YSL Beauty’s Radical Volumizing Mascara Is the Key to Long, Fluttery Lashes — Review, Photos

Although the wonderful world of false lashes is an essential part of my makeup routine, I still heavily rely on mascara. Falsies simply cannot provide my bottom lashes with the love they need and deserve. And I’ll be honest: Just the thought of grabbing lash glue and meticulously placing on fake lashes exhausts me sometimes. 

The YSL Beauty Radical Volumizing Mascara has become the next best thing for my lashes recently. When I first got my hands on the 2021 Best of Beauty Award-winning product, its sleek, black-and-gold tube instantly mesmerized me. Between the metallic accents and embossed YSL logo, the mascara already had me oohing and aahing. 

As eye-catching as the packaging is, I needed to make sure the mascara met my lashes’ needs, too. They’re fairly naturally long, so I typically gravitate toward thickening and volumizing mascara formulas. Plus, I love a mid-sized applicator with either cylindrical- or hourglass-shaped bristles that draw out every single itty-bitty lash on my upper and lower lids. 

Once I twisted open the Radical Volumizing Mascara’s gorgeous tube to see its glossy black formula on cylindrical-shaped bristles with a tapered tip, it earned my seal of approval right away. A wand like this, especially with smaller bristles at the tip, makes swiping product onto my fine lower lashes mess-free. 

I don’t have any fancy tricks for finessing my mascara. For the top lashes, I’ll tend to go in with a few coats on the top and underside until every single lash has been saturated in pigment. Then, I’ll address the bottom lashes with the same standard. But I decided to get some advice on the best way to apply mascaras that have cylindrical wands like this YSL mascara from New York City-based makeup artist Joseph Carillo. These wands are best for volumizing, he tells Allure. 

He recommends starting at the root of the lash and then moving the wand up and out through the lash hairs. “I like to start right in the center of the eye [to create] lots of volume and length there, and then [move] towards the outer corners,” he explains. “And with the remainder of the mascara on the wand, [I’ll hit] the front lashes closest to the inner corner.”