In our commitment to help you in your search for the top primer products, we’ve come up with this list of the best lash primer. We’ve carefully picked these products based on their ability to moisturize and nourish your lashes and make them look longer and thicker. We believe these products can help you amplify your lashes’ volume, length, and natural pigment.
Some women are ready to begin their days with just perfectly groomed brows and a coat of their favorite mascara.
And then there are the eyelash-savvy women who’d take a good 15-minute preparation just to achieve long, fluttery, and smudge-proof lashes.
Pretty much every woman’s dream is to have long, bold, and thick lashes like the Kardashian sisters.
One way of achieving perfect lashes that are worth the envy of many is using “falsies” or fake eyelashes. But you can also use a drugstore lash primer.
Apart from making lashes look wonderfully thick, it can revolutionize the way you use mascaras.
A quick coat of the best eyelash primer before brushing on mascara may give you longer, fuller, flake-free, and clean lashes the entire day.
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At First Glance: Our Top Picks For The Best Lash Primers
OUR TOP #1 PICK - Our top pick on this roundup of the best drugstore eyelash primer is the L’Oreal Voluminous Primer Mascara. This primer applies thickly, retains moisture to keep the lashes hydrated, and makes it easy to remove mascara afterward. We love that it can boost the power of any mascara.
OUR TOP #2 PICK - Lash treatment and lash enhancement are the two major things you could get out of the Blinc Lash Primer. It contains beneficial minerals which impart long-lasting moisturization and conditioning to protect lashes from damage.
OUR TOP #3 PICK - The Eisley Rose Mascara Primer features a unique formula using wet fibers to prevent particles from falling into your eyes or on your cheeks. Not only does this primer enhance the look of your mascara-clad clashes, but it’s also infused with natural compounds that protect and condition.
OUR TOP #4 PICK - Radiant Complex Lash Primer plumps your lashes in preparation for mascara. It’s a great lash moisturizer because it’s very hydrating to the lashes. It’s also formulated with beeswax to ensure smooth application and stearic acid to make it even easier to remove.
OUR TOP #5 PICK - The Benefit They’re Real Tinted Primer tints, defines, and primes lashes. You can wear this mink brown primer alone, yet it also works great with the mascara of your choice to make your lashes look longer and thicker. This primer gives lashes a naturally soft and smooth look.
What Is Lash Primer & Do You Really Need It?
If you lack an eye lash primer in your makeup kit, you may want to get one right away.
Have you ever had days when your mascara would fall out and smudge all over the under eye area, making you look like a panda? Us too!
That is what we had to deal with every day until we discovered a good affordable lash primer.
Ever wonder what a foundation, lipstick, eye makeup, and lashes have in common? They work best with a primer underneath.
Lash primers don’t only prep and maintain the longevity of your favorite mascara, but it they also boosts the power of your mascara.
A few coats of a good eyelash primer will amplify your lashes’ volume, length, and natural pigment.
You’ll instantly see how thick, long, and glossy your mascara is after priming it, not to mention the very minimal flaking and fallout you’ll be experiencing throughout the day.
Aside from their beautifying effects, the best lash primers also moisturize and nourish the lashes to make them stronger and boost their growth.
In other words, eye lash primers are the key to lashes that bat at their full potential.
Benefits of Lash Primers
If you’re thinking of raising your eyelash game, here are some advantages of using eye lash primers.
1. Primers make mascara last and smudge-proof
Lash primers are specially designed to adhere and coat the lashes from roots to tips.
Upon mascara application, the mascara sticks firmly to the primer, thereby preventing unwanted flaking and smudging.
Primers also increase the staying power of mascaras, especially waterproof mascaras.
2. Primers thicken and lengthen the lashes
As we’ve mentioned earlier, lash primers coat the entire lashes.
With a few swipes of the best eye lash primer, you may notice that you have longer and thicker lashes.
Simply put, eyelash primers creates the first coat to increase the surface area of the lashes.
When you apply mascara to the coated lashes, it spreads evenly and thickly from roots to tips, creating longer and thicker lashes.
On days when you don’t want to wear makeup, a good lash primer may give you long and soft-looking lashes that look natural.
3. Primers condition the lashes
Applying mascara on a daily basis can cause potential damage to the lashes (source).
The simple act of tugging the lashes to remove clumps may uproot hairs from your lash line.
A primer creates a soft and even surface where mascara adheres, preventing direct application to the lashes.
Some primers are also infused with beneficial vitamins and minerals to nourish and maintain hair growth.
4. Primers increase mascara’s pigmentation
The clear and translucent base created by an eyelash primer makes a good canvas for increasing mascara’s color intensity (source).
Imagine a brown mascara directly applied on black lashes – the color won’t pop that much because the background is darker than the applied pigment.
But if you have a clear, off-white base to where the mascara adheres, the mascara’s pigment will envelop the white background completely, showing off its color.
The same also applies to other colored mascaras. Now let's check out our best eyelash primer reviews.
The Best Lash Primer To Keep Your Mascara From Smudging
L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Primer Mascara
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The L’Oreal Voluminous Primer Mascara is our top pick for the best drugstore lash primer because not only does it give you longer and fuller looking lashes, it’s also a cult favorite of makeup artists and beauty bloggers around the world.
It amplifies the effects of any mascara, ensures a smooth application, and visibly thickens the lashes.
What we love about this cheap primer is that it may condition your lashes over time for softer and well-nourished lashes.
It definitely feels good to up your mascara game without sacrificing the health of your lashes.
