Ever since I went to a beauty launch in London last summer, and spotted a lovely cerulean eye on beauty writer Vanese Maddix, I’ve been on the hunt for the best blue mascara. Her eyes absolutely popped across the table — and I wanted the same effect. In my hunt for the right product, I was spoiled for choice: Several brands released new colorful mascaras in 2023.
Aside from the pigmentation, I wanted a blue mascara that would act like any good mascara would — one to lengthen and fan out my lashes, that would refuse to go clumpy, never dry out, and also not be a total nightmare to remove. I needed a tearproof formula, yes (I wear contact lenses, so this is particularly key), but I don’t want to be balding myself just to wipe my makeup off before bed. In fact, it would be especially important that a blue formula was truly waterproof and wouldn’t run — or it would leave a trail of Avatar-looking tears in its wake.
I started with Eyeko — I’d been sent a sample of their purple mascara previously, and while the formula was nice, it hadn’t been super pigmented. I thought I might have more joy with its blue mascara, and while it was more pigmented than its purple, it wasn’t quite the dazzling blue I was after. (I think its navy tint would look great on brown eyes who want a subtle pop of color, though.)
I pressed on and tried Lash Clash from Yves Saint Laurent. As soon as I pulled the wand from the tube, I knew we were in business: It was the bright, electric blue I’d been lusting after. I started applying it to my black lashes, and was thrilled with the results — the blue really stood out, and my lashes felt fanned and looked lengthened. To really get the color to show, though, I had to do about three coats of mascara. This wasn’t disastrous but meant that they were on the slightly more spindly side to what I was used to. Overall, I was satisfied. Lash Clash was pricey, but it did work, and I felt I’d found a nice solid blue mascara choice.
That was until Maybelline’s Sky High mascara entered the arena. Maybelline makes loads of our favorite drugstore mascaras, and I’ve been using its Sky High mascara for a couple of years (I rotate it with Benefit’s Roller Lash, because Roller Lash’s edge is that nothing quite curls like it.) I got an email telling me that Maybelline was launching the mascara in colorful shades including pink, burgundy … and blue. The price point was less than a third of my YSL mascara. A trip to the drugstore was in order.
I nabbed one of the last tubes on the stand and went home to try it. It had that promising electric-blue shade fresh out of the tube, and the color showed up on my dark lashes … after just one slow, thorough coat. It also did everything that I like so much about the original mascara: Sky High is truly great as a lengthening mascara, it gives your lashes that elongated look but falls short at making them look like spider legs. This was even true for when I added a sloppy second layer a few hours later (two-drinks-deep me can’t exit a women’s bathroom without reapplying my mascara, no matter how good it looks. Scientists are still trying to understand why.) I’ve worn it from morning to night, and on nights out, it has absolutely never run. This is despite my eyes watering up in blustery winds (or even, yes, when I think about the last scene in The Iron Claw). It comes off very simply with micellar water, too. And not just from my lashes, it doesn’t linger under my eyes or on my skin and leave a sore-looking blue-ish hue behind.
After three years of writing about beauty, I can differentiate a good mascara from a great one. I can also recognize an all-timer: This is one of them. It has the pigment that you’re buying it for, delivers on the basics of what all great mascaras should do, and it’s an absolute bargain.
(So much so that I’ve set my sights on the pink shade, too.)
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