HotandFlashy has tested 48 eye makeup products, and her record speaks for itself: 41 approvals, just 5 skips, and a Guru Score of 85%. She has named five products as category winners, from drugstore palettes to a lash glue that survives a swim. Two products landed in the mixed column rather than a full skip, which shows she is quite generous with eye makeup when it earns it.
What does HotandFlashy recommend in eye makeup?
The thread running through her approvals is wear time. She keeps coming back to products that stay put from morning to night without smudging or flaking. She praised the L'Oreal Extensionist Mascara for lasting all day and coming off easily at night. She loves the NYX Mechanical Eyeliner Pencils partly because they hold on the waterline without bothering her contact lenses. On palettes, she looks for versatility. The Natasha Denona I Need a Nude Palette earns repeated praise because the shades sit naturally on skin without reading orange or chalky. The ColourPop Stone Cold Fox Palette wins her over by balancing cool tones with enough warmth to work across a range of looks. Value matters to her too. She is just as enthusiastic about a five-dollar liner as a high-end palette, as long as it performs.
In her words
"One of my all-time favorite palettes is the Stone Cold Fox palette. It is one of their mega palettes. It is just a stunner. A cool palette, but it does have enough warm tones in there and it's gorgeous. I used it today."
"I'm using for lash glue the Velour Brush On Lash Glue. This is an on-hold, you can cry, you can sweat, you could probably jump in a pool and your lashes will not come off with this glue. So this is an incredible glue that I love."
"I tried this one without very high hopes for it because I have not been happy with any drugstore mascaras for a long, long time. They always chip, flake, smudge. And guess what? This one actually delivers. The marketing on this is that it makes your lashes 5 mm closer to your eyebrows. I put it on one eye and then compared, and my eyelashes sure were closer to my eyebrows because it made them look much, much longer. So I really like this and it stays put all day and it's not hard to take off at night."
"E.L.F. is a drugstore brand that really makes fantastic eyeshadows and they make these tiny little bite-size palettes. The color payoff is so beautiful, the shimmers are so beautiful. I mean look at those shimmers, the mattes are so beautiful. This one's kind of like a warmer color way. They have this beautiful kind of pinky purple one called rose water. That one is so stunning. I use that one a lot this year."
"The NYX Mechanical Eyeliner Pencils are [...] 36% off down to just over $5. [...] The bronze is gorgeous, a really dark brown for brown eyeliner, not too reddish or too light. They are really creamy and easy to get on, but they stay put once on. You can wear it in your waterline, and I wear contacts and it does not get all over them. These are really great eyeliners and for $5 each you really cannot go wrong."
"I cannot do a job without this palette it is so stunning. It's so soft. It's not too warm but there are warms in it. Even like the shades, it's not like a super orangey peach, it has enough gray to it that it really just sits so naturally on the skin and it just looks like a color that would normally be there. The shimmers are beautiful about this palette. You can't go wrong with any of the shimmers in my opinion."
How many eye makeup products has HotandFlashy reviewed?
HotandFlashy has reviewed 48 eye makeup products, for a Guru Score of 85%. 41 approved, 2 mixed, and 5 skipped.
What has HotandFlashy skipped in eye makeup?
When she does skip a product, wear time is almost always why. She gave the Merit Eyeshadow Cream Pots a skip because the formula settled into her crease within a couple of hours. She felt a minimalist product should not need a primer just to function. The Maybelline Colossal Bubble Mascara started well but left chunks on her lids and smudged under her eyes by midday. The Benefit Precisely My Brow Pencil, despite glowing reviews elsewhere, was too hard and chalky to use without pressing painfully hard. She also skipped the e.l.f. Lash 'N Roll Mascara, finding the formula too dry and the curl and volume well below what her favourite mascaras deliver.
"I loved it at first because it went on and made my lashes really big and really bold, but there was just like little chunkers all over them that I knew were going to come off later in the day. And sure enough, they did and they were like on my eyelids and under my eyes and it also smudged beneath my eyes."
"If I'm going to wear a minimalist makeup and they're going to have an eyeshadow in a cream pot, I want to put it on and I want it to stay put and last all day, and unfortunately the wear on this was just so terrible. It had moved and settled into my eye crease within a couple of hours of putting it on and it really didn't last throughout the day. I loved the color of this though, it is beautiful, but I think with this you do need to lay down a primer first, which I don't think you should have to do since it is minimalist makeup."
"There was a super fail of a brow pencil that I did buy for that video: it is the Benefit Precisely My Brow. This gets such great reviews, this is like you know four and a half, five stars. I hated this. This is another micro fine brow pencil but this pencil is so hard I have to press so hard that it hurts. It's hard, it's chalky, it doesn't blend well. It just didn't do it for me."
"This claims to be like super curling mascara. I feel like this is a very dry formula. Like there's not a ton on the brush. And when you're pulling it out, the squeegee is very squeegeeish. One coat is not dramatic, not anything major going on. My favorite mascara is still the Cali Ray Come Heller High Water. This doesn't really curl my lashes as much as I thought it should, and it didn't give me like the length and the volume that I get out of other mascaras. There's a little bit of smudging right under one eye. I think that's the mascara."
What should you take from HotandFlashy's picks?
If HotandFlashy's record tells you one thing, it is to put wear time first. She has real warmth for eye makeup that delivers on its promises through a full day, and she is genuinely pleased when a drugstore product matches a luxury one. Her five named winners span price points from e.l.f. to Natasha Denona, so following her lead does not have to cost a lot.
Watch HotandFlashy say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- Natasha Denona I Need a Nude PaletteNamed a winnerWatch at 18:37
- Tartelette In Bloom Amazonian Clay PaletteNamed a winnerWatch at 7:35
- ColourPop Stone Cold Fox PaletteNamed a winnerWatch at 10:10
- e.l.f. Bite-Size Eyeshadow PalettesNamed a winnerWatch at 17:44
- Velour Brush On Lash GlueNamed a winnerWatch at 28:17
- Maybelline Colossal Bubble MascaraSkipped itWatch at 18:15
- Merit Eyeshadow Cream PotsSkipped itWatch at 23:18
- Benefit Precisely My Brow PencilSkipped itWatch at 9:57
- e.l.f. Lash 'N Roll MascaraSkipped itWatch at 16:18
- Tarteist XL Tubing MascaraSkipped itWatch at 12:53
- L'Oreal Extensionist MascaraRated itWatch at 13:03
- NYX Mechanical Eyeliner PencilsRated itWatch at 6:59
- Rare Beauty Neutral Eye Collection Essential Nudes Eyeshadow PaletteRated itWatch at 5:05
- ColourPop That's Taupe Pressed Powder PaletteRated itWatch at 6:52
- Urban Decay Naked PaletteRated itWatch at 1:59
- Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High MascaraRated itWatch at 21:07
- Merit Solo Shadow Matte Eye Color in StudioRated itWatch at 7:49
- Maybelline Super Lock Brow GlueRated itWatch at 21:09
- Jones Road Mascara Pitch BlackRated itWatch at 11:39
- NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette Warm NeutralsRated itWatch at 12:34
- RMS Beauty Eyelights Cream EyeshadowRated itWatch at 7:26
- Natasha Denona Mini Eye Sculpt Eyeshadow PaletteRated itWatch at 12:06
- Cali Ray Come Hell or High Water MascaraRated itWatch at 4:04
- Essence Stay and Play Gel EyelinerRated itWatch at 15:24
About this expert
See everything HotandFlashy has reviewed
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This guide reflects what HotandFlashy said across their videos about 48 products in eye makeup, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The Guru Score is our read on how warmly they talk about them. It is general information, not medical advice.