Best Mascara 2026: 10 Picks Worth Buying (3 to Skip)

No mascara we checked matches this combination of score and sample size. The curved wand carries 360 micro-bristles and is built for lift; in Lancôme's consumer test on a 103-woman panel, 95% saw instant lash lift and 90% saw clump-free lashes. Those are brand numbers, but the Ulta rating backs them up at scale. It held the top spot in our March version of this page and nothing has displaced it since.

The Flex Tower brush is a thin bendy wand that reaches root to tip, and length is where this formula earns its 4.5. One warning on price: when we last updated this page in March it was $10.99, so it has climbed $3 in five months. It is still the best thing at the drugstore, but it is no longer the near-$10 buy its reputation was built on.

One coat reads sheer. This is a build-it formula, and getting to full effect takes two or three passes with a skinny brush, which is slower than one swipe of a fat volumizing wand. If you want thickness more than length, Lash Paradise below does that job better.

The waterproof answer is the waterproof version of the drugstore winner. Same Flex Tower brush, same lengthening result, and a 4.5 rating on a review base most waterproof formulas never reach. Two catches: the waterproof tube is 0.2 fl oz against 0.24 for the washable at the same price, and removal genuinely requires an oil or dual-phase remover, not a splash of cleanser. Budget for that or you will lose lashes rubbing.

The famous cheap alternative is L'Oréal's Voluminous Carbon Black Waterproof, and we checked it so you don't have to; it sits in the skip list below with a 3.6.

This is the biggest tube on the page at the lowest price, roughly $12 per ounce when the Lancôme costs $111. The conical fiber brush gives a false-lash sort of drama, and its 7,259 Ulta reviews make it the third-biggest review base of any winner here. At $4.99 you can keep one in every bag and replace it on schedule without thinking.

It earns the lowest rating of our winners at 4.2, and there are real reasons. The fat cone is clumsy on bottom lashes and inner corners, there is no meaningful curl hold, and the washable formula will not survive a swim or a proper cry. For a fiver, those are trades most people take.

The soft wavy-bristle brush loads a lot of product and gives the plushest, fullest lash of anything under $15 here. If your mascara goal is for people to notice you are wearing mascara, this is the drugstore tool for it, and per ounce it is the second-cheapest pick on the page.

Be clear-eyed about the score: 4.0 is the weakest rating we accepted for a winner, and the same $13.99 buys Sky High's 4.5. It stays on the list only because Sky High cannot do plush volume and this can. Pick by the finish you want, not the brand.

Tubing formulas wrap each lash in a polymer sleeve instead of painting it, which is why they do not smudge on oily lids and come off in warm water with no remover. This one is the formula the category gets measured against, and Thrive's clinical testing calls it gentle enough for sensitive eyes and safe for contact lens wearers.

Know what you are buying, though. Thrive publishes no review score on the product page at all, so unlike every Ulta pick here there is no independent rating to weigh. The result is length and definition rather than volume, and it sells mainly through its own site rather than in stores.

Tarte's 360-degree comb carries 296 bristles, per the Ulta listing, and separates lash from lash better than Thrive's wand does. If you want tubing performance with the option to grab it in an Ulta aisle today, this is the one.

Ulta shoppers are cooler on it than the tubing hype suggests: its 4.1 sits below every Maybelline and Lancôme pick here, and at $104 per ounce you are paying prestige money for a drugstore-adjacent brand. Tubing technique matters too; work fast, because once the tubes set they do not comb out.

The spiky ball at the wand tip is the reason this has held a big audience since 2011; it catches corner and bottom lashes a straight brush misses, and the long-wear formula genuinely does not budge through a work day.

Not budging is also the problem. This is a traditional long-wear formula, not a tubing one, and it is notoriously stubborn to take off; Benefit sells a dedicated remover for it, which tells you how far plain cleanser gets. If nightly removal effort matters to you, buy Thrive or Tarte instead.

A tubing-style formula with shea butter and beeswax that removes with warm water, safe for contact wearers, with a dual-sided wand: short bristles to lift, a comb side to separate. Of the clean-beauty mascaras we compared it has the most convincing review base, even allowing that brand-site reviews skew kinder than Ulta's.

The wear claim is up to 12 hours of smudge resistance where Lancôme claims 24, the finish is your-lashes-but-better rather than dramatic, and it comes in exactly two shades. ILIA's pricing runs high across the line; if the $48 skin tint is on your list too, our Super Serum Skin Tint dupes cover the cheaper routes.

The diamond-shaped paddle brush is designed to paint lashes vertically for a lifted, curler-free effect, and the larch-derived polymer formula is the most interesting piece of engineering on this list. In Charlotte Tilbury's own 31-person panel, 96% agreed lashes looked magnified.

That panel is the weakness: unlike the Lancôme's 19,059 Ulta reviews, the numbers here all come from the brand. At one dollar less than Lash Idôle, buy this for the lift effect or the shade Dream Pop, not to save money. If you are buying into the Pillow Talk line anyway, our Pillow Talk lipstick dupes page covers the cheaper ways in.