Why Every Mascara You've Bought Has Been Working Against You After 50

why most mascara's you've bought has been working against you after 50

"i've made up women's faces for 30 years. here is the change after 50 that quietly ruined every mascara you own. and why it was never your fault."

By Susan Harper i

Make-up artist, Wine lover & Blogger

Updated 2 DAYS AGO | 4 min read

Every woman over fifty has the same drawer.

The drugstore mascara. The pricey “for mature women” a friend swore by. The waterproof one.

Half used, all kept, because tossing them feels like giving up.

I have that drawer too. And I've made up faces for thirty years.

Yet there I was at my own mirror at two in the afternoon, staring at the smudge, asking what a hundred clients had asked me.

Where did my lashes go? Why won't a mascara stay put?

And blaming my own hand for it.

Then I found the real reason in the last place I expected.

A doctor's chair, at an appointment that had nothing to do with mascara. Ninety seconds later, every dead tube in that drawer made sense. Along with something worse, quietly happening to my lashes.

I'll get to what he said. But first, the part you already know is true.

You are not bad at this. It was never your technique. You never lost your looks. Nobody ever made a mascara for the eyelids you have now.

the moment it clicked, in an eye doctor's chair

It clicked when I stopped looking at the mascara and started looking at the eyelid.

My eye doctor, Dr. Bloomer, showed me that.

I'd gone in for watering eyes, expecting drops. Instead he looked at my lids and said something no beauty counter ever had.

"Your eyelids changed. Your mascara didn't."

I laughed. My lashes were sparse, sure. But my eyelids? What did they have to do with a mascara that wouldn't stay put?

He took his pen and paper.

"See these glands along the rim, where your lashes grow out? They make an oil. After menopause it comes out thicker, and it sits right at the lash line all day. Your lashes stand in it. So does your mascara. And mascara is wax."

"So the oil is melting it," I said.

"That's it. Thicker oil melts it faster. Then it slides. Under your eye, into the crease. That's your smudge. And the skin there is thinner now, so the flakes that used to annoy you? Now they sting."

He leaned back from the scope.

"It's like wearing summer shoes onto ice and blaming your feet. The shoes were fine. The ground changed."

Ninety seconds. The smudge, the flakes, the itch by four.

A decade of blaming myself, gone.

It was never me. And it was never you.

Then he said the part I wasn't ready for.

"but that's not all of it. that mascara's been making your lashes worse."

"Think about how you take it off," he said.

"The wax that didn't slide off is still gripping the lash at night. So you rub, you tug, and a few lashes come with it. Never enough to notice. But it adds up."

He was right. I'd watched it on my cotton pad for years and called it normal.

"Here's why it matters now. At twenty-five, every lash you pulled grew back. Not anymore. Your body sends your lashes less of what they need. So what the pad takes tonight stays gone. Or comes back thinner."

That stopped me cold. He'd just told me where my lashes had gone.

Less of the signal that tells a lash to grow.

Less of the protein it's built from.

Less of the moisture that lets it bend instead of snap.

So they come in shorter, thinner, fewer. You did nothing wrong. Your body just sends less now.

And it compounds. Wax is heavy, so on fewer lashes it sits heavier. Clumps. A curl that quits by ten.

So you use more, scrub harder, and take even more lashes.

The waterproof one was the worst. Water wouldn't touch it, so you dragged a pad until your lid went red. The one that smudged the least cost you the most lashes.

Menopause started it. Your mascara has been finishing it.

So every tube handed you the same choice. Wear it and pay for it, or skip it and feel invisible.

And skipping was never really a choice. Mascara is the one thing that makes you look like yourself.

Awake instead of washed out. There instead of gone.

so i stopped looking for a better mascara. i started looking for a different one.

So now I had the reason. I still needed the fix.

For me first. My lashes had thinned, my eyes had stopped showing up, and every tube I tried smudged by noon.

Thirty years at this, and I couldn't fix it on my own face.

So I didn't guess. I went digging, where I find everything now.

A woman my age, in a comment, describing exactly what my doctor had told me. The thicker oil. The wax melting by noon.

And at the end, a name: GraceLash Tubing Mascara, from a small brand called Grace & Muse.

First I'd ever heard of it.

So I did my homework. An evening reading everything I could find on what goes in the tube.

I'm a makeup artist, not a chemist. I can't swear to every claim, but I know what's failed on my clients, and I know what to look for.

I'd tried the tubing ones before. Thrive. Prime. Laura Geller. Length and little else. No volume. Murder to remove.

So another tubing mascara was the last thing I wanted.

