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This Mascara Hack Makes New Tubes Work Way Better

By Brittany Leitner

Published on Apr 3, 2026 • 3 min read

Over here at IPSY, we’ve been beauty obsessed since day one. We’ve seen and tried just about every product that’s out there on the market, which means we know that sometimes, a formula can be perfect, but the application method is just lacking. Or, formulas might act a bit differently when they’re brand new vs. when they’ve been open in your makeup drawer for a few months.

Either way, beauty is all about what works for you, and if you’ve ever noticed that opening a tube of mascara means that your eyelashes have to go through a major adjustment period, you’re not alone. Sometimes, a new tube’s formula is just a little too wet, which means it can be difficult to shape, fluff, and flex your lashes to the sky-high volume you’re after. We’re sharing the ultimate hack that we’ve learned over the course of many trial and error periods that has the power to take lashes to the next level, where it almost looks like you’re wearing falsies.

The good news: there’s an easy fix. This simple hack—learned through years of trial and error—gives you fuller, fluffier, almost-falsies-level lashes in seconds. Here’s exactly how I do it.

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How to Make a New Mascara Actually Work

1. Never Throw Out Your Older Mascara Wand

My old mascara wand (left) vs. my new mascara wand (right)

Okay, maybe not never, as experts do warn that an open tube of mascara is only good for about six months. What I mean is, when you open your new tube, don’t hesitate to keep the old one around. You can see from this side by side that one wand looks significantly wetter than the other. The older, more dried out wand is exactly what you need to achieve this hack.

I love using the TARTE Tartelette™ XL Tubing Mascara as my everyday formula. A tubing mascara will add length to sparse or short lashes by actually attaching to your individual lashes and sealing off a “tube” at the end that makes lashes look longer. Every time I open up a new tube, I make sure to keep my older one around for the transition period.

2. Apply a Few Coats of the New Mascara

My bare lashes (left) vs. lashes with a coat of brand-new mascara (right)

Start with your new, fresh tube. You might notice the formula is going to appear very wet and almost come out too heavily on the new wand. Swipe a few coats of the new one on your lashes and don’t worry about how the lashes look just yet.

Notice how my lashes look with one coat of new mascara on one eye, and totally bare on the other eye. The new coat looks good, but not great and is barely noticeable vs. wearing no mascara at all.

3. Use the Old Wand to Fluff and Separate

After two to three swipes of new mascara, I then reach for the older wand and start running it through lashes using all the tried and true makeup artist tips, like starting at the root and wiggling out to the ends of the lashes.

You’ll quickly notice that doing this a few times with the drier wand helps even out the formula and coat the lashes to perfection without appearing overly thick or clumpy. Just look at the difference between lashes that only have the new formula on them vs. lashes that were fluffed out with the older wand. The lashes on the left side were fluffed out and the lashes on the right just have a few swipes of the new formula on them.

Fluffed-out lashes with my hack (left) vs. no hack mascara (right)

4. Set Your Lashes for All-Day Wear

I find that you don’t even need to use an eyelash curler to get your lashes sky-high when you use this hack. You can ditch all of the extra steps and just finish off the look with a setting spray to keep lashes smudge-free. If you struggle with mascara smudges under your eyes throughout the day, try switching to a tubing mascara, which is water-resistant and stays in place much better than traditional formulas.