Lash tint has a darker history than most beauty services. In the 1930s an eyelash dye called Lash-Lure injured the eyes of a number of women, and the FDA says one case of permanent blindness was confirmed. It became part of the agency's exhibit of products the old 1906 law could not stop, and Franklin Roosevelt signed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act on June 25, 1938.

The rules that followed still shape a lash tint today. According to the FDA's color additives fact sheet, silver nitrate is the only color additive approved for dyeing eyebrows or eyelashes, and only for professional use: a gel of up to 4 percent, left on for no more than a minute, not for anyone under 16 and not sold directly to consumers. So I left the at-home dye kits out. A real tint belongs with a licensed lash technician.

What you can do at home is fake the effect. A tint makes pale tips visible from root to end. A brown or soft-black mascara does the same for a day, and a tubing formula gets closest, because it coats each lash thinly and does not clump.

The first grid is brown and soft-black mascaras that read like a tint. The second is a curler plus lifting and tubing mascaras. My tip: curl first, then wiggle the brush at the root and pull through with one light coat. The tinted look is about color at the base, not volume.

Too Faced Better Than Sex in Chocolate is the most reviewed mascara in this edit by a long way. It is the same volume formula in a warm brown, with polymers that hold a curl and peptides to condition. Benefit BADgal BANG in Rebel Brown is the lighter-feeling brown, built to layer without weighing lashes down.

Clinique High Impact in Black Honey is a soft brown-black, and it is safe for sensitive eyes. Lancôme Définicils in Deep Brown is the defining one, flake-free and clump-free, and the closest to the clean, separated look you get after a tint. Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes in Brown has an eye-hugging brush that reaches the corners.

Two tubing formulas come closest to a tint because they coat thinly and do not smudge. Urban Decay Tube Job in Brunette Brown has peptides, hyaluronic acid and castor oil and lasts up to 24 hours. MERIT Clean Lash in Brown defines and separates for a wide-awake look.

Surratt Beauty Noir Lash Tint is not a dye, despite the name. It is a black mascara with a Japanese-made metal comb that coats even the shortest lashes down to the roots, which is exactly what a tint does.

What I would skip: a heavy volumizing black formula if you are after the tint look. Pick a brown or a tubing mascara and keep it to one coat.

This grid is about lift, which often comes paired with a salon tint.

Shiseido Eyelash Curler is the first step. It has an edge-free design that prevents pinching, and it won an Allure Best of Beauty award in 2018.

Prada Pradascope has the best rating in this edit, with length and lift, no clumping or flaking, and a hyaluronic acid complex. Benefit Roller Lash has tiny hooks on its brush, modeled on hair rollers, that catch and curl short, straight lashes. REFY Lash Sculpt uses a curved, comb-like applicator to sculpt and separate. MAKEUP BY MARIO Master Mascara is the fullest here, a clump-resistant formula Mario perfected after 25 years of doing makeup.

The tubing picks are the easiest to wear every day. tarte tartelette is flake-free and smudgeproof for up to 24 hours, with shea butter and castor oil. Kulfi Badi Lash volumizes from root to tip and comes off with warm water, and it won an Allure Best of Beauty award in 2025. Kosas Soulgazer is a lengthening mascara with a peptide serum built in, and the brand says lashes look longer and fuller in six to eight weeks.

What I would skip: curling after mascara. It can snap lashes and it flattens the coat you just applied. Curl bare lashes, then apply.

I think the honest answer on lash tint is to book it with a professional if you want it, and to let a brown mascara do the job the rest of the time. Silver nitrate at a salon is the only approved lash dye in the US, and the Lash-Lure story is the reason the rules are so strict. At home, curl, pick a brown or tubing formula, and put the color at the roots with one light coat. It looks like tinted lashes and washes off at night.