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YSL Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils Shocking

December 6, 2013 by

YSL-faux-cilisI may not have been born with extra long lashes, but at least with this mascara, I can pretend. For $30 USD, I bought this from Sephora in Deep Black. As you can see from the picture above, while my lashes are not the shortest, they could use some help. YSL Shocking mascara is unique in that it moisturizes your lashes so that when you take your mascara off, your lashes don’t feel stiff and brittle. The mascara is quite wet and can clump if you don’t take your time. With one application, you see an immediate difference in my lashes. The smell isn’t overwhelming or overpowering and my lashes appear longer and thicker, saving me the hassle of having to wear false lashes.

What it is:
A mascara that exaggerates lashes with excess volume from every angle. 

What it does:
Exclusive to YSL, the amplified helix brush provides instant volume to the lashes. The slim brush design allows for perfect control and precision and the off-center twist enhances length and curl. The beautifully creamy formula with pro-vitamin B5 coats each lash evenly, creating a thick and lustrous fringe with a wet look.

Review Recap:

  • Price: $30 USD
  • Availability: Sephora or wherever YSL is sold.
  • Selection: You can find this in 4 different colors – deep black, black bronze, sea black, cherry black. Also available in regular and waterproof.  •
  • Overall: While the price is around the average for other designer brands, it’s a lot to swallow for a mascara. The product is much wetter than I remembered from the last time I purchased it, and if you aren’t careful it will clump, making your eyes look a mess. When applied properly, the mascara does everything it claims it will do, lengthening and volumizing your lashes. The price and the “wetness” of this product definitely take away from a perfect score, but because I’m familiar with the product, it’s still something I would buy again. 
  • Rating: B
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Maybelline Falsies Mascara – Love to Hate it?

September 8, 2010 by

 

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I want to start off by saying I was impressed with the buildability this mascara had for my lashes. I found out about product from reviews I read on Luuux, which led me to videos on YouTube. There doesn’t seem to be an in between with this product. You either love it or hate it. I didn’t think twice about it because I have multiple mascaras that I adore…until I saw it on sale in Target. I figured, meh, why not?

Taking into consideration the issues people had with this mascara, I felt like I was educated enough to use this product and be successful. I think the end results were promising, but only with a few tricks.

Most people said this mascara was too wet – which is very true. The Twilight Volturi mascara is also really wet, making it more difficult to apply. The wetness did not make me happy, but I solved this problem by letting the wand sit out for about 30 seconds before applying it to my lashes. This cut down on the clump factor. By the time I worked on the lower lash line, the consistency was perfect.

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Again, trying to avoid the clump factor, I started at the root of my lashes and used the wand (which I LOVE), twisting it up VERY SLOWLY, until I reached the tip. If you take your time with this mascara, the results are what you want. If you don’t – well…you’ll look a hot mess. If you find that some of the lashes stick together then go back with a spooly and they should come apart with ease.

I could see my lashes looked much longer and fuller when the product was applied SLOWLY. There was a noticeable difference to the fullness of my lashes and I got compliments, believe it or not.

With all the wholesome goodness that comes with this spectacular price tag (less than $10 USD), I found removing this product to be a pain. If I touch my lashes, they feel like I’ve coated them with something on the same level as modeling clay. When I’m in the shower or washing my face in the sink, I like to take my nail and almost strip the mascara off the hair. It makes cleaning my face easier and I don’t come out looking like I was a starter for the Baltimore Ravens. With this product, not only does it not strip off the lash easily, I found it didn’t want to come off ever easy when my Yes to Tomatoes was introduced and would stick to my nails.

Overall, I would give this product 4 out of 5 or a B in terms of ease of usage. I will use this until it runs out because I love the end result, but you really have to take the time and apply it. This is NOT your grab and go mascara. I would definitely not recommend applying this stuff in the car! I’m used to my MAC Opulash or my YSL Faux Cilis that cost two to three times as this one. You get what you pay for.

music note While writing this, I was listening to “Don’t Stop Believin;” by Rachel & Finn (Glee: The Music Vol 1)

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Easier Than Falsies: Shiseido Mascara Base

September 4, 2010 by

eyeshadow primer

If you are anything like me, you open a drawer to your makeup world and you are faced with choices. Which foundation to wear; which base to prime with; which eyeshadow combination to apply. The choices are relentless and time consuming. This does not bode well when it’s 5:15 a.m. and I have an entire day ahead of me!

While staring at my mascara bin hoping something would jump out at me the other day, something shiny (oohh, shiiinney!) caught my attention. Pushing mascaras aside, I found the shiny thing – only to push it aside and realize my Shiseido Mascara Base was underneath it – and had barely been used.

Immediately, I went to applying the base. It’s not like most eyelash bases you have seen on the market. Both drugstore and high end bases I have seen are white. This one is almost an opaque gray that reminds me of a face primer. The results are pretty amazing though and no gluing is involved 🙂

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Just a few swipes (I take it very slow to make sure I coat my lash from base to tip) and my lashes are instantly longer. Switching to the next eye, I allow time for the base to set and for the protein coat to harden (if that is in fact what it’s doing) causing my lashes to appear longer.

Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, I applied the first mascara in my bin that my hand could reach and applied it sparingly. My one and only complaint with this base is that even though my lashes look a full inch longer with this product, when I put a mascara on top of it, the mascara wand pushes my lashes together. If there is something I hate more than drawn on eyebrows, its clumpy looking eyelashes. Using my spooly, I pulled my lashes apart and they looked much better.

If you are willing to use the spooly and work the lashes apart, this product is great. It does what it set out to do and you use so much less mascara, the cost is worth it in the long run.

Do you use a base/primer for your eyelashes?

music note While writing this, I was listening to “Funny The Way It Is” by Dave Matthews Band

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MAC Opulash Mascara

June 30, 2010 by
favmac-opulash-mascara-optimum-black-

Last week I did something I hadn’t done in quite a long time…I went haulin’! Celebrating the end of the school year (classroom teachers last day – not mine), I was exhausted and proud that I survived the first year in my new job. And what a year it was…

So I decided it was time to take a trip to Tyson’s Corner Mall in NOVA (my future home I have decided – I am up for the commute) and hit up the MAC and Lush. I was going to go to Sephora too, but lucky me, my mall opened a mini-Sephora inside of the JC Penney’s so I can stop there any ‘ole time I want!

I decided it was time to pamper myself and I needed a few necessities that I had run out of. While I was there, (I had the most amazing sales girl for a change at MAC – very helpful & full of compliments), I decided I was going to try out the Opulash. I hadn’t been following MAC’s new products of recent due to my unwillingness to buy anything in hopes of saving my beauty splurge funds for my weight loss goal (hello Louboutin’s – when I reach my next weight loss goal anyway) , but that went on the back burner so I could get some goodies! In that was the Opulash.

MAC-Opulash-mascara-brush

I purchased it for a few reasons:

One: I’m always on the lookout for new mascaras.
Two: The wand is huge and reminded me of Dior’s Diorshow large wand – I said that before the associate did, but she said that’s a huge selling point for people.
Three: $14 USD is pretty awesome for a mascara that works just as well as Dior’s $28.
Four: The tube is huge compared to the other containers of mascara MAC sells, giving you the ultimate bang for your buck.

When I got home and used it this is what I discovered: 

One: The wand really is comparable to the Dior Diorshow mascara wand
Two: My lashes appear longer and have much more volume to them than with other mascara’s I’ve used in the past
Three: When I remove the mascara, it comes off easily – I don’t wake up the next day and look like I have a black eye even though I used makeup remover wipes and face cleanser on my eyes & face.
Four: This stuff stays in place throughout the course of the day. Sometimes my mascara ends up underneath my lower lashes but not with this mascara – at least not yet anyway (and the temperatures have been very close to the 100 F mark recently).

So at the moment, this is my new love. I have put aside all my other mascara’s to pay special attention to this one. It seems that many have a love – hate relationship when it comes to mascara’s. Right now, I am happy. Are you going to try this product or do you have it already? Let me know your favorite mascara or weigh in on your opinions for this one in the comments below.

 

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