An Adventure in Mascara

 

Hi everyone!

Today, I’m taking a bit of a detour from the lip things that I know and love, and delving into mascara for a bit. I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a mascara here despite my buzz of activity in makeup and there are reasons for that which I will get into…

So. I very rarely wear mascara. I have poker-straight Asian lashes and that limits what works for me. Knowing that, I wanted to narrow down my search and just explore the different types of mascaras out there and decide which types to go for.

I have gathered a few sample sized products to compare. These are:

Lancome Hypnose
The full size of this is £24.50 ($32.11USD). It is a volumising fibre mascara with a brush-type applicator.

MAC Upward Lash
The full size of this is £19.50 ($25.56USD). This is a volumising fibre-less mascara with a rubber brush.

CLIO Salon de Cara Back Comb
The full size of this product is actually difficult to find in the popular online Korean beauty stores! However, it is sold on Amazon US and CLIO USA’s official site and retails for approximately £16 ($21USD). It’s a fibre mascara with a brush applicator.

The photo below compares the brushes of each mascara in the same order as listed above. As these are all sample sizes of the mascara, I would hope they are also representative of their full-size versions.

The Salon de Cara brush (right) is interesting as it has long bristles on one side and short ones on the other. I only use the long ones, so that’s no use to me,  but I imagine if you wanted a very thick coat of mascara, it would be good for that. Salon de Cara gets very messy quickly due to the fibres escaping the tube as I put the brush back in.

Let’s have a look at how they performed on my lashes. I curled my lashes before I put the mascara on each time.

 

As you may be able to tell from the photos, I had a bit of trouble with the Lancome Hypnose and the MAC upward lash weighing down my lashes and as a result, losing the curl they had. They did have more visible volume, and there wasn’t one that did particularly well over the other between those two. The MAC Upward lash had a creamier, wetter formula that was generally far easier to smudge on my eyes.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that CLIO’s Salon de Cara Back Comb didn’t weigh my lashes down. It did not add as much thickness to my lashes as the other two mascaras, but it added some length without losing the curl. Of the three, this ended up being the one I used the most.

It’s interesting to note that CLIO is a Korean brand – perhaps I should be looking to Asian brands where more people have similarly annoying lashes to mine and therefore may have mascaras that will work better for me.

I think I have a better idea now of what kind of mascaras I am looking to try in the future. A lengthening mascara might be what I am looking for as opposed to a volumising one. I also prefer the fibre mascaras. Most importantly, I want my mascara to be able to hold the damn curl!!

Please, by all means, recommend me a good mascara…

Until next time,

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