What stopped me was that GraceLash did three jobs, not one. And in thirty years, I'd never seen one do even two.

Here's what's different.

job 1: build up your sparse lashes, with the wax sealed away from your oil

Gracelash doesn't paint your lashes. It was built for one thing: sparse lashes after 50. The few, the fine, the ones that thinned out.

It wraps each one in a light, sealed tube. Base to tip. Every lash you have left, built one by one.

And here's what caught me. That seal is the part Dr. Bloomer said was missing. GraceLash never puts wax on your lash at all. The tube is what touches your lash. And the tube isn't wax, so your oil has nothing to melt. So your oil has nothing to melt. Nothing to smudge.

The tubing mascaras I tried were empty sleeves. Length, but no volume. The GraceLash tube isn't hollow. That's the point. It has two layers. And between them sits the wax. Not normal wax. Ceará carnauba.

I knew the name before I saw it here. It's in the pricey skincare, because this grade isn't cheap. From the "Tree of Life" palm in Brazil. The strongest wax on earth. So a littile trace is enough. Real volume, almost no weight.

So here it is in one breath. The tube shields. The carnauba builds. That's why it does what the others couldn't.

On at seven, still there at six, they said. Through heat, sweat, rain, tears. Even a hot flash.

I've heard "stays put" before. Every waterproof mascara in that drawer promised it, and I've got the red lids to show how that went. So I read it the way I read all of them. Sure you do.

But I know the hot flash they mean. The one that shows up in a meeting uninvited and leaves you fanning yourself. If a mascara could hold through that, alright. I'd want to see it.

Their claim, not mine yet: nothing under your eyes, nothing flaking in, the curl still set.

Small batches only, they say. Real reason, or a nice line. We'll see.

One thing I could actually judge, though. The wand. Every brush I've used was built for thick lashes, so it skips the fine ones and dumps on the rest. This one's thinner, made to catch the sparse and the short. That part I believed. The tube can only build what the wand catches.

job 2: come off without a fight, so nothing pulls

Here's the part I cared about most. Removal.

Every lash you've lost at the sink, you pulled off yourself. Dr. Bloomer told me that too.

Tug at the lids every night and you lose a few. Never enough to notice. Enough to add up.

So I wanted to know why this one wouldn't.

It's the coat. A bare lash is rough, like any hair, and that's what a tube grabs.

Gracelash never touches the bare lash. Castor oil and ginseng are in the formula, sitting against the lash so the tube never grips the hair.

At night, you hold a warm, wet cloth to your eyes. Twenty seconds, maybe thirty.

And the tubes let go. They slide off whole and rinse away. No remover. No pad. No dragging at your lids.

Which left me the obvious question. If it comes off that easy, how does it last all day?

It's not heat alone. It's heat that stays. Warm, still, and long enough.

A hot flash comes and goes, and you're moving, blinking. Sweat rolls off. Rain and tears run off. None of it sits warm and still on your lashes for thirty full seconds.

Only a cloth does that. Only you, on purpose, at the sink.

Nothing grips. So nothing pulls.

The lashes leaving on the cotton every night? That's what stops.

job 3: feed your lashes what your body stopped sending, while you wear it

This is the one that convinced me.

Think about what mascara is. It sits on your lashes all day. The best seat in the house. And every tube I'd used sat in that seat and took.

Remember what Dr. Bloomer told me. After menopause, your body sends your lashes less of what they need. Less signal. Less protein. Less moisture. That's why they thinned out.

So the fix was never to force them. It was to feed them what they'd been missing.

Plenty of tubes make a claim on the box. Some vague vitamin. A conditioner. Ingredients you can't pronounce.

Not that. The actual three your body stopped making. That's the Lash Refill Complex.

I looked up each one.

A peptide. The signal that tells a lash to keep growing.

Biotin. The protein it's built from.

Castor oil and ginseng. The moisture that lets it bend instead of snap.

You met those last two at the sink. The coat that slides the tubes off feeds your lashes all day.

And this isn't a serum. I insist on that.

A serum forces the follicle, usually with prostaglandins, the hormone type that can leave sunken eyes or shedding behind. I've watched that go wrong on clients. Real damage, real faces.

This forces nothing. No hormones. It just puts back the three things your body stopped making. Slowly. Over weeks, not overnight.

I won't promise a number. But the reviews say the same quiet thing, women my age, a few weeks in, more lashes than when they started.

Fed every day for weeks, sparse lashes don't stay sparse. That much I've seen. Review after review.

That's not a drug. That's a refill.

so i ordered it.

