YSL Shocking Mascara

I love big lashes, black lashes, in your face lashes.  I pile on the mascara like there is no tomorrow to achieve the thickest, bushiest of lashes.  You see, I just feel naked without it.

I was a fan of YSL Faux Cils and Singulier mascara so when I was asked if I would like to try their new false lash effect offering, YSL Shocking, I obviously jumped all over that bad boy.

My first attempt at this mascara wasn't great.  It is very very wet which made it blob - I hated this, however, I loved how dark it is (I have shade 'Deep Black') it is almost like black ink.  The brush is long, slim and a little bit messy looking with it's multi direction bristles.  Instead of dismiss it immediately, past experience has taught me to stick with a product a while before making a final call, and i'm glad I did.

After a week or so, the formula starts to dry out a little.  Just enough to have more control of the wand and application and that's when you start to get the best results.  While it is still wet, blobbing occurs, a lot.  However, after it settles in its tube, I found I could layer it on my lashes, flaring them out where desired and really getting into the roots which was too hard to do beforehand without getting mascara all over my eyelids.

Excuse my early morning tired and red eyes!

Now the result isn't  going to be everyones cup of tea.  It is prone to clumping although this can easily be combed through but I quite like when it clumps especially with a smokey eye.  It really lengthens and thickens the lashes making them appear big and almost baby doll like.

I tend not to have to curl my lashes with YSL Shocking but if I do, it holds the curl well.  The best thing is I never feel the need to give my lashes the once over with the wand throughout the day or if I was freshening up my make up before leaving work for the day.  It looks exactly as it does in the morning as it does at night.

However, do I think it's worth it's 'Shocking' title and £22 price tag.  Yes and No.  Yes, as I love the mascara, it's great to work with (after those first few days), it gives a pigmented and voluminous finish and lasts the entire day and then some.  No, because it's not that different from the YSL faux cils formula however, if you like faux cils then i'm sure you would also love YSL Shocking.

Have you tried YSL Shocking? What's your verdict?

x

Getting lashed at The Powder Lounge

As well as getting Wah!ed down in London we also used the opportunity while being in the wonder emporium that is Topshop Oxford Street to also have our lashes extended to flirtatious extremes at The Powder Lounge.

Holiday lashes were offered and without really knowing what this entailed I decided to jump in at the deep end anyway.  Without being shown any lashes my therapist - who was extremely lovely - made sure I was comfortable in my seat (which is the equivalent to a dentists chair) and asked me to remove my eye make up - Something I detest doing in public!! Baldy eyes watch out!

removing my make up and hiding my eyes simultaneously

My eyes were then taped up - yes that's right ... a little bit of eye bondage goes a long way at The Powder Lounge.  As I lay there wondering what was happening I asked if I would be choosing my own lashes.  The therapist replied yes then asked a series of questions regarding length, thickness and what kind of impact I was looking for i.e, porno lashes (obviously false) or natural.  I asked for natural, slightly longer than my own.

Before I knew it I could feel individual lashes being applied one by one to each eye.  At this point I started wondering what on earth I was doing sitting there.  I had hardly asked any questions and hadn't even seen the lashes before application but I trusted the therapist and rolled with it.

About 45minutes later, I was untaped and my new eyes revealed.

Dark, long, thick and sultry lashes without looking unnatural and cheap.  It took me a while to get used to them especially as I initially had no liner on which is one of my make up staples.  I was told to avoid mascara and oily make up remover so that I could get maximum wear from them which is about 2 weeks.

Unfortunately it's nearly a week later and I have become a little bored of them already.  They feel a little heavy, they are long enough to cause a shadow under my eye which doesn't help me look any more awake in my already exhausted state and they seem quite hard and plastic.  I have tried baby oil and other eye make up removers but they will not budge.

I think theses lashes are fantabulous for a girly night out or even just a couple of days worth but any longer than that just annoys my eyes.  It's made me realise I do love my own lashes whether they are pale, thin and sparse at times, I can play on them to my own advantage and with the help of falsies I can change how I look as often as I want.  With extensions it is difficult to create more impact or change the look or shape of your eye as the lashes are harder to work with.  Don't even get me started on curling them ... I ended up with square lashes this morning!!

Maybe in the future I would consider lash extensions for a beach holiday but I would prefer to view and choose my own eyelashes for a nicer finish that is more suited to my eye shape.

Who else has tried lash extensions? What was your experience and do you have any tips for removal?

x

Product Review Rewind - MUFE Smoky Lash

Way back near the start of 2010, I blogged about my disappointment at a recent mascara purchase. Make Up Forevers Smoky Lash. You can see that post here.

Boy, am I eating my words now. You see I have purchased this mascara 3 times since that review. 3 times!!

