Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Beauty Review: Mascara Review Showdown!

I went to Sephora to buy the Tarte Lights, Camera, Flashes mascara that Marianne had been raving about and while I was there, and apparently feeling all vulnerable, the sales associate recommended Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara, so I bought that too (in a travel size.)


I also took pictures which I'll acknowledge are completely f'ing useless because both sides look exactly the same. We'll just pretend. First, my bare lashes:


I have a hard time with mascara because my lashes are clearly pretty dinky and I wear contacts so I rub my eyes a lot which doesn't help. Also, I am lately missing a chunk of lashes on my left eye (I DON'T KNOW) so I was hoping one of these mascaras would help to hide this issue.

First, the Tarte mascara. This is an Advanced mascara with a system that takes a bit of practice. It has rules! The brush handle is marked on each side with a number so you start with #1 and brush the mascara on with the shorter bristles (while trying not to poke yourself in the eye with the longer bristle side) then flip it over to lengthen and separate. This seems like a lot of work and is very annoying, but if you really settle in and do the work, the results are very good (right side):


I know these pictures don't really show much difference, but I think the Tarte mascara might be slightly more dramatic and lengthening. 


On the left side I'm wearing the Too Faced Better than Sex mascara. Spoiler: it totally isn't. It has a big fluffy brush that gets a giant clot of mascara on the end that I have to clean off every damn time but other than that it's decent stuff. Natural, fluffy long lashes with minimal fuss. So...both are quite good, neither one is life changing and neither one holds a curl worth a damn on my pin straight lashes.

A few other quick reviews while I have your attention:

This Bite Beauty Lipstick that I ordered last month? I returned it. People rave about these but I was just completely unimpressed. The lip mask balm, though? Amazing and wonderful.

The Kate Somerville Goat Milk moisturizer that I bought last fall is really nice stuff but the pump jar is annoying. It's heavy so you don't know that you're out of product until you press the little thing and nothing happens. SO ANNOYING. I am trying to use up other products I have, so I won't rebuy this right away. I hate that packaging.

I've been using my Skin & Bones Luxurious Moisturizer oil at night on my face (Sunday Riley Juno in the morning) and my skin freaking loves it. I always seem to forget how much my face likes this fancy Jojoba oil-based blend and it smells like dark magic. I don't even know how else to describe it, exactly, but I like it. There is a nice travel set with a few of the products (including the luxurious moisturizer)

Oh, and, Ampersand, my reader friend in Japan sent me a bunch of makeup and samples so I'll be writing up a post about that soon. Lots of cool stuff I've been trying out!

What have you tried lately that you loved? (Or hated?)

8 comments:

  1. Have you tried warming up your eyelash curler a bit before curling? I just blast it with my blowdryer for a couple seconds and it makes a huge difference for me and my stubby, straight lashes! Also if you haven't tried Benefit They're Real, make that your next mascara experiment!

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    1. I need to do this! I'm always convinced I'll burn my eye. And yes, I really like BeneFit They're Real but my most recent tube dried up super fast, which was not awesome.

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    2. Tread carefully! I always have that slight fear as well, but soldier on in the name of vanity. I have the same issue with the formula drying out quickly! (I thought it was just me and my apparently slow mascara consumption...) I only buy the travel size for that reason.

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    3. When I heat my eyelash curler up with my hair dryer, I always test it on my hand quickly before using it to make sure it's not too hot. I was noticing a lot of breakage on my lashes recently though and I decided that it was my eyelash curler, so I stopped using it altogether.

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  2. I don't get along with Better than Sex. It's so clumpy. I do get along with the Burberry primer. It's so good. I purchased the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder last weekend, but I haven't made my mind up about it. So far it's fine, but for $45 it should probably be better than fine.

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  3. The right (your left) eye looks way better and less clumpy, so I think that's the winner.

    Lately, Sephora has taunted me with samples of the Dr. Dennis Gross peel. I noticed immediate results, fell in love, and then discovered the full prized version is $110 (Canadian)!!! Omg. No.

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  4. Are you still using / loving good genes?

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    1. Yes! I'm just about out of my second bottle, though, so i'm trying to decide if I re-buy or try something else.

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