My Sensitive Eyes Never Liked Volumizing Mascara, Until I Tried This One

My optometrist once told me that generally speaking, people with light-colored eyes tend to experience more light sensitivity than people with brown eyes. I don't know the exact science — I think it has something to do with the density of light rays and the pigments needed to break them down — but I am acutely aware that my blue-green eyes are sensitive.

Structurally my eyes are tiny and go squinty the second I step outside on a hazy day or smile hard. So, when it comes to mascara, I've come to be particular, or else I end up constantly skimming a finger across my lower lash line to clean up the sooty black fallout, which, if left unattended, can make me look more tired than awake. Ideally, I want a little bit of natural lift and separation to my lashes, but most volumizing mascaras I've tried lean sticky, or worse, clumpy, and make my eyes feel itchy and heavy.

Thus, I was a bit hesitant when trying Ilia's new Fullest Volumizing mascara. However, I had briefly loved a tube of the brand's original clean mascara, Limitless Lash, albeit more lengthening than lash-plumping. Plus, the newly-reformulated Ilia tinted lip balm is the only thing I've been putting on my lips this summer, so I gathered that this mascara innovation could be worth a try.

The tube is a little chubbier than the original, and the wand is curved in what the brand calls a 'violin' shape, designed to catch and coat every lash with a carbon-black, but weightless, wax blend. I wiggled it delicately through my upper lashes and was pleasantly surprised with the lash separation and gentle fanning outward and upward that happened with a single comb though.

Also notable, I couldn't feel a thing — no residual heaviness or telltale clumps. I even found myself absentmindedly rubbing my eyes with Monday-afternoon tiredness, completely forgetting that I was wearing mascara at all. I looked in the mirror, expecting a smudgy mess, but lashes were still curled and fluttery, and the whites of my eyes were unaffected. I reached for my eye drops out of habit, before realizing I didn't need them.