Benefits: Lengthening, volumizing, color | Shades: Wild Plum, Intense Black, Power Blue, Rebel Brown | Waterproof: Yes | Who It’s For: People who want a pop of color without compromising traditional mascara benefits
Best Bold Mascara: YSL Lash Clash Extreme Volume Mascara
Why It’s Worth It: For our dramatic lash lovers, YSL Beauty’s Lash Clash Extreme Volume Mascara is the next best thing to false lashes. “The secret is in the combined forces of its formula—volume-building, lengthening, and jet-black—and its oversized yet easy-to-maneuver wand,” deputy beauty director Elizabeth Siegal says. The Best of Beauty-winning mascara offers smudge-proof, long-lasting hold and powerful pigment with every swipe, with iris florentina root extract to support lash conditioning.
Tester Feedback: This mascara is “your new go-to for big, bold, party-ready lashes,” says former beauty and wellness editor Taylore Glynn. New York City-based makeup artist Sara Talias also swears by this thickening formula. “The brush is great for building volume with extra coats of mascara and allows you to grab all the lashes,” she says. (We find that the sweet spot is two to three coats.)
Benefits: Curling, lengthening, volume | Shades: Black, brown, blue | Waterproof: No | Who It’s For: People who want a highly pigmented option
More Mascaras We Love
Best Waterproof Mascara: Dior Diorshow Waterproof Mascara
Why It’s Worth It: You can “slobber and splash in the Dior Diorshow Waterproof Mascara, and it will stay on,” Los Angeles-based makeup artist Molly R. Stern said of the long-wearing formula—sold yet? If not, just know a former Allure editor called this a one-of-a-kind formula. “My eyelashes are naturally pretty long, albeit blonde, so I don’t love wearing mascara all the time (mostly because I hate taking it off at the end of the day),” she said. “When I do, however, I go all-out glam with the Dior Diorshow Waterproof Mascara because it makes my lashes longer, thicker, and just the right amount of obnoxious diva.”
Benefits: Volumizing and lengthening | Shades: Black, Marron (brown), Bleu (blue) | Waterproof: Black, Chestnut, Azure Blue | Who It’s For: People who want a mascara that’ll survive the elements (or a good cry), want a dramatic look, or simply have straight lashes
Best 2-in-1 Mascara: Honest Beauty Extreme Length Mascara + Lash Primer
Why It’s Worth It: Associate digital beauty director Sarah Kinonen’s first encountered the 2021 Readers’ Choice Award-winning Honest Beauty Extreme Length Mascara + Lash Primer on a press trip with the brand’s founder, Jessica Alba. “She applied one layer of the primer, then flipped it, and did two coats of the mascara—and then we went to dinner,” she recalls. “Those two coats stayed intact all night long—even after a few margaritas,” says Kinonen. For peak false lash effect, apply one coat of the primer and two coats of the mascara—et voila.
