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Category Archives: Mascara
Dollface Reviews:GOSH Intense Lashes Lengthening Waterproof Mascara
I’ve had this mascara in my “to be reviewed” pile for ages now, but somehow haven’t gotten around to it: I think my extreme fussiness with mascara probably has something to do with it. This week, however, I decided to give it a go, so let me introduce you all to GOSH Intense Lashes Lengthening Waterproof Mascara, which is £8 at Superdrug, and has a long, thin(ish) wand:
At first, I didn’t think this was going to be easy to apply: there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of product on the wand, and repeated pumping of it just seemed to add mascara to the tip. I pressed ahead anyway, though, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was much easier to apply than I’d anticipated: coverage was good, and the brush is a decent shape for getting right to the roots of the lashes and into the corners.
Here’s what it looks like on:
As you can see, there’s some clumping on the right eye, which was the result of my over-enthusiastic application: I can never seem to resist adding just onemorecoat, and this particular mascara looks better with just one or two.
What I did like was the upwards ”flick” it gave to my lashes. This is advertised as a lengthening mascara, not a curling one, but the reason I like waterproof mascara so much is that if you curl your lashes before using them (as I did here), they’ll tend to hold the curl in place, whereas non-waterproof formulas have a tendency to drag it out. This doesn’t have the best holding power I’ve ever seen, but it’s not bad, either.
As far as lengthening goes, it was… average. I didn’t really notice much of a difference, to be honest (I didn’t take a “before” shot because I really need a top-up of my eyelash dye, and without it you can’t really see my lashes anyway, and the extreme comparison between almost-invisible lashes and ones with mascara will make just about ANY mascara look good…), and I think most of the “lengthening” effect here comes from the fact that this mascara is reasonably good at holding the lashes upright, which makes them look longer.
I haven’t really given the waterproof abilities of this product a proper test, not having worn it in either pouring rain or, er, floods of tears, but it hasn’t smudged or budged at all, so I’m happy: I wear waterproof mascara because of its ability to hold a curl, not because of its ability to resist water!
Overall: Good, but not a showstopper: I’d prefer to spend the extra on Lancome Hypnose, but I’m sure that goes without saying to my regular readers…
Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara
Now, I know what you’re (possibly) thinking: bottom lash mascara? Isn’t that a bit redundant? I mean, can’t you just use the same mascara on your bottom lashes as you do on the top, and save yourself some money?
Well, of course, you can, and if that works for you, then you’re luckier than me, and you also don’t need to bother reading the rest of this post. (Come back tomorrow, though!) For me, though, bottom lash mascara sounds like a pretty great thing, because the truth is, I’ve been using different mascaras on my top and bottom lashes for as long as I can remember, and the reason for this is that all mascara wands are not created equally. Some a great at lifting and curling and volumizing the upper lashes, for instance, but what I generally find is that those that are good at doing all of those things generally aren’t so great at coating the lower lashes: the brushes are normally too thick and rounded, and if you have very fair, sparse lower lashes, like I do, you just end up with a big old mess.
Meanwhile, the mascara brushes that are perfect on the lower lashes… generally don’t make one bit of difference to the top ones. Gah.
Instead of making do with just one mascara, then, I generally have a couple (or, you know, more) of mascaras on the go at any one time, and I’ll use one on the upper lashes and another one, with a smaller, finer brush, which I use on the lowers. This works out OK for me, but of course, there’s always room for improvement, and this is where Clinique’s new Bottom Lash Mascara comes in. It, you see, has a brush which is designed specifically to help you get to grips with the lower lashes. It’s both smaller, thinner and more delicate looking that regular mascara brushes, and this should allow for a much more precise application, with none of those little lashes being missed out. (It’ll also come in handy for the corner of the eyes, which is another area larger brushes don’t always get to.)
All of that sounds good to me, and as I’m using more than one mascara per eye anyway, even the £10 price tag doesn’t do much to put me off. This is available in black/brown and standard black, and while it’s currently out of stock at the Clinique UK website, you should be able to pick one up at your nearest Clinique counter.