So that was the pitch. Three jobs, and a formula that, on paper, actually made sense.

But paper is paper. I've read good pitches before.

What tipped me was the guarantee. Sixty days, wear it on your worst day, send it back if it fails and keep your money. The risk was theirs, not mine. After thirty years of tubes that let me down on my own dime, that was new.

So I thought, what the heck. Worst case I mail it back. I ordered it that night.

It turned up a few days later, in a nice box with a handwritten note. Two tubes, actually, black and brown, because I wanted to see both. But the box was never going to win me over. The face in the mirror would.

here is what it did for me

Here is what it did for me

I've worn it a month and a half now. Here's the honest version.

I'll start with my own face. I doubted this more than anyone...

The first morning, it went on in thirty seconds and I didn't think much of it. Then I looked up.

And there were my eyes.

Not spidery. Not drawn on. Not someone else's idea of lashes. Natural. Defined. Just mine, showing up the way they used to.

I stood at that mirror longer than I want to admit.

Then I went about my day, and here's what I keep coming back to: I forgot about them.

No checking at noon. No fingertip sliding under my eye at my desk. The hot flash came at three, the way it does, and my mascara stayed exactly where I'd left it. At six, still there.

That night, a warm cloth. Twenty seconds. Gone. And every lash I'd woken up with was still on my face, not on the cotton.

Let me be straight with you. I'm not telling you this is some miracle in a tube. It isn't. It's a mascara. It's just one that was actually made for our lashes, at our age. That's it.

Then, the part I didn't expect

A few weeks in, the sparse corners started to fill. Less brittle. Fewer bald spots. My eyes looked more awake, even on the mornings I'd done nothing to them.

The corners I'd given up on came back. It felt like I had more lashes to work with than when I started. Not someone else's lashes. Mine.

Then a friend caught me one morning, no mascara, and asked what I'd had done to my lashes. Nothing, I said. That was just them now.

don't take my word for it. i'm biased. take theirs.

Don't take my word for it. I'm biased. Take theirs.

I’m 63 and gave up on mascara four years ago. Sick of leaving the house put-together and coming home looking like I’d been crying. My daughter sent me GraceLash. Put it on at 7am, watched a sad movie, cried, looked in the mirror, and my lashes were still THERE. Two months in, I swear I have more than when I started.

Linda M., 63 Verified customer

r/ r/MakeupAddiction • Posted by u/denise_r61 • 2 mo. ago

Finally a mascara that doesn’t wreck my lashes at 61

I’ve got a whole drawer of the tubing ones everyone raves about. Length and nothing else, and I still scrubbed them off at night tugging at my lids. GraceLash actually gives me a bit of volume. At night, a warm cloth and it slides away. Nothing pulling, nothing on the cotton.

Comments on GraceLash

Carol Henderson My eyes water at nothing and I wear contacts, so mascara and I broke up years ago. Everything stung or smeared by noon. This is the first one that stays put and leaves my eyes alone. Wore it all day at my grandson’s christening. Nothing to wipe away.

Like Reply 3w 42

Maureen Farmer My lids have gone hooded, so every mascara printed a smudge line up top by midday. I’d stopped checking mirrors after lunch. This one stays down on the lash where I put it. Nothing prints on the crease anymore.

Like Reply 1w 18

where can i buy gracelash?

Where can I buy GraceLash?

Clients always ask where to get it. So I checked.

There are cheaper copies on Facebook and Amazon. They're not the same. What's inside the tube is the whole point, and the copies don't have it.

I only send clients to the official Grace & Muse site.

You get 60 days. Wear it on your worst day. If it doesn't hold, send it back and keep your money. Keep the tube too.

One client swore it wouldn't work on her. Tried it, asked for a refund. They refunded her, no argument, and told her to keep the tube. A month later she was wearing it.

So I trust the guarantee. I've watched it work.

One note: they make it in small batches, so it sells out. In stock when you look? Take it.

Now, woman to woman. It comes in black and brown.

Black is bold. For evenings, photos, when you want to be seen. If your hair's still dark, it just looks like you.

Brown is softer. As we grey, black can look hard on us. Brown reads more natural in daylight, especially with fair or grey hair and lighter eyes. Most days past 50, it's the softer choice.

That's why I keep both. Brown for every day. Black for a night out.

who this isn't for

Who this isn't for

Don't buy this if you're 25 and your lashes are still fine. It wasn't made for you. Enjoy that while it lasts.

Don't buy this if you think it's a lash serum that works in a week. It isn't. It's a mascara. The lashes come back slow, over weeks, not days.

