Want to achieve thicker and perfectly feathered lashes that mimic the effect of falsies? The best volumising mascaras are designed to do exactly that – without the need for lash glue (or nerves of steel).
Many of the best mascaras focus on volume and claim to deliver a similar level of drama to rival that of the best false eyelashes. "Volumising mascaras represent the holy trinity of mascara needs – thickening, lengthening, and curling lashes," says Dominic Skinner, Global Senior Artist for MAC Cosmetics. "It’s this combination that gives the general appearance of 'volume', whereas other mascaras may only focus on one or two of these attributes."
In pursuit of finding these perfect mascaras that meet all three of these criteria, woman&home's beauty team has tested dozens of products on the market, to bring you a comprehensive list of the best lash-boosting formulas. Whether you're searching for a new affordable drugstore mascara or want to invest in something luxurious, ahead are the insights you need to be able to purchase with confidence...
The 15 best volumising mascaras, reviewed by our beauty team
Why you can trust Woman & Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
RRP: £28
This mascara sells once every seven seconds and, having road-tested it on multiple occasions, we totally see why. The hourglass-shaped brush is loaded with bristles and grips onto every lash, pulling them upwards while adding volume and thickness at the base.
While some volumising mascaras tend to weigh lashes down, this one feels lightweight despite its impressive plumping powers. We love it, which is why we deem it the overall best volumiser.
Reasons to buy: Buildable, lifting and long-lasting
Reasons to avoid: A tad pricey and can smudge
RRP: £36
If "French girl lashes" were a thing, then Chanel has bottled them to a T with this mascara. Delivering plumped-up, voluminous lashes, it creates a chic aesthetic that doesn’t look too "done" or polished. Instead, our lashes were left looking thick, fluttery and loaded with drama. It's one of our picks for the best brown mascaras. The only pitfall that we experienced was that it does tend to clump on the first application.
Reasons to buy: Great colour payoff, ophthalmologist-tested and buildable
Reasons to avoid: Can clump, cheaper options are available
RRP: £11.99
While lengthening your lashes is this TikTok-approved mascara's unique selling point, we found that it also gave our lashes a welcome volume boost when testing.
More than that, though, it's also very long-wearing; we found that it lasted all day without smudging or flaking, which only adds to its affordable credentials. Read our Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara for the full rundown of this viral product.
Reasons to buy: Ophthalmologist tested, adds length and volume, affordable
Reasons to avoid: Can smudge
RRP: £21
We found that the formula is the perfect balance of not too wet, not too dry, plus it's very buildable, lending itself well to both everyday wear and elevated evening looks.
We also loved the design of the wand and how the multi-length brush catches lashes of all lengths, ensuring that they are separated, lengthened and defined. We'd say it's a strong contender for one of the best lengthening mascaras, too.
Reasons to buy: Lengthening and volumising, castor oil nourishes lashes
Reasons to avoid: Can clumpas formula nears its end, packaging is easily marked
RRP: £27
You can tell the sort of results this brush will give at first glance. A long-time favourite of many, we love how the super-fine bristles of this best-selling mascara capture every single lash (yes, even those pesky corner ones!). The result is a longer, fuller flutter that’s extremely voluminous.
The downsides to the Benefit They're Real! Mascara? While it is long-wearing, we did find the formula a little hard to remove at times. Our top tip is to use a heavy-duty eye makeup remover or one of the best cleansing oils.
Reasons to buy: Lasts for hours, adds length, separates lashes for a feathered look
Reasons to avoid: Can be hard to remove
RRP: £31
The narrow, tapered brush of Bobbi Brown's Smokey Eye Mascara is the perfect size to wiggle into the root of your lashes to extend length, as well as separate and add volume – which is great if you don't have lots and lots of natural lashes.
Meanwhile, the formula's Kohl pigments gave our lashes a pitch-black look that makes this mascara, as its name suggests, a perfect pairing for a classic smokey eye. One of our testers with oily skin did find it printed above the lids a little on occasion, but setting the area with translucent powder was an easy fix for this.
Reasons to buy: Doesn't clump, long-wearing, adds subtle intensity
Reasons to avoid: May smudge on oily skin, quite pricey
RRP: £10 (or £17 for non-members)
We were so impressed by the buildability of this Beauty Pie formula and how much product saturated the brush after one dip into the tube. In fact, for some preferences, the amount that coats the brush would be plenty for everyday wear.
This mascara was also very easy to distribute it onto the lashes evenly and layer up without even a hint of clumping – the polar opposite of some of the volumising mascaras that didn't make the cut. We also love that it comes in both black and brown options.
Reasons to buy: Nourishing formula, buildable, separates lashes well
Reasons to avoid: Quite pricey without the membership
RRP: £26
Touted as one of the best mascaras with fibres, this formula also darkens lashes and gives wow-worthy length. What we particularly loved about it while testing is that it is very lightweight and didn't leave our lashes at all crispy.
This mascara also contains hemp-derived cannabis oil to nourish your lashes while you wear it – but don't worry, it contains no THC and isn't psychoactive.
Reasons to buy: Nourishes lashes, creates flutteriness without clumping
Reasons to avoid: Brush is quite large, might be messy to use
RRP: £33
We found that Diorshow's maxi-sized, chunky brush deposits just the right amount of pigment for a voluminous, fanned-out finish – without any clumps, naturally. As well as volumising, it lengthens and curls lashes, too.
