Too many open mascaras...

After a long night of dreaming about Nepal (and a quite dashing young gentleman (see my Instagram for more details on that one) - and not really getting much sleep, doing a post that requires close-up photos of my eyes probably isn't  the best idea, but still, here it goes. As you may already know, I have quite a hoarding problem when it comes to mascaras and I've gone through my pile to see what I need to talk about and discard and what I can keep using for a few more months.

This is what I came up with – six mascaras in total. Don’t judge.

Needless to say, not all of them are great, so let’s do it the same way we did the other time – from worst to best. By the way, all photos of lashes are one coat without any curling. 

I generally adore Maybelline mascaras, but the Great Lash mascara did absolutely nothing for me at all.

Maybelline Great Lash

It won several Allure’s “best of” titles and I was so sure that this really was the holy grail mascara I picked it up the second I saw it. Well, I wish that I would have checked the wand before I did that, because now that I know what to look for, it seems obvious that the bristles are set so far apart that they will each hug a bunch of lashes at the same time and just create these thick spidery lashes.

Now, some of you may enjoy this effect, but I really hate it. It’s also a very wet mascara which transfers like crazy on my eyelids and under my waterline. I would not recommend it, not at all. 

In fifth place, I'm going with Covergirl LastBlash Fusion waterproof mascara. Although this mascara smells slightly of parsley to me, it is obviously filled with all kinds of chemicals.

Covergirl LashBlast Fusion

Unfortunately, I did the swatch for this mascara first and my eyes were watering so much afterwards from all the irritation when I took it off that some photos afterwards are less then decent. Mind you, it doesn't sting when I apply it or when I wear it, only once it gets in direct contact with my eyes. Anyhow, not exactly a bonus in my book. 

This mascara doesn't give much length and very little volume. For some reason, you apply and apply it to your lashes and it just doesn't seem to want to stick to them. It also has a poor hold – if you put on enough product to reach the desired length, you will have so much mascara on that you'll need a couple of toothpicks to keep your eyes open. 

Fourth place goes to Rimmel ScandalEyes Rockin' Curves. I have a love-hate relationship with this mascara, because it does make my eyelashes a bit more voluminous, but at the same time it is a pain in the pfffffff to apply. And I think we all know what I mean with that particular self-censorship. 

Rimmel ScandalEyes Rockin' Curves

The wand is really, really weird. I initially though that being bent (broken) will mean it will be much easier to get to my inner corners, but alas, the wand itself is too large for that. It's also quite a flaky, heavy formula and you will see it weigh your lashes down. 

Similar to the Maybelline mascara, this will not separate your lashes but rather clump them together, although the wand itself with its long and unevenly set bristles suggests that it will hold and curl each one of your lashes individually. 

In third place – which is already a bronze medal, so let's go with that – is the Avon Super Shock mascara. This again is a mascara with a wand that looks really promising. 

Avon Super Shock

Genuinely, it's  a good mascara and it did give enough volume and length to pass, but I can't possibly give it more than the 3rd place simply because using it is like parking a yacht into a by-boat space. Possibly, this is the largest wand I have ever seen in my life, so good luck getting it into all the nooks and crannies of your eyes. Still, for the price, it's a good mascara for the upper lashes, if you're in a rush. 

In Second place, but still not as spectacular as this should have been, is the Clarins Wonder Waterproof mascara. I am generally not a fan of waterproof mascaras, and I wouldn't have purchased this one, but as I got it as a gift with purchase, I might have as well used it, right? 

Clarins Wonder  Waterproof mascara

It's the most normal, generic wand ever – I have the feeling that all the mascaras looked exactly like this in the 1990's. Absolutely no imagination - if this mascara was British, it would be queuing up somewhere with a cup of tea in hand, that's how obviously generic it is.

The mascara itself is reasonably good – it's quick creamy but doesn't stick to the eyelashes in an unpleasant way. The generic wand separates the lashes wel enough to give decent lenght. And that's all I have to say about it. It might be 2nd best, but obviously, it's not been a great few months for me regardining mascaras.

Last but not least, we have the absolute winner, and I hate the fact that this is the only mascara that you can't even get in Slovenian shelves. Yes, again, I'm talking about the Benefit They're real mascara. 

Benefit They're real mascara

This mascara sells for approximately the same price as the Clarins, but does its job 100 % better. Admittedly, I wasn’t its biggest fan for the first month, but after I while I really learned to appreciate what it did for my lashes.

This mascara does exactly what I need – volume over length. It doesn’t clump, it doesn’t flake and the curl it produces stays in place for hours. The only downside is getting it off – in Sephora, you can buy the They’re real remover, which as I am told works great, but seriously – who’s going to buy a 25 € mascara and spend another 25 € just to get it off? That, and that alone, is the reason that on my recent spree (which is coming up soon), I opted for another more premium brand. 

So, hopefully this post will give you an idea what to go for in terms of value for money and expectations you can have toward a certain mascara. Do you have any favorites that I should definitely try? Let me know in the comments below!

And BTW – how are you liking the cleaned out version of the blog? 

Until next time, stay beautiful!