Let me explain. Each time I open a new Smoky Lash mascara I still feel exactly the same way I did when I wrote my first review. It's clumpy, wet, messy and doesn't give me that polished look I am eager to attain.
Fast forward a week or 2 later and suddenly the texture and consistency of this mascara is just perfect. It is still as pigmented as when freshly open but much less wet and much easier to define, lengthen and thicken my lashes.

Gone is the clumpiness and untidy finish and instead we have a clean but full set of lashes that have wow factor. The finish is so close to a false lash effect that I am often asked if my lashes are real! Result.

It just goes to show that opinions can be changed and that really a product has to be trialled much longer than just a couple of weeks before you can make an unbiased judgement on it. A lesson learned.

x

Lancome Hypnose Drama

It may be apparent by now that I am super fussy when it comes to mascara.

You see, my lashes are so so pale that I really need a bit of a wonder product to create the intensity, volume and length that I love. So far, products that have worked for me are YSL Faux Cils and Singuliar and Chanel Exceptionelle as well as Clarins Wonderlength ... there are a few others but those are the stand out products that I remember and go back to.

Back in the day I was a fan of Lancome mascaras but hadn't made a repurchase for quite some time, that is until I was reading Hele's Blog where she recommended Lancome Precious Cells mascara. Welcome back Hele! You have been missed :)

I decided to go for it and headed to my nearest Lancome counter. After asking for precious cells the SA asked what I was looking for in a mascara and advised me that precious cells probably wouldn't perform as well as I wanted ... it wouldn't give me the dramatic lashes I was after, so she recommended Lancome Hypnose Drama instead. So I purchased on the SA advice.

Now, I don't want to slate this product as I imagine it works really well on lashes that may be darker to begin with but on me it just doesn't work so well. Since my purchase I have only used it 3 times. Now that ain't so good is it?

Lancome Hypnose Drama comes with a very voluptuous brush which is what helps create the dramatic eyes but I can't help but find it just a bit too big, mis-shapen and clumsy. I find the formula very very wet therefore making it a little difficult and somewhat messy to apply. I also find it clumps then seperates making my lashes look a little bit spindly and spider like. Now don't get me wrong, I want my lashes to look fake, that is the desired effect however, i don't want lashes that look like they would snap or crumble if I touched them.

I think I may wait until the mascara has dried out slightly and try again when it is less wet. Hopefully then it will give a more smouldering but cleaner finish.

On the other hand, the bestie also uses this mascara and adores it, and admittedly it does give her great results. Her lashes are darker than mine to start with but where she lacks length and volume, Lancome Hypnose Drama assists with wonderfully.

What do you think of this product? Should I have stuck to Hele's recommendation of Lancome Precious Cells?

x

My new favourite: Clarins Wonder Length Mascara

I received Clarins Wonder Length mascara as a gift about 6 months ago and I'll be honest ... I looked at it with dismay, wishing it had been Chanel Exceptionnel, Lancome Hypnose or even the infamous L'oreal Voluminous. How utterly ungracious of me ...?!

As it turns out, this mascara is WOW! Housed in shiny silver packaging, it gave me no clue as to the power of the product. Because I didn't buy this mascara myself I had no idea whether it was supposed to be volumising, thickening, curling or all 3 and then some.

With no promise attached, I had no expectation.

With just one coat, this mascara gave me the blackest of lashes that looked silky and volumised. I don't always use an eyelash curler before applying clarins wonder length yet my lashes always appear longer and curlier than before. When i do curl beforehand I find this mascara holds the curl perfectly all day.

Here are my lashes with just one coat of Clarins Wonder Length Mascara

I don't feel the need to re-apply this mascara through the day other than my obligatory make up touch up before I leave the office ... even then, it is only out of habit.

In fact it was only this week that I found out the name of this mascara when I decided to repurchase. Yes, that's right - repurchase! That's how good it is!

This mascara retails at £18 so it isn't exactly drugstore pricing but it certainly is worth it.

Anyone else tried this mascara? what are your thoughts?

Big Eyes - Eyeko Mascara

I had heard about this mascara a while ago but had never thought to try it out myself. As it goes I try and steer clear of drugstore mascaras but I am slowly changing my mind about them.

Eyeko actually sent this to me to try out as I am still fairly new to the brand.

Eyeko claim this mascara will give you long & luscious lashes in 1 easy squeeze. Hence the silver tube packaging - much like a toothpaste tube. It's formula combining natural oils and silicones with added Panthenol (Vitamin B) and is designed to prevent dryness, premature breakage and to promote lash growth. The brush has widely dispersed bristles for evenly coated perfectly separated long lashes.
The tube you will agree is very cute and I love the manga girl with her gorgeous big eyes and lashes.
The wand is quite narrow and the bristles are widely dispersed. I find the wand a little stiff and because of it's shape seems a little difficult to manoeuvre round my lashes. I have to agree with eyeko though, this mascara does create long, luscious looking lashes. I was pleasantly surprised with the pigmentation and how dark my lashes were after one coat. It certainly made my lashes appear longer and thicker which I was pleased about.

