Getting mascara on eyeshadow is a common issue in the beauty community. If you find yourself with mascara on your eyeshadow, don’t worry,  it’s an easy fix.

In this post, I connected with a few makeup and beauty gurus and asked them to provide me their best tips for fixing mascara on eyeshadow.

Quick Fix Methods For Fixing Mascara on Eyeshadow

For Regular Eyeshadow – Let it Dry

Mandie Brice, a makeup artist with celebrity experience, shares with me that her best tip for fixing mascara on eyeshadow is to let it dry. Once that happens, use your fingernail or a cotton swab to gently rub it off. This usually won’t impact your freshly-applied shadow!

When you try to wipe off the mascara while it is still wet, it usually smears and exacerbates the issue. This often requires a re-application of eyeshadow. Letting the small piece of mascara dry on the eye and then rubbing it off usually eliminates that issue!

For Highly Pigmented Eyeshadow – Intensify It

Andrea Claire, a hair and celebrity makeup artist, presents a method for fixing mascara on highly pigmented eyeshadow.

For this fix, simply sweep up some of the eyeshadow colors with your brush and mist it with MAC Fix+ which intensifies the pigment. Apply the eyeshadow over your mascara. Usually, this trick hides it well.

For Bigger Mascara Smudges – Incorporate it!

Andrea also suggests that for bigger mascara smudges that are hard to fix, try applying the mascara to both eyes by pressing the wand onto the lid. Try to mirror the smudge and incorporate it into your look. Make it edgy, or smoke it out by layering bronze shadow.

Complete Fix Method

If the quick fix methods above didn’t work for you, you may need to use a more complete method to remove the mascara from your eyeshadow.

Kerrin Jackson,  a three-time Emmy nominated makeup artist and founder of her beauty blog Utter Musings, shares her complete method below:

What You Will Need:

• 1 Doe-Footed Applicator or a Fran Wilson Eye Tee. These are tapered applicators and allow for a precise clean-up of your eyelid.
• 1 Small Makeup Brush
• 1 Eye Makeup Remover. Kerrin recommends Makeup Forever’s Sens’ Eyes.

What You Need to Do:

1.  Dot a tiny amount of eye makeup remover on the back of your hand. Dip your applicator into it and then apply to the mascara area that you want to remove.
2. Once you have removed the mascara, be sure to blot any remaining residue of the remover with a tissue.
3. If you are using Makeup Forever’s Sens’ Eyes (as recommended above), you can apply makeup straight over it without any problem. It’s a miracle product for solving problems like this.
4. If you are not using Sens’s Eyes, ensure your eyelid is free of makeup remover before proceeding.
5. Now that the mascara is removed, you are left with an area without any makeup on it. You will need to treat your eyes like you’re doing a spot-check makeup application.
6. Use a small makeup brush and add the tiniest amount of your foundation to it. You will be filling in a tiny area, so you won’t need a lot of product.
7. Apply the foundation to your eyelid and let it dry.
8. Once the foundation is set, you can re-apply your eyeshadow.  You can use the same brush you were using with your eyeshadow color still deposited on the bristles. You should not need to add any more products to it.
9. Press gently on your eyelid to deposit the color back onto it. Your goal is to get enough color back onto the lid.
10. When you’ve done, can now apply a little more eyeshadow and blend back over the whole area you have applied eyeshadow to. Perhaps you will need to bump up the intensity a little to blend it all seamlessly.
11. If the need to reapply your mascara, be sure to hold your mirror down low when applying your mascara. This is an easy trick to make you apply your mascara from below your eyelids and reduces the chance of you contacting your eyelid with your mascara wand. It may be difficult for those with, particularly long or curly lashes.

How to Keep Mascara from Getting on Eyelids

If you don’t want to fix your mascara on your eyeshadow all the time, it’s important to learn the proper techniques to keep mascara from getting onto your eyelids while applying makeup.

Alyssia Chang, a makeup artist with over 12 years of experience and the founder of Prevail Beauty, shares with me her foolproof method for keeping mascara from getting on eyelids.

What You Will Need:

• Your favorite mascara.
• A Q-Tip.

What You Need To Do:

1. Finish your eye makeup routine as normal if you wear other eye products
2. Tilt your chin up while looking straight into the mirror.
3. While looking into the mirror, keep both eyes open and lift your brows up. This will stretch open the eyelid skin to help with the mascara application.
4. Grab your Q-Tip and place the side of the cotton end on the top eyelid skin. Close to your lash line (this does not wreck or smudge any of your eye makeup if you have any on!).
5. While holding the Q-Tip against the skin, lift a millimeter up. This gently pulls the eyelid up and makes your lashes stick out.
6. Apply your mascara onto your lashes! If you accidently hit your Q-Tip with your mascara wand, it won’t go on your skin at all!
7. For the bottom lashes, tilt your chin and head down while looking straight into the mirror. This will stretch the bottom eye skin area.
8. Wince while looking into the mirror. This will push out your bottom lashes.
9. Using the tip of the mascara wand, not the side like you would normally do for the top lashes, gently drag the tip of the mascara wand left and right on the lower lashes.