An Honest Review of Huda Beauty ‘1 Coat Wow!’ Mascara

You know how people talk about how their hair is thick or fine? Well, I’m convinced that having a certain hair type affects more than just the hair on your head. My reasoning? Just like my fine, flat hair, my lashes lack volume and fullness, too. Okay, so maybe it’s not 100 percent correlated (plenty of Reddit threads debate it) but still, it’s a bummer to not be able to achieve va-va-voom lashes with just a few coats of mascara, the way so many people can.

Sure, applying mascara absolutely darkens, lifts, lengthens, and volumizes my ultra-light lashes, but the number of coats it typically takes to deliver major drama also tends to weigh them down with product so by the end of the day (or night), they have either fallen flat, smudged all over my lids, or both. Knowing this, I’ve pretty much reached the point where I’m fine with applying a coat or two of mascara and calling it a day—they are what they are, you know? But what if a mascara existed that could deliver notable pigment, length, volume, and separation with just a swipe or two? That’d be the dream, right? Indeed—and now, thanks to the Huda Beauty 1 Coat WOW! Extra Volumizing and Lifting Mascara, $23, it’s a reality, too.

My honest review of Huda 1 Coat Wow! Mascara

Here’s what I love about this lash newcomer: The hot pink tube comes with a brush that’s hourglass-shaped on one side and slightly domed on the other, which makes coating every single lash a breeze. Due to the uniquely shaped dual-sided brush, the wand also makes it easy to tailor the application to your upper and lower lashes so that the bristles don’t overwhelm your lash line.

Because of this, I found that this mascara was less likely to clump up at the base of my lashes, so it simply made each lash look lengthened and defined, but not overly coated in product. Also, it genuinely took a single dip into the tube to coat each set of lashes—I didn’t have to keep re-dipping and re-swiping, which was impressive.

All in all, I feel like this easy-to-use mascara is a great option for folks looking to achieve notable length and lift with little effort. Of course, if you want to achieve extra volume, applying more coats will certainly help do the trick. Though, when I really layered it on, I did find that my lashes felt more brittle and looked more spidery (and the mascara itself was harder to remove), so I definitely prefer using this with just a coat or two, as the name implies.

One thing I will say: While this mascara notably lengthened and lifted my lashes, it didn’t curl them as the clinical results of the formula imply. That’s not enough of a deterrent for me, though. I’ll just whip out my Tweezerman ProMaster Eyelash Curler ($24) before use next time.