider-effect of over-mascaraed lashes. Even more impressive, no one on our testing panel experienced the transfer that’s common with other thickening mascaras we tested, such as Essence Lash Princess False Lash Effect Mascara, which left smudges under our eyebrows.
It goes all night. Unlike some of the other dramatic volumizing formulas we tried, which looked great in the mirror but crumbled and smudged in the first hour of real-life wear, this Too Faced mascara stayed put. For a non-waterproof mascara, it held up nicely to a sweaty time between the sheets and a 30-minute Peloton session. (Not in the same day or on the same tester.)
Colors: black, brown Variations: travel size, waterproof, “naturally-derived” Price: 0.16-ounce travel-size tube for $16; 0.27-ounce tube for about $30
This truly waterproof formula gives lashes a subtle boost and is ideal for active wearers. The curved brush is a pleasure to use. But the formula’s nylon fibers, which add bulk and length, could irritate sensitive eyes.
Most people don’t need to use waterproof mascara every day, especially since such formulas are harder to remove. But Eyeko’s Sport Waterproof Mascara was too well-reviewed to ignore, and we’re glad we didn’t, since it’s an excellent mascara that just happens to be waterproof.
Eyeko’s Sport mascara is different in a few significant ways: In addition to being officially waterproof, it comes in a squeezy tube and has a curved brush, and the formula contains nylon fibers for fullness and elongation. All of those factors team up to boost fullness and length and leave lashes looking natural and unfussy. Plus, you can swim, shower, and bawl in it with nary a smudge.
The curved brush gives lashes exceptional coverage. The Eyeko mascara brush is shaped like the curve of an eye. That intuitive line makes it easy to paint the outermost corners of the lashes, something no other mascara did quite as well. One panelist couldn’t stop raving about how well she was able to reach her teeny bottom lashes, maybe more effectively than with any other mascara ever: “I’d use it just for that!”
The nylon adds volume and length. Look closely at the swirl of mascara on the tip of the Eyeko brush, and you’ll see tiny hair-like fibers. Those bits of nylon work to physically bulk up the thickness of the lashes and add length. We found that the fibers better served to add length, with one tester noting that it made her lashes swoop up to graze her eyelids—in a good way.
It has a satisfying build. The first coat of this Eyeko mascara is subtle, as it bestows a slight darkening, a bit of density, and a touch of length to lashes. But because the formula doesn’t dry too quickly, you can gradually dial up the intensity by adding more coats without lashes feeling crispy, heavy, or sticky in the process. That’s unusual in comparison with most waterproof or long-wearing mascaras we’ve worn, which tend to dry fast and rigid, leaving little room for adjustment.
It really is waterproof. We wore this Eyeko mascara in a pool and shower, and not a bit smudged, dripped, or crumbled. Waterproof formulas are more difficult to remove, and our testers who tried to wash with soap and water initially had trouble until they added a makeup remover to their nighttime routine. Those of us who use an oil-based remover as a matter of course had no trouble.
Colors: black Price: 0.27-ounce tube for about $20 to $30
I’ve been a beauty journalist since 2004, which means I can barely remember a time when I wasn’t testing a mascara—for editorial consideration, for annual beauty awards, or because it had a new ingredient, an improved formula, a cool wand, a vegan version, or an unexpected color.
For this guide, I consulted with other mascara experts, including people who formulate and develop mascaras behind the scenes, plus makeup artists, who use the stuff on more lashes than anyone. When it comes to mascara, I am quite frankly overeducated and tough to impress.
Sephora alone sells more than 200 mascaras. So does Target. To whittle down the seemingly limitless selection to worthy contenders, we cross-referenced dozens of best-of mascara lists from beauty and fashion magazines and blogs with top-seller lists on Amazon and beauty sites like Sephora and Ulta. We also scoured makeup forums and Reddit threads, and we poked around mascara-Tok.
We spoke to two cosmetic chemists, one product-development expert, and one makeup artist, none of whom had partnerships or affiliations with mascara companies at the time of our interviews. We also polled our network of opinionated and experienced beauty-industry colleagues. The result was a list of more than two dozen mascaras for in-person testing.
Experts stressed that marketing language is particularly dubious in this category. Mascaras can’t curl, lift, stretch, or sculpt lashes, for example, but lots of formulas claim that they do. Mascara can, however, make lashes look longer, thicker, and darker.
So we ignored packaging claims and instead evaluated every mascara on the following criteria:
Over almost two months, we tested the two dozen formulas in daily life, including during workouts, on rainy days, in showers, and through a couple of warm-climate plane trips and pool dips. We rated the mascaras on a scale of one to five in the six categories outlined above, and we provided detailed feedback. Once we tallied the results, 12 mascaras moved on to a panel of testers.
To minimize brand loyalty and bias, we obscured the labels and sent them off to four testers. Our panel included a person with unpigmented lashes, one with monolids, and an individual blessed with lashes so thick, they barely need mascara at all. A few testers identified as having sensitive eyes. All of them provided even more feedback on the same rubric as we used in the earlier stage.
