ELF mascara. It's $3 or $4 at WalMart. I've used super-expensive mascaras, but this one is the best I've found!

Have worn L’Oréal Voluminous Original forever. I buy brown/black from Walmart for $7.12. Haven’t tried ELF , but have always been happy with their products I have used.

Clinique Naturally Glossy Mascara. $20, so not terrible and it feels light on.

I love Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Lash Multiplying Volume Mascara.

I have worn Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara for a long time. It goes on smoothly and evenly and you can layer on another coat if needed, which I almost never do. Even after trying several others, including L’Oreal Voluminous, Better Than S*x, and a few other samples I can’t remember, I keep coming back to it. I even tried that tube mascara (hated it).

Oh, great...no consensus! (haha) Thanks all.

What do you think about staying with black-brown for mascara and eyebrows? I've only 'gone to grey' starting in March, so still am only 33% grey and the rest the red-brown I'd been dying my hair. Actually, I now have a third color...a natural, darker brown 'streak' originating about the middle of my forehead. My mother had this, and it's one reason I didn't go to grey earlier.

Not something you would want to have done to your lashes but if you go to a salon they can dye your brows. Some people I know carefully apply the over the counter stuff on their brows but rinse it out about half way in the timing for the rest of the hair. The advice I was given for this was to apply moving toward the nose rather than from the nose outward. If it was very runny or very strong solution I do not think it would be safe to use on the brows.

Maybe try a brown mascara if you can find that. Even when I used to color my hair black I wore black/brown as black was too dark for me--go figure.

I've liked Loreal's Volumous and Lash Out for a couple decades at least, in brown/black. I tried their Lash Paradise this year and I liked it better for the reason that I have to be careful with mascara as my lashes are thick and a bit long. When I put on mascara, I can get this false eyelash look, which I don't care for. But with the Lash Paradise, I haven't been getting that, which I appreciate. It still gives a pulled together appearance, but more natural ime. It might be a softer look for you to just pull you together in a way that makes you happy. I find the non-waterproof formula washes off easy enough with Cerave Hydrating Facial Cleanser, baby shampoo, Vanicream facial wash, things like that.

I do color my eyebrows with my hair color. I apply it after I'm done doing my roots. Then I use a wet paper towel when done to wipe off, then shampoo my brows with baby shampoo. Once I have my eyebrows back again, I look and feel better haha. I never did get the hang of eyebrow pencil.

I haven't seen a photo of you, but black/brown, or brown if you can find it, will probably be a soft and pretty look for you.

Edit to add: back in the stone age, before we had gel brow enhancement products, we used to use waterproof brown mascara to give those baby eyebrow hairs a chance to be seen. I would put that on my blonde friends and suddenly, they had 'eyebrows'. None of us really adapted well to the eyebrow pencil.

For too many years to count, I have used Chanel mascara ($32 per tube) but they discontinued the color (Violine) I always bought. Thankfully, I have a small supply in reserve. Ever since I first started wearing eyeliner and mascara, I never, ever, wanted to wear black eyeliner or mascara, because I thought (and still think) it's too harsh for someone with green eyes, brown (now gray) hair, and light-medium skin. So, I always wore brown eyeliner and mascara until I discovered the Chanel Violine color. (And I still have a good supply of the Chanel Professional Cake Eyeliner in the violet color.)

BUT, I have tried, and liked, two relatively new mascaras. First, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna makes Full Frontal Volume, Lift & Curl Mascara ($24 for full size, $14 for mini size) that has an unusual wand -- it's flat on one side and fat on the other. It really does curl your lashes! The full size only comes in black, but the mini size comes in black, green, and burgundy. The second is by Hourglass, and it's the Unlocked Instant Extensions Lengthening Mascara ($29). It only comes in black. This mascara coats your lashes and forms a "tube" around each lash. The thing that's really great is that this mascara can be removed with just warm water, so it's really easy and gentle to remove.

"What do you think about staying with black-brown for mascara and eyebrows?"

I think black-brown is fine...no darker. You mentioned your blue eyes. A brown mascara would also work since brown tends to bring out the eye color more for blue or green eyes.

