The £5.40 Mascara With Over 150,000 Reviews On Amazon

Here's the thing about mascara: there are a ton of totally fine tubes out there but only a very select few that well over 100,000 discerning beauty stans would agree upon as simply amazing. And, by a very select few, we are referring to one lash-plumping and lengthening unicorn in particular: Essence's Lash Princess Mascara. This viral product just so happens to be Amazon's #1 bestselling mascara, toting a total of 150,000 reviews and counting — over 100,000 of which carry the full 5-out-of-5-star rating. Its impressive internet fanbase can be attributed to an affordable price point (just £5.40 per tube on Amazon or £3.30 at Just My Look), formula versatility (offered in both original, waterproof, and volumising formulas), and workhorse results (lengthening, defining, thickening, AND curling).

A long-standing bestseller from our reader-recommended Amazon Hidden Gems, I first tried a tube of Lash Princess IRL for a test run of Amazon's most viral beauty products. The original and waterproof formulas both have thin comb-like and tapered wands that grip every lash, fanning them out to Bambi-like lengths; the volumising formula has a curved wand that acts like a push-up bra, lifting lashes at the root. The pigments are jet-black (I personally found the waterproof one to be a more muted black), and you can go from subtle to dramatic in a matter of coats.

I can say without any hyperbole that I was completely blown away by the results — when they say "false lash effect," they mean it. But, you don't need to just take my word for it when there's a chorus of Lash Princess stans on Amazon armed and ready with devoted recs. "I’ve used designer, super-hyped, popular mascaras, and NOTHING compares to this stuff," one reviewer wrote. "I don’t even bother using a lash curler anymore! I buy two at a time so I always have a spare — it’s that good!" another chimed in. It's been touted as everything from exceeding the quality of £30 tubes to being the one beauty product a reviewer would bring to a desert island. Some went so far as to divulge it as a beauty secret they would have preferred to keep; "I hate to tell you how good this mascara is!" While the vastly outnumbered negative feedback mentions mostly issues with clumping, many reviewers refute such claims — suggesting that as long as care is taken during the application (e.g. dipping the wand back into the tube between coats), Essence's Lash Princess goes on smooth for an all-day and flake-free wear.