7 Mascara Tips You’ll Wish You Learned Years Ago

Mascara is the unsung hero of makeup. Eye shadow, lipstick, and blush get all the attention since they’re generally brightly colored and worn on the focal points of your face. But mascara is what makes it all hang together. Sure, lashes are tiny, but darkening, lengthening, and thickening them with mascara can have an outsized effect on your look. Skip it and no amount of eyeshadow or lipstick will make your face feel complete.

We asked five top makeup artists to share their best mascara tricks, and it turns out that a simple swipe-and-go approach may not, in fact, be the way to go. So whether you’re a makeup minimalist or have been wearing mascara for years, read on to brush up on your skills. We promise the results will be eye-opening.

1Take everything off first.

In the case of mascara, what you don’t have on your lashes may be as important as what you do. Many people prep their skin before applying makeup, which can mean that face or eye cream adheres to their lashes. “If cream is stuck to your lashes, it can break down the formula so that it doesn’t perform the way it is supposed to,” says Todd Harris, a celebrity makeup artist in New York City. To ensure you’re applying mascara to a perfectly prepped canvas, Harris recommends cleaning the lashes with micellar water first to remove any lingering oils.

2Give lashes a good curl.

Almost every makeup artist we spoke to mentioned curling lashes as the first step of a good mascara application. “Use a tight eyelash curler—one that really clamps onto the hairs—and give two hard squeezes at the base of the lashes, then move about halfway up the lashes and give another two squeezes,” says Harris. “I think of it as overcurling the lashes,” adds Gregg Brockington, a celebrity makeup artist in New York City. “I really bend them because I know that once I add mascara, which is wet and somewhat heavy, the lashes will fall a bit.” For an even longer-lasting curl, Landy Dean, a celebrity makeup artist in New York City, recommends using your hair dryer to warm the curler for a few seconds before using it.

The placement of the curler matters, too. For the most realistic curl, “you need to make sure the rounded middle plate of the curler—often where the brand puts its logo—sits directly above the rounded part of the upper lashline,” Dean says.

3Get rid of the excess.

When it’s sitting in its tube, your mascara wand is literally steeping in makeup—which is why, when you pull it out, it’s generally overloaded. Mascara must be applied in layers and, as anyone who has painted a wall knows, you want to start light and build up gradually or you risk an uneven finish. Many makeup artists swipe the brush on a tissue before applying it to lashes. “You want to apply the first coat with as little mascara as possible on the wand,” says Harris. “This really helps to separate the lashes.”

4Swipe right.

And by right, we mean correctly. The trick to a full yet defined lashline is to focus your application at the roots of the lashes, says Brockington. “If the roots of the lashes are dark, the whole lashline looks fuller and thicker.” Brockington wiggles the wand at the base of the lashes before pulling it through to the tips. “If it gets into the skin between the lashes, all the better,” he says. “It creates definition without using a liner.”

“I like to press the curve into the base of the lashes to get the most deposit and volume near the lashline, then pull upward to lift,” says Fara Homidi, a New York–based makeup artist and the founder of Fara Homidi Beauty. “I’ll do this a few times without redipping so that I can build while separating and fanning out my lashes.”

And while most people concentrate their mascara-sweeping efforts at the center of the lashline, that’s a missed opportunity. Instead, “Pull the tip of the wand up through the lashes at the outer corners of your eyes. It gives the eye a real lift,” Harris says. One last trick from Brockington: Use your fingertips to gently massage off a bit of the formula at the tips of your lashes. They should be the least coated in mascara for a nice, tapered effect.

5Experiment with color.

Colored mascara can create special effects that basic black can’t. “I’m a big brown mascara fan,” says Campbell Ritchie, a makeup artist and model in New York City. “I’m very fair and it gives me a little definition without appearing harsh.” Ritchie also says that deep-purple tones make green eyes pop, while blue mascara can do the same for brown eyes. Homidi adds that a true-neutral brown tone works beautifully across all eye colors.

6Detangle clumps

Sometimes, despite best intentions, clumps happen. Harris says that a clean mascara brush or spooley is the best tool for detangling. Dean recommends a full wand reset—which means cleaning all the mascara off your wand with a tissue—every couple of applications to help prevent clumping altogether. This trick “restores depth to the bristles again so you can create soft, feathery lashes,” Dean says.

7Practice proper removal.

There are plenty of reasons why it’s wise to remove mascara before bedtime, not the least of which is the risk of infection. Brockington says that placing two cotton rounds soaked in micellar water over the eyes for a minute or so helps to break down the mascara so it comes off in one easy swipe and you don’t need to tug at your skin. Ritchie likes to massage a pea-size amount of coconut oil into lashes to remove all traces of makeup and hydrate the surrounding skin.