You're Skipping The Most Important Step In Your Eye Makeup Routine. Here's How To Fix It.

The original Essence Princess Lash mascara is a viral drugstore favorite, appreciated for its low price and ability to add wispy, eye-catching length to lashes, without any clumping or weighing down. It's even been recommended to us by experts in past reporting. Now, you can get even more exaggerated volume and length with the primer version of the Princess Lash formula, boasting the same conically shaped and soft elastomer brush that separates and coats each lash beautifully. This formula is boosted with conditioning powers for soft, healthy lashes.

Also by Essence is the Volume Booster lash primer, meant to add noticeable volume to lashes and to "create a moisturizing shield around each lash so your mascara clings to the formula, leaving your lashes beneath protected from damage," according to the brand. This $5 primer is infused with acai oil and mango butter to hydrate, nourish and condition lashes.

Experts have previously named this luxury pre-mascara product as one of the best primers and for good reason. It's designed to prepare your lashes for mascara by adding volume and curl and, with consistent use, claims to improve their overall appearance. It contains cotton nectar for softness and cornflower floral water for bringing out the shine and color of your lashes.

For even the most stubborn of lashes, consider this multifunctional product by Honest that is both primer and mascara. The tube is double-ended with the mascara on one side and the primer on the other, so you don't have to spend extra money. The mascara is infused with jojoba esters, which help to condition and soften your lashes, and the primer gives an even base for flawless application.

We've previously covered Clinique's High Impact mascara, a respected and reliable formula that's smudge-free, easy to layer and creates defined length and noticeable volume, without the potential for irritation. That's why we trust the brand's lash-building base, which not only promises to hold on to mascara fibers better than if mascara was used alone, but also contains lash conditioners and hyrdators for healthier lashes.

I've been known to passionately espouse the superior performance of L'Oreal's Voluminous mascara, a formula that I've gone back to time and time again for its ability to make my lashes appear fluffy, longer and noticeably volumized, without looking weighed down or spidery. Though I have yet to try the primer version of this affordable icon, I have full confidence that it will deliver on its claims. This mascara base promises to create "a blowout effect" and build dramatic length and volume on each lash, while also conditioning lashes.

Rated an impressive 4.8 out of 5 stars on Ulta, the Babe Original Intensifying lash primer is a notable choice on this list, not just for its noticeable lash volumizing effect, but for an ingredients list that you'd likely see on a skin care product. This amplifying base contains a biotin and peptide complex to help promote fuller-looking lashes, softening shea butter and panthenol, castor seed oil and basil root extract support lash follicles.

Lancôme is known for creating some pretty exceptional tubes of luxury mascara, and the luxury French brand is also behind this enhancing primer that contains microfibers to add exaggerated length and volume to lashes. It evenly coats and smoothes each lash using a soft-fluff brush and is enriched with lash conditioners like vitamin B5 and E.

In case you're not familiar, tubing mascaras, often referred to as “lash extensions in a tube,” differ from traditional mascaras in that they are typically made up of polymers that individually envelop lashes to build and extend beyond the natural lash length. Tarte's tubing formula is a reviewer-favorite formula, and the brand has applied that same tubing technology to this lash primer that wraps lashes in protective tubes to add length and supercharge your mascara's performance. This carnuba wax-based primer is infused with shea butter, panthenol and hyaluronic acid to condition and hydrate lashes.

This formula is optimized for use with tubing mascaras specifically, but we've previously covered some of the best ones in case you're interested.

Typically, lash primers apply white, but Benefit's primer formula is tinted a mink brown, in case you want to wear the primer solo for more of a natural look or with your favorite mascara of choice for something a bit more dramatic. Both the provitamin B5 formula and the fluffy, dome-tipped wand help create defined, feathery and root-boosted lashes.