If you find it challenging to shop for mascaras as your lashes change with age, you're not alone. While it's a known fact that the strands of hair on your head grow increasingly dry, brittle, and sparse as they mature, it's easy to forget the same thing applies to the hair on the rest of your body, including your eyelashes. From year to year, a mascara you once depended on to keep your lashes looking long and luscious may need to be traded for a newer model to address new concerns.
Below, two experts on the subject—an ophthalmologist and a makeup artist—are sharing their tips for keeping mature lashes healthy and the best and worst ingredients to keep an eye out for. They even spilled a few of their product favorites!
Taking Care of Your Lashes as They Age
Before starting your hunt for a mascara that will look and feel amazing on aging lashes, it's helpful to know how to care for and protect them. As your lashes age, estrogen levels dip, which reduces the hair-growth rate. This leads to everything from thinning and brittleness to loss of pigment and irregular density. Michele Probst, celebrity makeup artist and founder of Worth Beauty Company, tells us that you can keep your natural lashes thriving long after you've reached a particular age by taking time to remove product from your eyes and lashes nightly, using a lash serum, being careful while using metal lash curlers, and avoiding astringent glue with fake lashes.
Finding Your Perfect Mascara Match
When it comes to deciding which mascara will work the best for your mature lashes, pay special attention to the ingredients. "I like hydrating ingredients like argan oil—a fatty acid rich plant oil [that's] rich in linoleic acid, which is extremely hydrating," says Diane Hilal-Campo, MD, board-certified ophthalmologist and founder of Twenty/Twenty Beauty. She also shares that vitamin E offers nourishing benefits for the lashes and defends against damaging free radicals, and the addition of panthenol (vitamin B5) in a formula can work overtime to condition the lashes from inside out.
"I'd also recommend looking for hyaluronic acid or glycerin, both of which are humectants that can draw water into dehydrated lashes. That water will then be locked into the lash by the aforementioned nourishing ingredients," Hilal-Campo adds. When it comes to which ingredients would cause more harm, she tells us to steer clear of allergens like beeswax and carnauba wax. Additionally, she warns against mascaras with strong preservatives and alcohols that can cause damage to the lashes and eyes. It's smart to avoid prostaglandin analogues since they're known to trigger unnaturally long lash growth.
Keep scrolling to see the mascaras beauty editors and experts love for aging lashes underlined by hundreds of glowing reviews from customers.
The Best Mascaras for Aging Eyelashes, Listed
- Best Overall: Twenty/Twenty Beauty Clean Sweep Mascara
- Best Lengthening: Prime Prometics PrimeLash Mascara
- Best Volumizing: Rituel de Fille Levitation Lash Lifting + Lengthening Mascara
- Best Defining: Dr. Hauschka Defining Mascara
- Best Tubing: Milk Makeup Kush High Roll Defining Volumizing Tubing Mascara
- Best Waterproof: Clinique High Impact Waterproof Mascara
- Best Long-Lasting: Sarah Creal Back of the Cab Volumizing Tubing Mascara
- Best Clean Formula: Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
- Best Value: Maybelline Falsies Lash Lift Volumizing and Lengthening Mascara
- Best Luxury: YSL Beauty Lash Clash Mascara
Best Overall: Twenty/Twenty Beauty Clean Sweep Mascara
"I take product development very seriously and spend years working to create the safest formulas so people don't have to decide between healthy eyes and their makeup routine," says Hilal-Campo of Twenty/Twenty's formulas. This mascara was formulated with hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and biotin as well as vitamin E, fatty acid, and stearic acid to nourish the lashes.
Customer Review: "I'm so happy to have found this ophthalmologist-made mascara that is safe for my dry eyes. It also gives me more natural, evenly curled eyelashes, generally without clumping."
Pros: ophthalmologist developed and tested
Cons: none
Specs: 0.38-ounce tube
Best Lengthening: Prime Prometics PrimeLash Mascara
Designed with sensitive eyes in mind, this mascara uses a unique nonclumping and hypoallergenic mascara formula to define and separate thin, tiny lashes. The mascara has a nutrient-infused base that acts like a lash booster to enhance the growth of your natural lashes. Its formula is also clean, pH balanced, hypoallergenic, and nondrying.
Customer Review: "Breast cancer survivor of many years. Lost eyebrow [hair] and lashes at the time and have constantly tried mascaras to help with my very few and fragile lashes! I'll never use anything else!"
Pros: has a buildable formula that adds length and volume to the lashes
Cons: wearers may experience some light flaking throughout wear
Specs: 1.13-ounce tube
Best Volumizing: Rituel de Fille Levitation Lash Lifting + Lengthening Mascara
Rituel de Fille's lifting and lengthening mascara has a lightweight, buildable, and flake-resistant formula that uses castor oil and argan oil to nourish the lashes with wear. The waxes and film formers maximize wear time while boosting moisture for a high-volume finish. The bio-based fiber brush for this mascara makes it extremely easy to coat every last lash.
Customer Review: "Good everyday mascara. Does not smudge or flake. I feel like I enjoy this mascara more than the first couple of times I used it, so perhaps it's one that gets better with some time. Recommend!"
Pros: easy removal after all-day wear with no pulling or snagging
Cons: formula becomes clumpy with two or more layers
Specs: 0.34-ounce tube
Best Defining: Dr. Hauschka Defining Mascara
If definition is what you're after, look no further than the Defining Mascara. It's formulated with a calming and protecting blend that effectively separates and coats the lashes for definition. It also has no parabens or synthetic fragrances—making this a must-have for anyone with sensitive eyes.
