Kosas Soulgazer mascara review: Is it worth the hype?

Freelance beauty editor Lucy Partington is notoriously fussy about mascara. After trying hundreds over the years, this is the one she’s reached for every day for the past 12 months. 

In nearly 15 years of working in the beauty industry, there are few questions I’ve been asked more often than, “What’s the best mascara?” It seems there’s always someone looking for a new lash-lengthening, volume-boosting formula – and until last year, I was no different.

A bit like finding a signature scent, discovering a mascara you can rely on day in, day out is no mean feat. The right product depends on everything from your lash length and eye shape to whether you have oily or dry lids, plus the shape and size of the brush can completely change how a mascara applies and performs. But, after years of rotating through countless tubes in search of ‘the one’, I think I’ve finally found it.

Kosas’ Soulgazer Lengthening + Lifting Peptide Mascara, £28, launched last summer, and since then, it’s the only mascara I’ve had in my make-up bag. Kosas is a brand I’ve used, loved and trusted for years – I was buying it on trips to the US long before it launched here in the UK – so I had high hopes that its debut mascara would deliver. I’m pleased to tell you that it really, really did, and it still does.

The formula the perfect consistency – not too wet (because truly there’s nothing worse) but also not too dry. It separates my lashes well, adding just the right amount of length and a decent amount of volume, without having to use lash curlers. It gives me more than natural-looking lashes, but it’s also not so thick or black that they look spidery or like I’m wearing falsies. Plus, it really doesn’t smudge or budge on me.

I’m quite fussy about brushes, too. I much prefer something slimmer instead of anything too big or too fluffy, and the curved silicone brush that Soulgazer comes with is an important part of why it works so well for me. It fans lashes out beautifully, gripping each one individually to create both lift and definition, while the evenly spaced bristles help prevent clumping, even after applying a few coats. The brush means I don’t end up smudging mascara all over my eyelids while applying it.

And finally, we need to talk about another added bonus: Soulgazer is formulated with myristoyl pentapeptide-17, a lash-conditioning peptide that’s designed to support visibly longer and fuller-looking lashes over time. So, if you’re anything like me and can never seem to build the daily habit of applying a lash serum, it’s the non-committal girl’s way to incorporate a lash-loving ingredient into a step you’re already doing. And while I wouldn’t want to say that it replaces a dedicated serum entirely, I think my lashes are longer and healthier-looking than they were this time last year.

Now, Kosas, if you’re reading this, could I please request a brown version? Grant me this one wish and I think I’d never need to use another mascara again.