Mascara will always be the black magic in my makeup bag. It will be the one thing that goes with me to the desert island and I don’t leave the house without it on.
This love affair started at the age of 13 , so over the years there have been a lot of mascaras and I am always willing to be seduced by the newest arrival.
I like my mascaras heavily pigmented, the formula needs to smell good, no clumping or fibres, and easy to apply without poking my eye out. All new ones need a running in period for the first week, but they need to come into their own in their second week of use.
I prefer to take my mascara off in the morning. This is not laziness, I am a contact lens wearer and I find that my eyes get quite dry and sensitive by the evening. So the contact lenses come out, the general makeup comes off and the mascara stays put. I want it to come off with one swipe of a cotton pad doused in Micellar Water, but until then it needs to stay on my lashes, not on my pillow, or all over my face.
Estée Lauder Double Wear does stay put, it doesn’t melt into a solid clump if you sit in the sun with it on, (some do). It isn’t bitty, and is easily removed, I was seduced by Lancôme’s Hypnose Star when it came out, which gave far greater curl and volume to my lashes than Double Wear ever did.
I tried Bobbi Brown Lash Glamour Extreme, which gave reasonable results, but it smelt horrible and dried so quickly that I returned it, as I thought it was faulty. They sent a new one which didn’t smell much better.
Diorshow, I fell in love with, it smells great but the love wore thin when it dried up quickly. As it dried, it became clumpy and it wasn’t long before it came out on the brush almost solid. Shame, I had high hopes and it’s not cheap.
Then I discovered Nars Larger than Life Volumizing. You can sleep in this mascara, no flaking, I like this one a lot. It doesn’t come off quite so easily, so I need to use an eye makeup remover. The only quibble is, I seem to go through the tube very quickly (6g).
At the moment, I am back with Estée Lauder Double Wear Zero-Smudge Curling Mascara. This one certainly has more curl and stays on well during the day with no smudging. Initially it was fine overnight, now into its third week, it has dried considerably and flakes by the evening, so I have to remove it and won’t be repurchasing for the time being.
Chanel Le Volume is an absolute star when it is new but it seems to me, having gone through several, they don’t last very long. There have been others, Charlotte Tilbury, Guerlain and By Terry, by far the most expensive, best thing I can say is it smelt divine.
What do you recommend? Are you like me, constantly changing in the search for a better mascara, or do you stick with the tried and trusted?