Customer Review: "I'm able to wear this mascara every day because it's very gentle on the eyes. It doesn't clump at all and gives a natural shine and wet look to my lashes. It also washes off very easily just with water."
Pros: glides onto the lashes effortlessly while also delivering shine
Cons: thin, watery formula is not buildable or ideal for bold eye looks
Specs: 0.20-ounce tube
Best Tubing: Milk Makeup Kush High Roll Defining Volumizing Tubing Mascara
The Milk Makeup Kush High Roll Defining Volumizing Tubing Mascara separates and defines every lash for added definition, volume, and length without smudging or flaking. With a wear time of up to 24 hours, it uses High Roll Tubing Technology combined with a blend of nourishing oils and volume-boosting waxes.
Customer Review: "This is by far the best mascara I've used in a long time. Checks all my boxes: doesn't transfer/smear above my deep-set eyes even after sweating hard, doesn't flake, easily removes with just water, and makes my lashes look great in one coat. Will repurchase this for the foreseeable future."
Pros: gives the lashes a high volume, fanned-out finish
Cons: can look clumpy despite its creamy texture
Specs: 0.30-ounce tube
Best Waterproof: Clinique High Impact Waterproof Mascara
For a waterproof mascara you can rely on, try the Clinique High Impact Waterproof Mascara. The 12-hour, nonsmudging formula adds volume and length to short, brittle lashes while resisting clumping, sweat, and humidity. The brand recommends using this mascara by placing its brush at the roots of your lashes and wiggling it up to the lips, then repeating for build.
Customer Review: "I've always had a problem keeping mascara on, mostly rubs off below bottom lashes. This seems to go on smooth and stays on the best I've found in a long time. I'm over 60 and my skin seems to be changing a lot. I'm buying this as long as it still works on me."
Pros: allergy tested and 100% fragrance-free
Cons: none
Specs: 0.28-ounce tube
Best Long-Lasting: Sarah Creal Back of the Cab Volumizing Tubing Mascara
Sarah Creal's new buildable tubing mascara delivers all-day, smudge-proof lashes that have the same volume and definition as lash extensions. It also has all-day staying power with a formula clinically shown to last up to 12 hours before easily gliding off the lashes with warm water. This mascara is also ophthalmologist tested and safe for sensitive eyes.
Customer Review: "I have short and straight lashes that don't stay curled. This mascara helped keep the curl while lengthening my lashes! I love that it is long wearing and did not smudge in the summer heat. It washes off easily too!"
Pros: uses shea butter to softens and condition the lashes
Cons: offered at a luxury price point
Specs: 0.27-ounce tube
Best Clean Formula: Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
The Limitless Lash Mascara has a buildable, flake-free formula infused with arginine (keratin) to fortify and reinforce the lashes from within, shea butter to condition the lashes for a soft feel, and more. Now, the best-selling mascara comes in a lighter mono-material tube for planet-friendly packaging.
Customer Review: "Buying mascara has always felt like a necessity for me to finish my makeup and not something I've reused happily. But this one is amazing! No clumping, lightweight, but bold! It's perfect!"
Pros: dual-sided wand for eye-opening length and definition
Cons: tends to lightly flake and smear
Specs: 0.27-ounce tube
Best Value: Maybelline Falsies Lash Lift Volumizing and Lengthening Mascara
Probst highlights this Maybelline mascara for its drugstore price point and falsie-like finish. This mascara is infused with fibers that deliver dramatic volume, length, and lift with a clump-free, ophthalmologist-tested formula. It also has a double-curved separator brush to grab lashes at the root for the false-eyelash effect.
Customer Review: "This waterproof lash lift is unmatched. Gives the most fluffy, long, volumized, separated, curled gorgeous lashes imaginable. I will never buy another mascara—this is the BEST Maybelline has to offer!"
Pros: does not clump, smear, or flake; all-day wear
Cons: none
Specs: 0.32-ounce tube
Best Luxury: YSL Beauty Lash Clash Extreme Volume Mascara
For a department-store option that works well for aging lashes, Probst favors the best-selling Lash Clash Extreme Volume Mascara by YSL Beauty. This one makes her list because it offers 200% more lash volume, a double-brush wand to lengthen the lashes, and intense color and extreme volume for 24 hours without smudging.
Customer Review: "Such a fun product, love the color, length, and volume it adds to my lashes! Mascara lasted all day and hardly transferred. Also easy to remove and beautiful packaging!"
Pros: vegan, free of parabens, and contains less than 1% synthetic fragrance
Cons: luxury price point
Specs: 0.30-ounce tube
More Mascaras for Mature Lashes
Customer Review: "This amazing mascara is always my favorite go-to in my makeup bag. It creates beautiful lashes... So good I never need to put on the false ones."
Customer Review: "This mascara does not smudge! It is the best. Comes off easily with water without making 'raccoon' eyes. I wear it all day without any smears or smudges."
Customer Review: "I love Sisley mascaras overall, but this one is definitely my favorite. It really opens up the eyes, does not smudge (which is a big one for me), and stays fresh all day long."
Customer Review: "It is a very budget friendly, everyday wear mascara. I like how my lashes look and feel, and it does not irritate my eyes, which a lot of waterproof mascaras do. 10/10 I will buy again."
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