Sure, black mascara may the ultimate gold standard for creating ultra defined, voluminous, and elongated lashes, but if you happen to be one of the people that prefer a more subtle eye makeup look, have light-colored hair and eyebrows, or simply like to dabble with the no-makeup-makeup look, let us make the case here for brown mascara. Look, it’s most certainly not as piercing as your blackest black formula, and if you plan to do a bold cat eye—or any liquid eyeliner look, for that matter—it’s not going to complement your wing, as well as a deeper hue, will, but if you want to give you lackluster lashes a bit of oomph without looking over-the-top or being obvious (like the models do on casting calls for brands and designers) brown mascara will quickly become your natural, “I woke up like this,” lineup complete.

Brown mascaras are also wonderful to use on your bottom lash lines for a more doe-eyed look—even when you’ve coated your top lashes with a black formula. Finally, brown and dark brown hues are also great for those with blue, hazel, and green eyes because the warm hue helps make these colors pop. To make your search a bit easier, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite brown mascaras that we’re pretty sure you’ll love too.

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