Review: No.7 Stay Perfect Long-Lasting Volume Mascara, Black

Yo!

Way, way back in October, I reviewed a No.7 Stay Perfect foundation I had tried on my hunt for a decent foundation and mentioned that I had also tried a No.7 mascara at the same time. Well finally, I am going to give you some proper feedback on what I thought of it; it being No.7 Stay Perfect Long-Lasting Volume Mascara.

I believe I mentioned in the foundation review that I wasn’t a huge fan of the mascara and nowhere is this more evident than in the fact that I couldn’t really show you before and after pictures because they look so similar you can barely tell I’ve put anything on my lashes! The reason I went for this mascara was two-fold. One part was cost-based as I was pretty broke and needed both a mascara and a foundation so No.7’s offer to buy one and get one half price made perfect sense. The other is that this mascara works in a similar way to Clinique’s High Impact Curling Mascara which is a previous favourite of mine. (You can find out more about that here.)

No.7 Stay Perfect Long-Lasting Volume Mascara, £12.95

As you can see in the picture, this little bad boy has one of the small, precision brushes which can be great at catching the smaller lashes. I’m used to a bigger brush but actually I don’t have any problem with this one, it does it’s job well.

Where this mascara starts to get tricky is layering. I personally think you may as well not bother with one coat of this mascara so you need to layer it on. However, the mascara gets tacky and dries really quickly so you need to be instantly layering more on otherwise the brush drags on the lashes and you end up with a horribly clumpy and uneven look.

Once on, the mascara does stay put well but I found that by the end of the day, some specs had started to melt off onto my face; this never happened with the Clinique. Removal of this mascara is a warm water based affair and you massage the mascara off in tubes. Except because this is so sticky you kind of have to pull it off and they didn’t advise me of this at the counter, I only knew because I’d done my research beforehand.

It’s a great concept but Clinique have done it much better so I’d say spend an extra £4 and get the Clinique version, your lashes will most definitely thank you for it!

Review – Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara, Purple

The lucky devil that I am, my bf went to the USA this week for work and brought me back a Chanel mascara in a purple colour without even asking because he knows that I LOVE mascara and that my eyes are my favourite feature. Ashamed as I am to say this at 26 years old, this was my first ever Chanel product of any kind so for me it was doubly special 🙂

The mascara he bought me is the Inimitable Intense mascara in shade 50, purple. If you want to get your hands on one of these, Debenhams currently have them as part of a savings event so they are £20.70, rather than the usual £23.00.

First thing’s first, let’s look at the brush:

As the picture shows, the brush is small, thin and spiky; for me this is the perfect type of mascara brush. I know some people probably don’t like this but I find it makes it really easy to build up volume depending on the occasion and these types of brushes are good at separating the lashes.

The colour is a deep, plum purple which would be ideal for the AW season with all the berry tones out there, if it wasn’t for the fact that actually it comes out pretty much black when you apply it. I thought maybe it was the light and I needed to be somewhere brighter than my energy-saving bulbs would allow but no, you really just cannot see the purple tone when it’s on lashes as dark as mine.

The second picture is a bit darker as I had to turn the flash off but I wanted to show you what my lashes looked like when I wasn’t sleeping! You get the gist though, no purple on those lashes!

However, if you take the purple out of the picture, I love this mascara, it made my lashes curly nicely and I felt a little bit like I was wearing falsies as they were so long and nicely separated. The staying power is great too, I put that on in the morning before work, worked in a hot office all day, came home to add more eye shadow then went to the theatre and then to Tesco afterwards and still my lashes looked amazing without even a tiny smudge to add to my already epic dark circles! Now that is some feat that not even my precious Lancome mascara has managed.

In all honesty I’d never looked at Chanel make-up before, I’d just assumed the price tags would be so hefty that I wouldn’t be able to afford it. This mascara has totally changed my mind though; having to look at the price tag for this blog post has made me realise what an amazing product it is for the price. They do need to do some work on their colourings but if you were just out to buy a standard black mascara then this is one I would highly recommend. You get the butterflies of owning a brand like Chanel and then you get beautiful lashes to flutter as well – bargain! Anyone else a fan of Chanel’s mascara? Can anyone recommend any of their other products which are particularly good? x

 

Review – Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned once or twice that eye make-up is especially important to me as my eyes are my favourite feature so any time I manage to get my hands on a new product to try, I’m all over it!

