Black Mascara Is Dead

We’ve all been asked the quintessential beauty-lover question: “What’s the one makeup product you won’t leave the house without applying?” I run everyday errands with nothing but sunscreen on my face, but for anything more involved than a trip to Target, you can pry my black mascara out of my cold, dead right hand (there’s concealer in the left).

I’m lucky to have naturally curled lashes, but I can’t help but feel they look insufficient. My eyes are small, and that has always felt like some kind of beauty deficiency that—according to makeup ads—needs to be remedied with eye-opening, lash-lengthening, illusion-conjuring mascara. When I’m putting together even the most low-key makeup look, I can practically hear my lashes begging for a coat of my least dramatic black mascara; a more elaborate look calls for the longest, thickest lashes possible, and therefore multiple coats of lengthening and volumizing black mascara.

Or does it?

Naturally, TikTok has highlighted what appears to be a rise in former mascara devotees skipping it, self-assuredly assembling makeup looks that put no emphasis on lashes—a trend that’s also made itself apparent on runways, in market trends, and among beauty experts such as editors and makeup artists.

TikTok creator Hailey Drew, known for her “full glam no mascara” look, was one of the trend’s early advocates. In December, she outlined her tips for achieving that look in a video that earned 36,000 likes. “Do your normal makeup, maybe even a cute little shimmery eye… bold brows, complementary colors, of course, and then no mascara,” she said. “I know it seems like something’s missing, but really, it’s chic. It’s giving high fashion.” One of the most popular #nomascara TikToks, with nearly 10 million views, features creator Ava Shaw doing a detailed no-makeup makeup look minus mascara and writing, “Realizing my makeup looks cleaner without mascara.”

And while some fans of the look may be wearing every other type of makeup product for their no-mascara moment, the concept of skipping it falls neatly in line with other less-is-less makeup trends we’ve observed lately, like rejecting undereye concealer and embracing the return of red lips with bare skin. Whether a reflection of full-face exhaustion or simply a shift in tastes, skipping mascara is increasingly popular, even among the very people who know and love mascara for a living; when the Allure staff was asked if they’d changed their mascara habits recently, nearly a dozen editors raised their (virtual) hands.

Allure’s senior news editor Nicola Dall’Asen admittedly felt the app’s influence when she stopped reflexively swiping on heavy mascara at the end of her eye makeup routine. Like me, she used to feel unfinished without it. “It was one of those things I felt totally naked without until a couple of months ago, but seeing so many people on TikTok rocking red lips and nothing else inspired me to cut back on it,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong—I still love thick, spidery, black mascara when I'm more dressed up, but I'm happy that it no longer feels like an elephant in the room when I'm not wearing it.”

Associate beauty editor Annie Blay, on the other hand, realized how refreshing a no-mascara look can be long before it started trending. “For years, I piled on mascara and even took to wearing flashes in college to get that fanned-out look—until one day, I realized they actually took the shine away from my eyes,” she says. "I also got tired of having to rub my eyes profusely while trying to get mascara off my lashes after nights out.”

This no-mascara movement is about much more than practicality, however. Seeing so many people skip mascara while still wearing an otherwise full makeup look has made me realize that low-key lashes aren’t just a convenience—they’re a vibe. Not wearing mascara doesn’t have to look like you forgot something; it can look beautifully deliberate, even in the context of an otherwise elaborate makeup look—just like wearing a clear gloss instead of lipstick and liner.

Take the Cynthia Rowley Spring/Summer 2025 show at New York Fashion Week last month, where makeup artist and Stila global beauty director Charlie Riddle used bold washes of metallic eye shadow or liner all over the lid (Stay All Day Smudge & Set Waterproof Gel Eye Liner and Stay All Day  Artistix) to make the models’ eyes the focus. He didn’t top it off with mascara, and considering how we’ve been conditioned by marketing to anticipate big lashes with a look like this, the result was even more striking.

Riddle has also noticed a downtick in mascara among the masses and understands why. “Wearing no mascara is trending for a few reasons, primarily for a shift towards more authenticity, natural beauty, and embracing minimal makeup,” he tells Allure. “There is also a trend of low-maintenance appeal. Not wearing mascara simplifies the beauty routine. Skipping it saves time and eliminates the need to remove eye makeup, which can also be better for sensitive eyes.”

As persuasive as Riddle, my colleagues, and countless TikTok users are, I’m still not totally convinced that my own visage could ever feel complete without mascara, and that shared sentiment may be why there’s a perhaps related trend of wearing mascara colors such as brown and burgundy for groomed but less noticeable lashes. Even my own mother, the very person who put me on to black mascara when I was in middle school, has recently snubbed black mascara in favor of brown, having decided that black is too harsh.

Makeup artist Katie Jane Hughes, whose calling card is a heaping helping of black mascara, has been trading her signature for other, softer colors lately, too. "I just think there's something really fresh about it, and it allows for all the other makeup products that you're wearing to look even less makeup-y,” she tells me. She goes for an unexpected yet surprisingly subtle color: burgundy. Specifically, she’s been wearing Benefit Badgal Bang Volumizing Mascara in Wild Plum, which is also an Allure editor favorite.

Whether a non-black mascara can serve as a gateway to skipping it altogether is up to each individual, of course, but both approaches to lashes open a door to rethinking how our unintentional ruts and autopilot routines may actually be underlying unease about not looking the way we think we’re supposed to—as if mascara makes our lashes look “acceptable.” Instead, we can start looking at it the way we look at a dark eye shadow or a holographic highlight: a fun but unnecessary element of a makeup look, not a mandatory improvement.

As Dall’Asen puts it: “This trend has made me contemplate what other daily beauty 'necessities' I've grown a little too attached to, and that sounds like a healthy thing, no?”

More on eye makeup:

• Allure Best of Beauty 2024: Eye Winners
• 11 Best Liquid Eye Shadows for No-Budge Color
• 13 Best Tubing Mascaras for Maximum Length and Easy Removal

Now watch Alia Bhatt talk about her favorite products: