Fun with Mascara: Maybelline Great Lash Royal Blue

I wear foundation/concealer/brows (and to a lesser extent blush) because I think they make me look better, but eyeshadow/liner/lipstick because they're fun. I realized a few weeks ago that mascara, long part of the first group, comes in colors and could therefore become fun, too! So when I found a bunch of the Maybelline Great Lash colored mascaras from last summer at Grocery Outlet for $2.99 apiece, I picked up the blue and teal ones. I've only opened the blue, since I currently have 3 other mascaras in rotation (I don't know how that happened, either), and have been playing around with it. And guys, guess what? It's fun.

this is what fun looks like, y'all.

Here, Let Me Show You My Mascaras

There are so many things that can make a mascara go wrong. It can smudge. It can flake. It can itch, or smell, or clump, or loosen curl, or fade, or fill-in-the-blank-here. My lashes are naturally long, dark (slightly lighter at the tips), and plentiful, and they grow straight, so if I don't curl them, they bump against my glasses (even more of a problem when wearing mascara!). I therefore look for mascara that doesn't clump them together (an effect of many volumizing formulas) and does hold a curl.

Terminology clarification: when I say "mascara clumping", I mean that the mascara builds up on the lashes in little balls. When I say "lash clumping", I mean the mascara clumps individual lashes together, making them look like a single mondo lash.

Since mascara needs to be replaced at least every three months, I try to stick to drugstore options, but there are a couple of higher-end ones here. My absolute favorite HG love forever is Armani Eyes to Kill, but it's $30 a tube and in the 2 years since I first purchased it, I haven't been able to bring myself to fork over the cash again. Fortunately, Maybelline Full N Soft is almost as good and 1/5 the price! And several of these that I've tried lately are good, too. (Most of the pictures in this post are stolen from other posts on the blog, so if they look familiar, don't worry, you're not crazy. Or, well, you might be, and at the very least you certainly have an uncannily excellent visual memory, but it's probably not reason to get yourself checked out.) For all mascaras here, I have chosen the blackest option, since anything else just seems pointless.

For reference, bare, curled lashes:

you're gonna be seeing a lot of my right eye in this post.

Maybelline Full N Soft, one coat:

Nearly Perfect Lashes: Maybelline Full N Soft Very Black Review and Swatches

There are many things about my appearance that I might change, given the choice (not having to pluck my brows would be great, not to mention some way to fix my skin!), but my lashes are not one of them. They're long, dark, thick, and hardy. They are not, however, particularly curly, but I have my kickass lash curler for that. My goal when using mascara is to lengthen, separate, and darken yet further, since in the course of applying eyeshadow and face powder I inevitably end up with product on my lashes. There's a lot of things I don't want, including (but probably not limited to) crunchy lashes, clumps, sad spindly lashes, smudges, flakes, and jabby mascara wands; my goal is always my lashes but better, natural and believable. My absolute HG mascara is Armani Eyes to Kill, but at $30 a tube, it's not something I can repurchase lightly, so when it finally dried up on me I decided to start hunting for a cheaper alternative. I picked up Maybelline Full N Soft, as I remembered liking it when I used it several years ago, apparently forgetting about the 3 sample tubes of mascara I have waiting for me to try. Ah well, at least I used +Up rewards so it ended up being free...

Benefit They're Real! Mascara Review and Swatches

I have an HG mascara, but it is rather prohibitively expensive (though compared to Guerlain, it's a steal), and one time when I needed to reach $50 I decided to pick up a travel tube of Benefit's They're Real! to try out. Herewith, my thoughts.

image via Sephora

Armani Eyes to Kill Mascara Review and Pictures

I tend to hate mascara. It's a pain in the ass to apply, it clumps, it flakes, it smudges, it loosens the curl of my lashes, it irritates. I have naturally long, dark, abundant lashes, and I'd failed to find a mascara that gave me what I wanted (curl, definition) without what I didn't (clumps, flakes, heaviness). Until now.

More Product Mini Reviews

Hey hey, it's time for another post of mini-reviews! I got to try a lot of products during my New York visit, thanks to L's impressive collection, and will remark on them in a succincter-than-usual fashion. I've decided to post this rather than a monthly favorites/empties (or Skincare Saturday, for that matter, though there are several skincare products here), mostly because I'm sick and don't have the energy to write a new post. Here they are, in no particular order:

Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash

$25 for 8 oz, available from Sephora

This is a very nice, gentle exfoliator. I only used it the one time, since I spent 4 out of 6 of my nights at Z's, but I found it to do its job without unnecessary irritation. I'm not sure I'd want to spend that much myself, especially since I have my Clarisonic which takes care of my physical exfoliation needs, but if you don't have a Clarisonic and want something mild to exfoliate, Microdelivery is definitely worth checking out!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! Mascara Review and Pictures

Let me start by saying I don't like mascara. I have naturally long, dark, thick lashes, and I wear glasses for severe far-sightedness, so my eyes look huge, and I rarely have any desire to make them look bigger. I hate how many mascaras clump, flake, smear, and make my lashes so long they bump annoyingly against my glasses (yes, this happens). Mostly I just curl my lashes and call it a day. There are, however, some times when I feel that my eye look benefits from more dramatic lashes, and that is the reason I opted to get a deluxe sample of Lights, Camera, Lashes! (henceforth LCL) as my Sephora 100 point bonus. And, of course, so I could share my experience with you all! Because nothing's more fun than mascara reviews, right?

image via Sephora

LCL is an all-in-one mascara. It claims to lengthen, curl, volumize, and condition lashes. The bushy wand deposits plenty of product with one coat, making my lashes longer, though I don't notice much in the way of volumizing (unless some mild clumping counts?) or curling. I still do my normal curl routine after application, because I find that when I curl my lashes before applying mascara, I end up with product all over my lid (the result of an unfortunate combination of blindness and tremor); fortunately, the mascara holds a curl really well, and I don't find my lashes limping at all over the course of the day.

no mascara, no curling

Borrowed Products: Mini Reviews

While I was on the East Coast, I had to resort to the generosity of the people I was staying with for bath supplies, since I couldn't bring my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and shaving cream on the plane with me (at least, not without paying to check my bag, and I wasn't about to do that!).  The one really nice thing about it, though (besides how nice my housemates were), is that I got to try some products I wouldn't have otherwise.  I'm just going to do all of them in this post, because I'm too lazy to do detailed reviews for each of them, but if you want more deets, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!

Aussie Moist Shampoo and Conditioner

This is one of those products that is really well liked by huge volumes of people.  It's lightly moisturizing but doesn't weigh hair down, which makes it a good choice for many types of hair.  My hair, however, being fine and curly, goes crazy in humidity, and this shampoo-conditioner combo just didn't cut it.  I found the shampoo didn't lather as much as I like, and I had to use a lot of the conditioner to detangle (that's pretty much always the case, though).  I wish it had more heavy moisturizers, honestly, because my hair tended to grow 3 sizes whenever I stepped outside.  On the upside, it was nice and soft, but still: '80s-style poodle puff isn't my best look.  $3-$5 for 13.5 oz, from drugstores

Essence All Eyes on Me Multi-Effect Mascara in Soft Black Review and Swatches

I've spoken before of my dislike of mascara, but I've recently found myself wishing I had a cheap, easy mascara for those rare times when I want to do a full eye and look super done-up.  So what's a beauty-addicted blogger to do?  Research and purchase, of course!  My obsession with Essence is still on-going, so I started my research with them.  Imagine my delight when I read positive reviews for their super-cheap $1.99 mascara!  At that price point, I don't even feeling bad knowing most of it will go bad before I get around to using it.  I've worn it some the past few days so I could let you all know if this is the answer to all your unaired mascara prayers, and hark!  Here are my thoughts.

Eyelash Curlers: My Favorite Medieval-Torture-Looking Tool

I wear mascara very, very rarely; I used to wear it daily, but between my emotional tendencies and allergies, I would often end up with mascara down my face, and since I'm severely far-sighted, my glasses enlarge my eyes a lot, making mascara that lengthens, thickens, and/or multiplies rather redundant.  Since my lashes are nearly black as it is, I also don't need the tinting properties of mascara.  The one thing I do need?  Curl.  The few times I've tried to use a curling mascara, though, I've ended up with mascara all over my eyelids (and once, memorable, on my nose).  Fortunately for me, eyelash curlers exist!  Many people are frightened by them, understandably--they do look like something used to torture blasphemers during the Inquisition.  But don't let that scare you off!