We tested 6 of the top waterproof mascaras to find which one is best

• We tried six best-selling waterproof mascara formulas to find the best one.
• We judged the mascaras on added volume, added length, waterproof-ness, and ease of removal.
• After swimming in each mascara, we decided theL'Oréal Lash Paradise came out on top.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Nico: This is "How Much Should I Spend?" where we test a product at various price points to let you know which is the best value for your money.

Today I am gonna be testing out six waterproof mascaras. I know that a lot of people are waterproof-mascara fanatics, like, ride or die, waterproof mascara is the only mascara that they use. It's also summertime. It's really, really hot outside. People are sweating their makeup off. They're going to the beach and the pool with makeup on, so it's very important to have a waterproof mascara that's gonna last you all day long. The mascaras I'm going to be testing out today are the e.l.f. Waterproof Lengthening and Volumizing mascara, Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof mascara, L'Oréal's Voluminous Lash Paradise waterproof mascara, Milk Makeup's Kush waterproof mascara, Diorshow Iconic Overcurl waterproof mascara, and the Tom Ford Emotionproof mascara.

Of course, I am gonna be jumping into a pool to test out how waterproof these mascaras actually are, but I'm also looking out for how well they are at volumizing, lengthening, and their ease of removal. Now, let's see which mascara came out on top.

This brush feels straight-up dry.

I think that for being $3, the e.l.f. mascara wasn't a huge, total disappointment. It definitely does give me a little bit of length and volume, but nothing that's, like, very obvious. The formula did feel a little weird applying it, but seeing, like, the after-swimming effect that happened, I really kind of hate this. So, I did have to use quite a bit of remover and two cotton pads to fully get the mascara off of my lashes. It's not the easiest to remove.

I really like how this one looks so far. Great Lash Waterproof actually performs very similarly to the original Great Lash, which I love, so I actually really, really liked this one. I feel like the volume and the length is definitely there.
I kind of don't hate it. It's also not as smudgy. I see a little bit of smudging on this eye, but that might've been from my application. It doesn't look like there's mascara anywhere else on my face, though, which I saw with the e.l.f. one.
So, this one was also a lot easier to remove than the e.l.f. one. I have one very heavily used cotton pad, and I didn't have to dip back in for more makeup remover, which was really nice. So, I think, overall, this one is actually pretty good. I can see why so many people rave about this mascara literally all the time. This looks so good. This is everything that I want in a mascara. It's just very fluffy and fluttery and pretty.

They seem to be getting better as the price goes up, which is interesting. Because the first one was really, really clumpy, second one was pretty clumpy, but this one is getting less clumpy. There's more separation in the clumps.
I did have to spend a little extra time really rubbing my actual lash line just to get off all of that product. It did take some work, but I eventually got it all off and with only one cotton pad and no dipping back into my remover, so.
I am obsessed with this mascara. I feel like it does perform very similarly to that Lash Paradise waterproof that we tried earlier. I just really love how it makes my lashes look very fluffy and fluttery and long. It's so pretty. I love the effect it gives.

When I read the reviews for this mascara, it said that it smudges quite a lot, but I see very, very minimal smudging after swimming with the mascara on.
That removal was a little bit rough. I kind of just destroyed this cotton pad from how hard I was trying to get that product out of my lashes. It just doesn't seem like the type of formula that breaks down very easily with an eye-makeup remover.

This mascara was just very meh for me. It doesn't kind of blow me away like some of the other ones have. I feel like, after trying all the drugstore ones and then trying this one, it kind of feels like a bit of a step down. I would much rather go for maybe that Lash Paradise one than this one, which is way more expensive. Like, $20 more expensive.
I do see a little bit of mascara under my eye. Like, a couple little specks. I see a black dot here and some on my upper lid. So, there is some transfer with this one. It did smudge a bit.

Removal with this one was actually pretty easy, compared to some of the others. I feel like even though I didn't love how it looked on my lashes, it actually removed itself fairly quickly. This is really nice. I feel like my lashes do look the way that I like them to look. Again, fluffy, fluttery, pretty, very long. And I do feel like it doesn't look clumpy anywhere. It looks very smooth and pretty.

This one definitely has the most separation and much smaller clumps than the other mascaras did. Ooh, I don't want to love a $46 mascara, but I think that I do. It definitely wasn't the hardest mascara to remove out of all the ones I tried today, but I did have to put in a bit of extra work and remover.

After testing out each one of the mascaras and seeing how they perform in and out of water, I think that I finally have come to a winner. The L'Oréal Lash Paradise waterproof version.

It was a very close call between the Tom Ford one and the L'Oréal one, but at the end of the day, I had to go with the L'Oréal one because I do think that it is a much better value for your money. The effect that both of those mascaras gave me was very similar. They gave me very pretty, fluttery, fluffy lashes, which I love. The length and volume was there for both of these mascaras.

When I jumped into the pool wearing the Lash Paradise, it didn't smudge or flake off anywhere. It did do that weird little clumping thing that all of the mascaras did to some extent, but it wasn't anything terrible. When it came to ease of removal, this is where the Tom Ford mascara fell kind of short for me. It was much easier to remove the L'Oréal one than it was the Tom Ford one, and that was my deciding factor. So, if you're on the market for a great waterproof mascara and have 10 bucks to spare, I'd say give the L'Oréal Lash Paradise a try.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in September 2019.