All that is to say that we’d highly recommend this mascara to anyone with short, straight lashes. If we had to knock a point off, it would be because the formula dries quickly, which did lead to some flaking during the testing period.
Reasons to buy: Curls, lengthens, buildable, great pigment and colour options
Reasons to avoid: Can dry out easily, pricey
RRP: £26
With a chunky, hourglass-shaped brush, Lash Brag gave our tester full-bodied lashes that rivalled our favourite falsies. But instead of weighing them down (which false eyelashes can do), this felt ultra-light on our lashes while we wore it – almost as though we weren't wearing any mascara at all.
One quibble: despite its greatness, we did find that the formula started to flake and transfer by the end of the day.
Reasons to buy: Buildable, doesn't clump, lightweight, ophthalmologist tested
Reasons to avoid: Can transfer with time
RRP: £12.99
This is the overall best L'Oréal mascara and, within a few strokes, made our tester's short eyelashes much fuller, longer, curlier and more defined. It applies smoothly, thanks to its buttery, silky formula and infusion of floral oil.
Not only that, this affordable buy is also considered a close rival to the results of Too Faced's Better Than Sex mascara – but comes at a fraction of the price.
Reasons to buy: Adds mega volume and length, non-clumping, affordable
Reasons to avoid: Can flake by the end of the day
RRP: £34
Prepare to fall head over heels for Guerlain’s super luxurious volumising mascara: Noir G. A total game-changer – and we don't use that term lightly – with ebony and midnight blue pigments, the lash-lifting formula delivers a full fringe of inky black lashes.
Equally important to mention is that we found it does all this without clumping or transferring, plus its curved brush is a dream.
Reasons to buy: Impressive staying power, curls, volumises
Reasons to avoid: Expensive
RRP: £18
When testing this Sculpted by Aimee number, we found its creamy texture glides on effortlessly and delivers ultra-black pigments that give lashes richness and depth. Laced with nourishing vitamin B5, it is designed to condition and strengthen them, too.
As for the brush, it has a curved shape that captures every hair and we loved the way it grabbed onto hard-to-reach corners with ease.
Reasons to buy: Vitamin B5, lengthening, lightweight and buildable formula
Reasons to avoid: Can clump
RRP: £25
We can confirm that this mascara definitely coats the lashes on the first swipe and that the brush reaches every hair, despite it being completely straight.
We did notice, however, that it doesn’t curl lashes as well as the other mascaras we tried – we'd recommend an eyelash curler for that. But that being said, it really did turn up the volume on our lashes, delivering big on thickness and length.
Reasons to buy: Ophthalmologist-tested, glides on smoothly, doesn't budge
Reasons to avoid: Can be clumpy, isn't the best for curl
RRP: £28
If you're a lover of natural, no-makeup-makeup looks, this ILIA mascara is perfect for elongated, fluttering lashes that are subtly elevated.
We love that its brush features two sides, one is a comb – to separate the lashes – and the other is a short bristle brush to coat and lift. The formula just glides on and looks so flattering.
Reasons to buy: Nourishing shea butter, suitable for sensitive eyes, ophthalmologist-tested
Reasons to avoid: Not high impact, a tad pricey
How we tested the best volumising mascaras
A selection of best volumising mascaras we tested
In order to share reviews of truly the very best volumising mascaras, we trialled several dozen formulas with various different mascara brush types from brands that span all price points, drawing on our years of beauty testing experience.
While putting them through their paces, woman&home's testers wore these formulas on numerous occasions so that they could make a thorough assessment. To get top marks, the mascara had to tick several of our beauty boxes – the following factors were all taken into consideration.
- Packaging
- Consistency and wet/dryness of formula
- Inclusion of lash-loving ingredients (like fatty acids and vitamin E)
- Brush shape, size and material
- Ease of application
- Whether it clumped, flaked or smudged
- How the results looked immediately after applying
- How well it lasted
- Colours available
- Price
How to choose the best volumising mascara for you
To help you find your very best mascara match, there are a couple of different factors that should be taken into account. Some of the industry's leading makeup experts have broken these down below.
- Your natural lashes: “Think about your natural lashes and what you would like to add to them,” says Aimee Connolly, makeup artist and founder of Sculpted by Aimee. “If you have naturally straight lashes, look for a mascara that adds volume and curl. If you have a hooded eye shape, consider a waterproof formula so that it won't easily transfer onto your eyelids. And if you have thin lashes, opt for a lightweight formula that isn't too wet to avoid weighing them down.”
- The wand itself: “What you want to look [at] is the wand,” says Skinner. “A comb is going to create a fine, separated lash. A densely compact brush will help add length. However, for volume, a rubber style brush will drop a generous amount of mascara to the lash base as it spreads it through the length of your lash while keeping everything separated.” This results in a dramatic, chunky look that perfectly complements full glam faces and moodier spring makeup looks alike.
How to apply the best volumising mascaras
As for getting the best results from your new mascara? “When applying mascara, think about how you add volume to your hair – it’s all about the root,” says Skinner. “So, start by building up the product in the root of your lashes before drawing the mascara through to the tips, in an upward motion. A little side-to-side, zig-zag wiggle will give a 'back combed' effect to help support the fuller lash look you want."
“Don’t forget your bottom lashes,” Connolly adds. “If you add a lot of volume to your top lashes, it's a good idea to balance the eyes by applying a light layer to the bottom lashes, too.”
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