Dollface Reviews: Rimmel Volume Flash The Max Bold Curves Mascara
Behold! A new mascara has entered the Sephora Box O’Doom! It’s Rimmel’s Volume Flash The Max Bold Curves (a name which fairly trips off the tongue), and as you may or may not be able to see from the image above, it promises to deliver “our biggest curve ever!” “We’ll see about that!” I thought, as I opened it up to put it to the test. Here’s what I found inside:
This is the not-so-secret weapon which has been tasked with the job of creating “extreme volume and lift”. It’s a curved, chunky wand, and as you can see, the mascara itself is fairly fibrous: I normally find that to be a good sign as the fibres cling to your lashes and make them look longer. Or that’s the idea, anyway.
So, how does it perform? Let’s take a look:
It’s not what I’d describe as the biggest curve ever (and I’d curled my lashes beforehand, too, to give it the best possible chance), and nor would I call this “extreme volume”. Those points aside, however, I actually quite like it: it creates a rather nice, fluttery effect, and while it did have a bit of a tendency to clump, especially on the lower lashes, it was easy to apply, too.
Dollface’s Verdict: Doesn’t do what it says on the tin, but a good budget mascara all the same.
Rimmel Volume Flash The Max Bold Curves Mascara is £6.99 at Boots. Click here to buy it.
[Disclosure: this was sent to me as PR sample]
Diorshow Maximizer Lash Primer Serum
As much as I love mascara, I’ve never really gotten into lash primers, and the ones I have tried have left me fairly unimpressed. I am a new convert to Diorshow, however, and so I’m wondering if I might also be converted to Diorshow Maximizer, if I were to give it a try.
It goes without saying that this serum contains ingredients designed to encourage lash growth: I mean, what lash product these days DOESN’T claim to do that? But this is also a primer which, it claims, will add instant length and fullness to your lashes, creating the perfect base for your mascara, and giving it even more impact than it would have had without it.
At $28, this is as expensive as many mascaras and good deal more expensive than most, and that’s where it falls down for me: it’d have to create really exceptional results for me to want to double the cost of my mascara application, which means I’m going to sit back and wait for someone else to try it first before I’ll be convinced to splurge on it.
Will that person be you? If it will, click here to buy it from Neiman Marcus.
Dollface Reviews: GOSH Lengthening 2 Step Mascara with Revival Serum
This was one of two GOSH mascaras sent to me to review this month, and I’m actually not sure what made me decide to try it first: I’ve never really been a huge fan of two-step mascaras, because as well as adding an unwelcome extra step to my mascara application, I’ve never thought they were worth that extra effort.
Mascara which makes your eyelashes grow thick and strong is one of the beauty world’s current obsessions, however, so I decided to push my preconceived ideas aside and give this one a go.
Dollface Reviews: Lancome Hypnose Precious Cells Mascara
If you’re blessed with a very good memory, you may well remember me mentioning that I’d picked up a tube of Lancome’s Hypnose Precious Cells mascara at the airport this summer.
And that was pretty much all I ever said about it, because when I got home I became so obsessed with the waterproof version of Hypnose Drama that it was the only thing I ever wanted to wear. I did have a quick play with Precious Cells, but nothing could drag me away from the Drama, so I threw it in a drawer and forgot all about it. Lately, though, my tube of Hypnose Drama has started to try out, so I decided to give Precious Cells a whirl. Here’s how I got on…
d.j.v. beautenizer Fiberwig LX false lash effect mascara
Imju Fiberwig is one of my favourite mascaras, but I must confess, as it’s been a while since I actually used it, I’d forgotten all about it until I saw this updated version of it on the Sephora website.
As well as the new name (It’s now calling itself .j.v. beautenizer Fiberwig LX, which is a bit of a mouthful, really), it also has a new, curved brush, and some lash conditioning ingredients: I get the impression that it’s now a serious faux pas in the beauty world to release a mascara that DOESN’T claim it’ll make your lashes healthier and longer as well as making them prettier. The curved brush should technically make the lashes curlier as well as longer: my only reservation about the original formula was that it didn’t do much in the way of curling, so this is one I’ll definitely want to check out when I can get my hands on it.