This Loreal lash primer is infused with ingredients such as polybutene, paraffin, and potassium cetyl.
Polybutene is a derivative of petroleum oil which serves as a lubricant and thickener in primers to ensure smooth application and thicker coating.
Paraffin is a wax and a natural emollient which retains moisture to keep the lashes hydrated and nourished. It even stays after the primer is removed to supply much-needed moisture to the lashes.
On the other hand, potassium cetyl is a surfactant that helps lower the surface tension between water and the cosmetic, making the primer easy to wash and remove – no residues and clumps left.
When we tried it, we quickly saw how dramatically long our lashes became and also, it made our mascara easy to remove.
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Blinc Lash Primer
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Lash treatment and lash enhancement are the two major things you could get out of this mascara base.
It’s actually one of our favorites from way before, that’s why it’s included on our list of the best lash primers.
This primer builds lash volume that may make your black mascara look extremely dark.
Most white lash primers make mascara application difficult and can dilute the real black finish you desire.
Fortunately, the Blinc black lash primer doesn’t dilute the color of any mascara, boosting its color and longevity at the same time.
What’s great about this primer is it encourages the natural growth of lashes for fuller-looking and visibly thick eyelashes over time.
It has Pentapeptide-17 which treats and promotes lash growth, D-panthenol, and tocopheryl acetate which imparts long lasting moisturization and conditioning to protect lashes from damage.
We also love how this primer can be applied thickly without changing the mascara’s color. It dries quickly, which is a plus for women who don’t want to spend a lot of time doing their makeup.
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Eisley Rose Mascara Primer
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The Eisley Rose Primer features a unique formula using wet fibers to prevent particles from falling into your eyes or on your cheeks but retains the lengthening features of fiber technology.
The wet fiber formulation creates the appearance of longer and thicker lashes.
Not only does this primer enhance the look of your mascara-clad clashes, but it’s also infused with ingredients that protects and conditions the lashes.
Its key ingredients include conditioning compounds such as lecithin and natural beeswax to condition and protect your eyelashes.
Lecithin is a mix of fatty esters that works to enhance the appearance of dry or damaged lashes by reducing flaking and boosting its growth.
Natural beeswax makes the primer thicker and easier to spread, not to mention its protective and moisturizing effects on the lashes.
We tried this primer and experienced no irritation whatsoever, and it made our lashes appear long and thick.
Our only issue with this eye lash primer is that it dries too fast, and once it’s completely dry, it can be difficult to apply mascara over it.
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Radiant Complex Lash Primer
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The Radiant Complex Lash Primer will definitely plump your lashes in preparation for mascara.
For us, this primer felt more like an eyelash moisturizer than a primer because it felt very hydrating to the lashes.
This primer contains pentapeptides which may help with the long-term health and growth of lashes.
It’s also formulated with carnauba or beeswax to create a creamy consistency and ensure smooth application.
Stearic acid, on the other hand, is a surfactant which makes it easy to wash away mascara and primer, leaving no residues and clumps.
We’re happy that this drugstore mascara primer makes each lash thicker when dry, allowing your mascara to go over lashes smoothly, resulting to much thicker, longer, and voluminous lashes.
We’re particularly surprised at how this primer dries clear without any shininess, and it also kept our lashes looking like we just curled them.
There was also minimal fallout during the day – very little smudging and flaking. We love that this primer may work well as an eyebrow primer too.
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Benefit They’re Real Tinted Lash Primer
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If you’re a makeup fanatic, you’ve probably heard of the Benefit They’re Real Mascara which is hugely popular in the cosmetics world because they give a "falsie" look. But does their primer make the cut?
The Benefit They’re Real Tinted Primer tints, defines, and primes lashes.
This primer has a mink brown tint which you can wear on its own, allowing you to skip the mascara if you want a low-key, natural makeup look.
But it also works great with the mascara of your choice to make your lashes look longer and thicker.
The benefit tinted lash primer also has a custom extra flex brush designed to move with lashes for separation and avoid clumps as well as a water-resistant gel formulation with lash-conditioning provitamin B5.
Containing glyceryl stearate and butylene glycol to lubricate and retain moisture in the lashes, this primer works to give eyelashes a naturally soft and smooth appearance, far from the false eyelashes look.
We love how this primer is super lengthening yet keeps the lashes soft as compared with other primers which make the lashes stiff.
It especially doesn’t feel heavy at the end of the day, and most importantly, it doesn’t smudge or crumble because of its waterproof formulation.
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The Bottom Line
The best lash primers are designed to amplify your lashes’ volume, length, and natural pigment.
These products may also moisturize and nourish the lashes to make them stronger and boost their growth.
One such stellar product that does these things and more is the L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Primer Mascara.
It’s our top pick for the best eye lash primer because it’s inexpensive and a cult favorite of makeup artists and beauty bloggers when it comes to lash priming.
This primer may boost the power of any mascara (whether a low-quality or a high-end one) when it comes to thickening, lengthening, nourishing, and increasing the staying power without flaking and smudging.
We definitely love how this primer conditions lashes over time for softer, well-nourished, and healthy looking lashes.
This lash primer, along with the other products on this list, may help you raise your eyelash game and give you thicker and longer lashes.
There are dozen types of primers on the market, and each of them comes up with different uses and provides different benefits. Click here if you want to learn more about other types of primers.
You may also want to check our latest roundup of the best eye primers for oily skin as they can be used together with your favorite eyelash primer.