I’m not sure how I came to have a travel / sample size of Lancome’s Hypnose Drama mascara but I did and my usual Clinique had run out so I decided to give it a go.

Now when I say give it a go, I have put this bad boy through it’s paces! Firstly and most crucially is the brush, it’s one of those plasticy hedgehog type brushes except it’s also wavy. When it first popped out of the tube I thought it looked ridiculous and I couldn’t imagine how that would work. When I came to use it the first time I also found it a little cumbersome but the results were phenomenal. After just 1 coat my lashes were looking crazy long and were really nicely separated. Check out the result: (nose looked massive from this angle so I have chopped it off & I could not get a decent eyes open pic, the flash was killing me!)

My very close up eyes!

I loved the look so much that I have worn this mascara to work, to a spa and on holiday in 30 degree heat and it’s just brilliant. It doesn’t budge throughout the day and my lashes look really natural and long. My only criticisms are that I would like to be able to layer it up more easily to make it look thicker and it does budge in a spa. The bonus of my Clinique mascara is that it is so hard to get off, it stays put even in water.

Honestly though, for £21, which is cheaper than I though a Lancome mascara would be, this is a bargain. I LOVE IT and am in fact going to replace my sample size with a larger version – something has finally knocked Clinique off the top spot! Now all I’m hoping for is a waterproof version 🙂 x

Review – Benefit BADgal Lash Mascara

Benefit products have been circling in my peripheral vision for years but I’ve never spotted anything that’s grabbed me enough to give it a go, despite many of my friends raving about the range. Then, last month Glamour magazine was offering free Benefit cosmetics so I thought that would be a great time to give something a try. Mascara is one of the items of my make up bag I feel most passionate about so I went for the BADgal Lash option. Here’s what I thought about it:

Upon unscrewing the brush from the bottle, I was quite excited as the brush is thick and full so I was expecting some serious volume, not least because this mascara is meant to give a true false lash look. Oh boy was I disappointed! The brush was so fat that actually it came out of the bottle with barely any product on it. After coat number 1, my lashes looked exactly the same as they did before I’d put any mascara on. Literally nothing! Maybe it’s just because I’ve just opened it, I thought. In I went again…yes, I double dipped! Sadly the same result. I’ve never been this disappointed by a mascara and for something that costs £16.50 normally, it’s an exceptionally poor show!

I appreciate that it was always going to have a tough time filling the shoes of my Clinique mascara but it was truly terrible. To get some perspective, I asked around at work to see if anyone else had any luck. One colleague who has stunning, long lashes said that she had also tried it a while ago and thought exactly the same as me. Point proven, it’s not just my high standards getting in the way, this mascara just does not live up to its claims.

Sorry folks but this is one to miss and it’s not exactly warmed to Benefit as a product range! x

Mascara Review – L’Oreal vs. Clinique

My eyes are my favourite part of me – for all the things I hate, they are the one thing I am pleased turned out just the way they are. As such, I like to be able to show my eyes off to their best advantage at all times and an important part of that is getting my mascara right.

A few years ago my step-mum turned me into a big Clinique fan and since then I have refused to use any foundation that is not made by them and until recently I had been the same with mascara. However, I have gone a bit mad with my spending so I thought that I would try an alternative in the interests of frugality!

My usual mascara of choice is Clinique’s High Impact Curling mascara in black (£15.00) – check it out here. It is brilliant! I find the wand really easy to use, I can put on a couple of coats for great oomph and it stays put forever! None melts onto my face and when I take it off I have to use warm water and it comes off in clumps rather than a black mess all over my fingers.

As you can imagine, it was scary moving away from that but I decided I would check out the L’Oreal Volume Million Lashes mascara in Extra Black as it was on offer in Tesco so I got it for £9.22. (Here is the product)

The verdict is mixed – the brush is great at separating my lashes and it really does add volume but I find the brush way too cumbersome for the lower lashes. However once on, my lashes look amazing – better than with my Clinique! BUT…by the end of a day at work, I look a bit like a raccoon with very dark circles under my eyes as my mascara has started to melt. Also, the sheer volume of mascara I have to apply means that getting it off is a messy is business and I tend to have black streaks all over my fingers and face!

So for me, my Clinique is the way forward as it works – day in, day out and I know I can guarantee it will always be on my lashes, rather than under my eyes. However, if you want a fairly cheap mascara to use for occasions only and also want the fake lash effect, you should give the L’Oreal a go.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has any winning tips on how to achieve lasting “wow” eyes 🙂 x