Don't buy this if you shop on price alone. It's more than a drugstore tube, on purpose. If cheapest is all that matters, you've already got a drawer full of it.

But if you've tried everything, and nothing ever gave your sparse lashes that natural, defined look you've been missing? This is the one I'd hand you.

an exclusive deal for my readers

An exclusive deal for my readers

Before I published this, I reached out to Debra, the owner of Grace & Muse. I asked if she'd do something for the women reading this.

She said yes.

And I don't earn a thing if you use it. I just don't think women who've already paid enough should pay full price on top of it.

So here's what she agreed to. Free shipping. A free gift in the box. And $29.95 off when you take two, so you can keep one brown and one black.

That's two tubes for $39.95, instead of $69.90.

You don't need a code. Go through the link below and it's already applied at checkout.

I don't know how long they'll leave it up. It was a favor, and I didn't ask for a promise on timing.

So if it's still there when you go, I wouldn't wait.

Sixty days to decide. Keep the tube either way. You've waited long enough.

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17COMMENTS

Linda Mitchell

2 days ago

Bought GraceLash three weeks ago after reading this. I'm 64. Used it every day since. My husband actually said my eyes look "brighter." He never notices ANYTHING lol. And the warm water removal. Not a single lash on the cotton pad. I nearly cried. Game changer.

Patricia Wagner

3 days ago

I have very hooded eyes. Every mascara I've tried turns me into a raccoon by lunch. Migrates right onto the lid. I've thrown out at least 7 mascaras in the past 3 years. Is GraceLash actually different for hooded eyes? Scared to throw another $40 away.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Patricia Wagner · 3 days ago

Hi Patricia. I have hooded eyes too. Two things help here. The wand is smaller than the big fluffy brushes most brands use, so it doesn't dump product on your lid before reaching the lash. And because tubing wraps each lash in a sleeve (instead of sitting wet on top), there's nothing to migrate onto your crease as the day wears on. The 60 day guarantee is what got me to try it. If it doesn't work for your eyes, you send it back. Nothing lost.

Barbara Sullivan

4 days ago

I was a Thrive girl for SIX years. You nailed everything. The wand picks up too much product. The curl collapsed by lunch. I kept thinking it was just me getting older. It wasn't. The formula just couldn't keep up.

Margaret Foster

5 days ago

I'm 71. Gave up mascara entirely two years ago. Every night I was losing more lashes scrubbing it off. The cotton pad full of lashes broke something in me. Reading this gave me a tiny bit of hope. If I try GraceLash, how do I take it off without doing more damage? I can't lose any more.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Margaret Foster · 5 days ago

Hi Margaret. This is exactly why I came back too. I thought I was done. Here's how it works. Warm water on a soft washcloth. Press it on your closed eyes for about 30 seconds. The little sleeves soften and slide off in one piece. You'll see them on the cloth as tiny black flecks. That's the tubes coming off, not your lashes. No scrubbing. No tugging. Your lashes stay where they belong. A year in and that part still feels like magic to me.

Sandra Klein

6 days ago

Honestly? I'm exhausted by every brand swearing it's THE one. I've heard it. Bought it. Thrown it away. What makes this any different from the last five that promised the same thing? Not trying to be rude. Just tired.

Carol Bennett

1 week ago

Most useful mascara article I've read in years. Thank you for not pretending to love everything. The "It's not the one" at the end of each review killed me lol. Bookmarked.

Sharon Whitfield

1 week ago

I was worried about microplastics in tubing mascara. Read somewhere they're microplastics. Have you looked into this Susan? Trying to be more careful what I put on my body at our age. Otherwise the GraceLash review made it sound exactly like what I've been searching for.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Sharon Whitfield · 1 week ago

Hi Sharon. Good question, this comes up a lot. Yes, tubing mascaras use polymers. That's how the formula wraps each lash in a sleeve. But polymer doesn't automatically mean microplastic. Polymers are just molecules that link together in chains. Honey contains polymers. Wool is made of polymers. Your own hair is a polymer. Microplastics are one specific synthetic type that breaks apart into tiny floating particles. The polymers in tubing mascara are not that. They come off as whole little sleeves in warm water. You can actually see them on the cloth. Not the same thing. I asked this same question before I tried it. Once I understood the difference, I stopped worrying.

