a hunt for the perfect mascara

Mascara mascara o where for art thou

I love everything about mascara - the packaging, the exxagerated advertising, the innovatively designed brushes, the smell of the mascara and that first application where I hopefully think, yes...this is the one!

But then I get sceptical- do my eyelashes ACTUALLY look longer, more voluminous and really stand out? is the quirky design of the brush actually doing anything? has it dried out already? or I am the victim of my own consumerism?

In the search for my perfect mascara, I thought I'd share with you a selection of those I have tried...

 1) Yves Saint Laurent - Mascara Volume effet faux cils 
(Voluminous Mascara with false eyelash effect)

Well this is number 1 for reasons other than for it's price at £21.50! I discovered this back in University from a glamorous blonde friend, Zoe, who always had beautiful thick and long eyelashes. It's definitely been brought into my make up collection several times since. Oh the packaging is stubbornly the best out there. A golden tube with the YSL insignia engraved upon. The wand is thick and the brush comes out slowly soaking up as much of the lotion of 'seduction' as it can. In terms of the brush style, YSL are one of the few brands who have not digressed to different shapes, sizes and angles. Their brush style is classic - thick and straight.

The first few applications are wonderful - slink, soft eyelashes that are lengthy and have the wow factor. But after a couple of weeks any more than one application, my eyelashes begin to look clogged and stiff. The dreaded spider look entails and there is very little I can do to separate them. Where has the effet faux look gone? The brush and mascara itself feel dry. The inner leaflet suggests washing the brush to reignite the mascara but this then makes it a lot more clumpy and never has that silk style. I always get disappointed with YSL as it has such potential but sadly disappoints too early which is unacceptable for being on the highest end of the price scale.


2) No 7 Exceptional Definition
 I have been impressed by Boot's No 7 range in particular and used one of their vouchers to get my hands on their No 7 Exceptional Definition.


I was interested by this one in particular because of the triple functional brush:-

• one side as the normal mascara brush
• another side to remove any clumps
• and the tip for the corners of the eye

Overall this was a great mascara - the design of the brush is very clever and worked perfectly without involving too much hassle. Each part had a noticeable effect. I also found by twisting the brush whilst applying, it gave my lashes a boosted curl, which is a definite thumbs up. My only gripe with this is that despite a number of application, the volume is just not enough and the lashes still felt thin and failed to satisfy my search for the wow factor. I know Boots have a range of No 7 mascaras which I need to now explore.






3) Rimmel 1 2 3

This was a random and quick purchase but I liked the idea of there being 3 types of effect.

• turn up to 1 - 3 times more volume
• turn up to 2 - 5 times more volume
• turn up to 3 - 10 times more volume

Although there is clearly volume, there really is just nothing else to it. It comes out like glue and cloggy and goes on exactly like that, prone to smudging and just generally difficult to tame. This is a definite let down.

Have you found the perfect mascara?

Sallysarah x