L'Oreal Voluminous brown/black. When I was in the hospital after my knee surgery, The at-home head of P.T. nurses came in to introduce herself and she said has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful eye lashes or are the fake. No, at 83, no-one has ever said I have beautiful eye lashes. Maybe I took extra time to do them since I had nothing else to do. She wanted to know what I used. I don't know, but I think it's L'Oreal, and it was. :-))))

Ulta carries a brand, Essence. Their mascara is $5 and it's one of my favorites along with Pixie mascara (I think I got it at Target or Walmart) which is also in the same price range. I also like L'oreal Voluminous but will probably stay with the former two. Oh, and for anyone who wears liquid eyeliner, Essence is the best I've ever tried and I believe was $2!

@Hot Rod. Just looked at the Walmart site and there are several kinds of ELF mascara. Would you share the particular kind you are recommending, please.

I, too, have used L'oreal Voluminous for many years. However, the last two tubes I purchased have started clumping. Before I retired, I did use Bobbie Brown and really liked it; all my make up and face care products were Bobbie Brown and Elizabeth Arden. After retirement, no longer felt the need to buy expensive makeup to look my best at multiple meetings. Don't know if they changed their formula of the L'Oreal Voluminous, but I don't like the clumping it does now at all. Would love to check out the ELF that Hot Rod recommends, but want to know which one it is.

WalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a - this is the one I'm currently using. I don't use waterproof, either.

https://www.elfcosmetics.com/lash-extending-mascara/81436.html?cgid=eyes-mascara#start=9&sz=24

Just about anything Lancome works for me. I'll sometimes use one of their formulas and when that's close to dry add another that's heavier, or blacker for a more dramatic effect. (first coat separates, second enhances) Right now that's Hypnose with an application of Monsieur Big. And, I sometimes use brown powder with a fine brush for an eyeliner and wear brown mascara for something different.

My niece gave the OK for the Walmart Elf mascara for her preteens Christmas stockings a year or two ago. She had checked out the ingredients and approved, a stylist who is quite good - but I haven't tried them on me.

Lately I have been using the Maybelline Lash Sensational Boosting serum and Merle Norman's Wicked Lash Mascara and I love both products. I use black/ brown color. My lashes have thinned as I've gotten older and I think the boosting serum helps.

Lancôme and L’Oréal make a really good primer. It really helps with making your eyelashes look thicker and longer. It gives the mascara a good base to adhere to for those of us with thinning eyelashes

I second any Elf recommendations. I love Clinique too.

I've found the biggest difference comes when I use a primer, regardless of the mascara brand.

Who else remembers the kind of mascara that was a hard cake that came in a little plastic box? It came with a brush that you wet then rubbed over the cake of mascara. If there wasn’t any water available, you spit on it.

Mascara has come a long way since then.

ME, I remember it! It was Maybelline who made the cake. It came in a little red case and it slid open. I love cake mascara.

MDLN - that is being made again by Besame. https://besamecosmetics.com/products/black-cake-mascara. I just bought the brown but they have black and violet too. It is a learning curve with the little brush but I like the idea of it and use it for mascara, liner and eyebrows. The cake dries before I close the lid so I think it is less likely to get contaminated than the tubes.

Never used it, but recall seeing it as a child.

Thank you so much, Hot Rod, for the info. It is very much appreciated.

brdrl, I use Besame's cake mascaras. Wanna know my trick? I don't use the brush. I use clear mascara, running the wand over the cake. Goes on easily and helps it set properly.

:)

I bet I could find one of those red boxes of mascara in the back of my mother’s makeup drawer. How funny that it has been resurrected. Sooner or later, everything old is new again!

Ha ha. No recommendations on a good mascara, but liked seeing the red box. I used to sneak my mom's mascara like that and put it on before I went to 7th grade in the mornings.54 years ago!

Oh, I remember the Maybelline cake. It took 3 hours of babysitting 3 children at 50 cents an hour to buy it! OK, I’m old..... Now use the tried and true Maybelline in the pink and green tube and Netrogena remover. Don’t get dolled up much right now with chemo baldness but they claim it will all come back. Time will tell.

I use this one from JC and like it.

https://www.sephora.com/product/better-than-sex-mascara-P381000