Nancy Rasmussen

2 weeks ago

I've curled my straight lashes since I was 13. Tried two tubing mascaras over the years and both straightened my curl by lunch. Does GraceLash actually hold a curl? Because every tubing mascara I've ever tried hasn't.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Nancy Rasmussen · 2 weeks ago

Hi Nancy. This was my biggest fear too. Thrive flattened my curl by lunch for years. The difference with GraceLash is the formula sets faster, so there's less wet weight pulling the curl down before it dries. Curl your lashes first, then two coats. Holds all day. I tested it through my daughter's wedding in Florida last June. June. Florida. Ceremony. It still held. The first tubing mascara that didn't kill my curl.

Karen Donnelly

2 weeks ago

Susan, I've been reading you for three years. You're the only beauty person who doesn't treat us like we're 25. The other channels keep telling us to "glow." What does that even mean when your skin is what it is now? You actually get it.

Donna Pickering

3 weeks ago

$40 is a lot for me. I retired last year and I'm careful with money now. Is it really worth it over the drugstore options? I want to believe. But I've burned through enough $15 mascaras to be cautious about anything that costs nearly triple.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Donna Pickering · 3 weeks ago

Hi Donna. Totally hear you. Quick clarification first. With the buy-one-get-one offer running on the site, it's actually two tubes for $40, not one. So if you grab it during the promo you're paying about $20 per tube. Still more than drugstore, I won't pretend otherwise. But here's how I think about it. You said you've burned through enough $15 mascaras to be cautious. Most of us in this thread have done the same. Three tubes you threw away at $15 is $45. One that actually works for around the same money is just better math. And you have 60 days to try it. Doesn't work for you, send it back. The risk is on them, not you. That's what got me to try it in the end.

Cynthia Harlow

3 weeks ago

Bought PrimeLash because of their Facebook ads. EXACTLY what you described. Sticky on the second coat. Spider legs by 2pm. Curl gone by lunch. The marketing IS great. The product was nothing. Glad I'm not the only one who fell for it.

Kathleen O'Brien

1 month ago

Just turned 65. Wear contacts every day. Most mascaras have my eyes watering by noon. Tempted to try GraceLash but a little nervous after the Laura Geller mess (which I also bought, wish I'd read this first). Any other contact wearers here who've tried it?

Deborah Frankel

1 month ago

You mentioned GraceLash has ingredients that "feed" your lashes. After everything I've read online about lash serums (sunken eyes, eye color changes, lashes falling out when you stop), I'm honestly terrified to put anything "growth" near my eyes. Can you tell me more about what's actually in this one?

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Deborah Frankel · 1 month ago

Hi Deborah. Your fear makes sense. The scary side effects you're reading about come from prescription lash serums. GraceLash is NOT a lash serum. It's a tubing mascara that happens to have some conditioners and vitamins built into the formula. The kind of things that just feed your lashes a bit while you wear it. Not the heavy ingredients you're worried about. I've used it for almost a year now. After about two months in, my lashes looked less starved than they had been. That's the only way I know how to describe it. A bit more body. A bit darker at the root. I'm not going to pretend I ran a clinical study on my own face. But I noticed it. And I'm still using it.

Diane Sutherland

1 month ago

Slight disagreement on ILIA. I get on with mine fine and I'm 67. Not arguing the smudging point, maybe it's my eyelid chemistry. But the rest of the article was spot on, especially Laura Geller. Tried that one. Took me a week to fully get it off my lashes. UGH.

Joan Whitley

1 month ago

Susan, what do you use on your lower lash line? Mine were always lighter than my uppers, but now they're basically invisible. I don't want to buy a second tubing mascara if there's a simpler answer. Help?

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Joan Whitley · 1 month ago

Hi Joan. Great question, I get this one a lot. For my lower lash line I actually use the Laura Geller Longwear from the review. The problems I had with it on uppers (clumping, hard to remove) don't really show up when you're only using a tiny amount on the lowers. A whisper of it on the wand tip, that's it. The pigment is what makes it work here. My lower lashes show up without spider legs. Here's the one I use: https://www.amazon.com/LAURA-GELLER-NEW-YORK-Longwear

Bonnie Hartman

1 month ago

Loved this mascara breakdown. Any chance you'd do the same for foundation next? I'm 66 and every one I try either settles into every line on my face or turns orange by lunch. I'm so sick of the trial and error. Would trust your picks over anyone's.

Susan HarperEditor

Reply to Bonnie Hartman · 1 month ago

Hi Bonnie. Foundation is the #1 topic in my inbox right now. I'm halfway through testing 8 of them on myself, and on a few brave friends. Hopefully ready to share in the next few weeks. Hang tight.

Janet Caldwell

2 months ago

Sending this to my sister. She's 68. We both used to love getting ready. We both gave up. Maybe this is the way back in for both of us. Thanks Susan.