I had a few dried-out mascaras that shouldn’t have been biting the dust this early into their three-month careers.

As I contemplated just throwing them out, I started to wonder if there was a way to resurrect the formula.

But when I googled around to find a solution, I found nothing but articles with lots of methods to try. How annoying. I just wanted the one best way.

So, after some experimenting, that’s what I’m giving you here! Not the eight ways, most of them questionably effective; not the five different options with no indication of which is superior.

This is the one best way how to fix dry mascara, as determined by me via experimentation.

Overview

Let’s get right to it! Here’s an overview of the one best way I found revive dry mascara:

1. Add 5 Eyedrops, One Drop at a Time
2. Swirl (Not Pump) the Brush in the Tube

That’s it!

Now, it may wind up that your mascara is a bit more problematic and needs additional TLC. If that’s the case, you can take advantage of optional steps 3 and 4: wipe down the wand and soak the tube in hot water.

But that’s all there is to it! Now we’ll discuss the steps in a little more detail.

Step 1: Add 5 Eyedrops, One Drop at a Time

First, you’ll take your eyedrops (any eyedrops will do) and add five drops, one by one.

Pro tip—if you try to add them all at once, you’ll have a mess on your hands. Best to add one drop, use the wand to push the liquid past the stopper, add the second drop, etc.

If this winds up not being enough liquid to fix your dry mascara, try adding another three or four drops after completing the other steps.

Step 2: Swirl (Not Pump) the Brush in the Tube

Now that you have some liquid in the tube, you’ll want to mix it in with the existing formula. To do this, you’ll want to swirl the wand inside the tube for a minute or so.

Make sure you never—now or ever in life—pump the wand into the tube over and over again! This pushes air into your mascara and encourages dryness and clumping.

Step 3: Wipe Down the Wand if Necessary

After completing the first few steps, you may find that the mixing wasn’t perfect and you have clumps and gooeyness on your wand.

To get this off, just take a Kleenex and wipe all the product off your wand. Once you put it back in the tube and take it out again, things will look more eyelash-ready.

Step 4: Soak Tube in a Cup of Hot Water if Necessary

If your mascara is particularly far gone, it may not mix well with the eyedrops. To encourage the two to blend, try soaking your (tightly closed!) mascara tube in hot water for about a minute. Then swirl the brush inside the tube again. This temperature change should have made the drops and the formula more willing to combine for you.

The Results

For me, the swatches proved plenty of improvement. And I noticed I needed far less fussing to get the kind of lashes I want out of the formula, whereas before, there was endless meddling and reworking to get voluminous, non-clumpy lashes.

Hurrah!

It’s my hope that you find my one way how to fix dry mascara to be your one way as well. We don’t need a list of 20 experiments to run (nor do we have 20 dried out mascaras to run them on). We just need the way that’s going to make it happen for us.

May all your mascaras be revived and all your days be good eyelash days.

Psst. Want to learn more about how mascara works in the first place? Curious about mascara ingredients and what makes a dry formula in the first place? Check out my post on it!