I liked to layer the original Fiberwig over any other mascara to add extra length (layer it over a mascara that already has a lengthening effect and you’ll look like you’re wearing falsies), so I’d be interested to see how well this performs on its own, and once again I find myself cursing Sephora for their refusal to ship to the UK.
If you live in a country they DO deliver to, however, you can click here to order this for $24 – remember to tell me what you think of it!
Dollface Reviews: Boots No. 7 Exceptional Definition Mascara
Boots No. 7′s Exceptional Definition Mascara claims it’s about to “transform the way women wear mascara”. Naturally, then, I was as excited as a kid at Christmas when it landed on my desk, because a new mascara? That’s going to give me defined, fluttery lashes? Bring it on, Boots!
The key to this product is the brush, the purpose of which is threefold:
Dollface Reviews: Boots 17 Wild Curl Mascara
As longtime readers will know, when it comes to mascara, I’m all about the curl – or about holding the curl in place, anyway. A product can lengthen and thicken as much as it wants, but there’s nothing like a bit of curl to widen and emphasise the eye, so if my mascara doesn’t lock the curl I get from my trusty eyelash curlers in place, it’s of no use to me whatsoever.
This is why I rate Lancome’s waterproof mascara’s so highly, and it’s also why when I was sent a tube of Boots 17′s Wild Curl Mascara, which claims to hold curl for up to ten hours, I was really keen to try it.
It looks like this:
Suitably “wild”, no?
The brush looks like this:
Dollface Reviews: Lancome Hypnose Drama Waterproof Mascara
Brace yourselves, readers: I think I may have found a mascara I like even more than Lancome L’Extreme.
I know, I didn’t think it would ever happen either: trust me, I’m as surprised as you are, although you’ll probably be a little less surprised to know that the knew King of the Mascaras (perhaps) is also by Lancome, who continue to reign supreme as the Supreme Rulers of All Mascara. At least as far as I’m concerned.
Although it’s been out for a while, I’d resisted buying Hypnose Drama until the waterproof version came out, knowing that if it’s not waterproof, I probably won’t be all that impressed by it. I’d actually forgotten all about it, though, so when I spotted the waterproof version at Sephora, I instantly threw it into my basket, and then rushed home to try it out.
Folks, I love this. It’s an amazing mascara, and totally lives up to the “drama” of the title, creating long, black, curly lashes that could pass for falsies if you were to look at them in some dim light.
The brush on this is long and slightly curvy, and it’s this that gives Hypnose Drama the edge over L’Extreme for me, as it lengthens and curls. As fabulous as L’Extreme is at lengthening the lashes, I find I need to curl my lashes first for maximum impact. Although I did curl my lashes before taking these photos (force of habit), you can do without, and the lashes will still look curly: perhaps not to the extent that they will if you’ve used an eyelash curler, but still more than they would on their own. Or more than mine would on their own, anyway.
What’s more, the formula holds the curl all day. When I take this off at night, I find that although the mascara comes off easily with my regular eye makeup remover, the curl is still there: bonus!
(Bear in mind that these photos are extreme close-ups, and thus extremely unforgiving: the product looks much smoother in real life).
A quick word about the waterproof qualities of this: when I was on vacation, I wore it to the beach one day by mistake (I say “by mistake” – I wouldn’t normally wear mascara to the beach, but we’d intended it to be a very brief visit, with no swimming, before we headed somewhere else, but we ended up hanging around, and, of course, getting wet…) and was hit several times smack in the face by massive waves, which more than proved the staying power of the mascara: not a single run or smudge!
In conclusion: I think I may have found a new favourite, but before I formally award the title, I’m going to wait a week or so, because I also picked up a tube of Hypnose Precious Cells at the airport. It’s not waterproof, so it may not be a totally fair competition, but hey, I had some dollars left, it was there… you know how it goes.
Precious Cells review coming up soon, then. For now, if you want to try Hypnose Drama Waterproof, it’s $24.50 direct from Lancome or £20 if you’re in the UK (Which, incidentally, kind of sucks, doesn’t it? Why do we have to pay more?).