Some cosmetics and personal-care products, including mascaras, contain a group of chemicals called PFAS—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—or forever chemicals, which aid with texture, finish, and longevity. Repeated, long-term exposure to PFAS has been linked to health concerns such as cancer and weakened immune function. People’s use of these chemicals also has environmental implications: Whatever a person puts on their face ultimately washes into the water system and eventually into the nation’s tap water.
In the time we’ve been researching this guide, we’ve noted mounting international pressure to ban PFAS in cosmetics, as well as some national movement to ban them altogether. Right now, though, PFAS aren’t regulated in personal-care products.
The danger of PFAS exposure through absorption in hair follicles or inadvertent contact with the eyelid is insufficiently studied. One study found higher PFAS levels in people who wore foundation than those who didn’t, suggesting that topical use may be a pathway to exposure. We couldn’t find any research concerning PFAS absorption through mascara. Nonetheless, we cross-checked the ingredient lists of our five picks with the FDA’s list of 35 PFAS that companies reported using in cosmetics. Because of its waterproof formula, Eyeko Sport Waterproof Mascara contains trimethylsiloxysilicate, a polymer that aids in water resistance. This isn’t unusual—many waterproof mascaras rely on PFAS. Our four other selections do not include any of the FDA-identified PFAS.
Because no single cosmetic-exposure source is likely to pose a health risk, and because we think some people want a truly waterproof mascara, we decided to keep the Eyeko mascara on our list for the time being. If you’re concerned about PFAS, you have lots of ways to reduce your exposure, including choosing one of our four other picks.
Drugstore staple CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume Mascara delivered on its no-clump promise and met our requirements for length, fullness, and lift. However, the thick, spiky, molded brush tended to smudge. Building volume was a challenge for our testers, and fine lashes could droop by day’s end. On the plus side, it’s one of the easiest mascaras to remove.
At just five bucks, Amazon best seller and TikTok sensation Essence Lash Princess False Lash Effect Mascara is a great value and the least expensive mascara we tried. It definitely outperformed its cost in our tests, but reports of clumps, light smudging, smearing, and flaking made us hesitate to recommend it.
We gave L’Oréal Telescopic Original Mascara solid marks for boosting length and volume, but our testers found the wand polarizing. It has a built-in comb for detangling. That’s a plus. But most testers strongly disliked the thin, flexible wand and molded sawtooth brush, which they found difficult to use. A small group liked the brush; one tester said she was “obsessed.”
Tarte Big Ego Vegan Mascara, which has girl-next-door vibes, went on a little sticky but came off easily with a wipe. Benefit Cosmetics BADgal Bang brought more va-va-voom to lashes but tended to collect under eyes by day’s end. Ami Colé Lash Amplifying Mascara lengthened more than it volumized (with a side of clumps), though it held up to tears as long as our testers didn’t rub their eyes.
A note for tubing-mascara fans: Tarte Tartelette Tubing Mascara built enviable body, but the tubes didn’t glide off as cleanly as other tubing formulas in our tests.
Other suitable everyday mascaras with not-so-fatal flaws include Glossier Lash Slick, which darkened and defined lashes but didn’t offer any wow factor even when we piled it on. After three coats, Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes Mascara created feathery—not spidery—volume but lost its luster by the end of the day. And It Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing and Lengthening Mascara had issues from start to finish, beginning with clumps and ending with flakes.
For lush, evening looks, we had high hopes for Gucci Mascara L’Obscur, with its luxurious peach-and-gold textured tube. It just looked and felt expensive. But the result didn’t meet our expectations, and it took a bit of work to remove. Plus, one tester found the formula irritating. Dior’s Diorshow thickened lashes with tarantula-esque flair but raccooned under testers’ eyes under humid conditions. We were divided on Pat McGrath FetishEyes Mascara. It pilled at first, but once that was sorted out, it stayed on forever and produced impressive color and fullness. Despite its billing as a lengthening mascara, the length was nothing to write home about, especially for the price.
The unusual 2.5 mm slim metal wand in NeoGen Dermalogy Maxicara both drew us in and turned us off, as the mascara was annoying to apply and tough to remove. We also deemed the two-step application process for Honest Beauty Extreme Length Mascara + Lash Primer too much of a hassle for its mediocre results.
If you are a tubing devotee who leans toward a more subtle lash look than our pick from Thrive Causemetics delivers, consider Kevyn Aucoin’s The Volume Mascara, which in our tests was dark and glossy and defined like crazy. The volume it provided, however, was nothing to get excited over. Blinc Lash Extension Tubing Mascara produced a similarly subtle look upon application, but little flakes collected under the eyes by mid-afternoon.
This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter. Katie M. Palmer wrote an earlier version of this guide, first published in 2015.
Perry Romanowski, cosmetic chemist and product-development expert, email interview, May 15, 2023
Ni’Kita Wilson, cosmetic chemist and product-development expert, phone interview, June 16, 2023
Alexis Androulakis, TikTok-viral beauty educator and product-development expert, phone interview, June 22, 2023
Francelle Daly, makeup artist and founder of Love+Craft+Beauty, phone interview, June 13, 2023
Meirav Devash has covered beauty trends for over two decades as a magazine editor and writer, personally testing an unreasonable number of cosmetics, skin-care items, and hair products. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of lipstick and heavy metal.
vibely mascara Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).