September 18, 2014

Everyone has their favorite feature, either on themselves or other people that they are drawn to. For me, it’s actually two – nails and lashes. I could go on and on about my love of hands, nail beds and shapes of nails but for this post I will focus my attention on my other favorite, which I equally love. If you know me well, you know one of my vices is always trying to find the newest and best mascara out there on the market. When it comes to lashes, I sadly don’t have a budget either. I will spend up to $40 for a tube if I think it’s going to transform my lashes dramatically. I was lucky enough to be blessed with naturally long lashes to begin with, although they are light brown and not very noticeable without mascara. That being said, I like to make them the longest, thickest, most dramatic I can without adding actual false lashes. I am sucker for good advertising (despite being a marketing major in college). I mean a real sucker, people. Pantene has gotten me so many times to re-purchase their products based on their gorgeous ads, even though I know each time its too heavy for my strands. Each time I think “this will be the time I am converted” and each time I am wrong. But I digress. Back to the eyes.

I wanted to share with you some of my all-time favorite mascaras, along with my newest find. If you’re looking for a new tube or formula, chances are I have probably tried it along the way so feel free to ask me what I thought before you purchase.

Newest find: Loreal Paris Voluminous Miss Manga Mascara

When I saw this ad, I KNEW I had to try this. I love ’60s mod lashes from the models like Twiggy that look doll-ish and wide-eyed. This mascara definitely achieves that, although with a slowly-applied two – three coats. The brush is cone-shaped so that you can get the inner lashes as well as the bottom lashes coated with the samebrush as you would use to coat your main top ones. I really like this mascara, as I have liked most Loreal mascaras. I think for a drugstore brand they are top-knotch. Also a little known fact-they are all the same mascaras as Lancome! Shhh!

Former Love: Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

This is the second mascara I have loved from Too Faced, the first being LashInjection. I used to be crazy about that mascara, which had a huge fat brush and a formula that would elongate your lashes with tubes around them in one step. This was great for me because my eyes tear up a lot as they are a bit sensitive and then around noon I have racoon eyes. Not cool. Anyways, for some reason Too Faced took this off the market for awhile and when they brought it back to my (and many other users) dismay, they changed the formula and it has not been the same. I had read good reviews about their Better Than Sex mascara that debuted last year in a pink tube (my favorite color) and promised big, lush lashes. I really love this formula as well as the brush, which is large as well. I don’t know if its Better than Sex, but it sure is a good mascara and not too pricey for a department/specialty store mascara. If you’re looking for big and bold lashes, give it a try!

Another Drugstore Superstar: Maybelline Volum’ Express The Falsies

I am not the only person I know who was a fan of this mascara and since then they have come out with more versions of the original, including my favorite, the Flared version. This is a great, inexpensive mascara that provides good volume, length as well as curl. I don’t know that I have found or used another mascara that provided a curl hold as good as this one. My reason for switching (besides the fact that I have mascara OCD and always have to try the newest product out there) is my raccoon eye problem stated above. I tried using the waterproof version of this but as most people find the waterproof versions of mascaras are not always exactly like the original and are extremely hard to remove. If you don’t have problems like me with teary eyes, I would give this a go.

Former Love Affairs: I approve all the below – you won’t be disappointed!

• MakeUp Forever Smoky Lash – dark, pigmented lash that provides volume and curl. Great price for a department store mascara and many colors available now. Only sold at Sephora though!
• Trish McEvoy Lash Curling AND High Volume Mascaras – both provide tubes that go around the lash, like a sock that washes off with warm water.
• Loreal Paris Double Extend Beauty Tubes Two Step Mascara – one of the first tubular mascaras that came on the market and is still out there! These will truly make your lashes almost touch your eyebrows- my only complaint is that it doesn’t thicken them as well (sorry, I am high maintenance and want everything 🙂 )

What mascara do you love?

Maureen