As for preventing dryness, by the end of the day my lashes feel a little heavy and caked but this could be a result of my own over application. The other downside to this mascara is the wand for me ... I can't seem to avoid getting the product all over my eyelids so I get a messy finish.

Overall, I really like this mascara and would recommend it - I will certainly getting my use out of it but will need to keep the cotton buds at the ready to clean up the overspill. On the eyeko website it retails at £8. You can also find Eyeko at Superdrug in the UK.

Anyone else like this mascara?

x

MUFE Smoky Lash Mascara

I hadn't really read any reviews on this mascara when I decided to buy it in Sephora on a little visit to Barcelona before Christmas.

The name in itself was enough to encourage me - Smoky Lash. It conjurs up an image of dark, sultry, sexy, mysterious lashes... but the reality didn't quite match the expectation.

This mascara claims to lengthen, curl and volumise whilst being intensely pigmented.



Hmmm, no, not quite. It is very pigmented but instead of luscious, full on lashes, MUFE smoky lash left me with flaking, dry, heavy lashes! Not good.

The mascara applies really clumpy and messily on the lash - even when you wipe any excess beforehand. When it dries it feels heavy on your lashes to the point where you want to rub it off your eyes. After a couple of hours you will probably want to start picking at the clumps of mascara which in turn just causes more flaking. At no point in the day can I look in the mirror without finding dry mascara excess somewhere on my face.

If you want to look polished this is not the mascara for you, its not even suitable for carrying off a really smoky eye as it just looks a bit dirty, dried out and slept in! I literally look like I have just woken up from a heavy night on the vodka jellies wearing this!

However, some girls do like a very layered clumpy lash, almost spider like, in this case it may still be worth trying but as for me, I will be steering clear of this mascara.

Anyone else tried it? What do you think?

x

Mascara du Jour - Cover Girl Lash Blast

In one of my previous posts I was asked what mascara I was wearing and to be honest, I have been dying to share with you what it is!

Most of you will already know it and some of you have even tried it - it's Cover Girl Lash Blast. My husband was in America a few months ago and he brought me home quite a substantial stash of make up goodies from the U.S. Shamefully, I have only got round to trying some of that stash in recent weeks *hangs head*

Because this is a drugstore mascara I really didn't believe it would deliver results but I could not have been more wrong!

Lash Blast comes in a fat orange tube - not the most luxurious packaging but I guess it's 'fun'. The wand is straight and the bristles seem to be made of a plastic/rubber material and are quite short and prickly.

The first thing I noticed about this mascara is that it applies really well and only takes 1 coat to get a good coverage however I do like to layer my mascara but even when layered it doesn't flake. The only time I have noticed flakiness is if I apply in the morning then apply a few more layers late in the afternoon but even then it is minimal. The second thing I notice about this mascara and what makes it stand out to me is that it makes my eyelashes look 'cute'. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, what do 'cute' eyelashes look like?? Well, for me, it's that they look full with a nice natural looking curl. In other words, it's the false lash effect.
It lasts for hours even on days like today, when I have a full on cold and my eyes have been streaming non stop! They are the only part of my make up that has stayed intact. I haven't put this mascara down since I first tried it and I am starting to panic about where my next tube will come from. Fingers crossed my husband has another business trip to America planned!! :)

What is your mascara du jour?

x

Review: Barry M 3 in 1 Intense Black Mascara

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am super fussy when it comes to mascara. I have the lightest eyelashes that really need darkened, lengthened and volumised which usually involves lashings and lashings of mascara.

Good mascaras for me are Chanel Exceptionnele, Lancome Hypnose and the infamous L'oreal Voluminous. I have a drawer full of the stuff but I rarely use outwith these.

In the last month I have tried out Rimmel Sexy Curves, Rimmel Glam Eyes and Maybelline Lash Stilleto. I found them all so rubbish that I couldn't even be bothered to review them on my blog. Usually I would but since I am so pernickety over mascara I just felt my opinion wouldn't always be a fair one. So, having ruled out cheap mascaras in my life, I was surprised as anyone to have fallen for this hidden little gem!

At Barry M on Wednesday, we all received Barry M's Intensive Black 3 in 1 mascara. This retails at £5.95. Sad to say but I was immediately sceptical due to the price tag - bad experiences in the past with cheap mascaras have clouded my thinking. However, I was creating a look for my niece and used this on her lashes - I couldn't believe the effect it gave so next day I set about trying it for myself.

This is called the 3 in 1 mascara as it claims to Volumise - Lengthen - Curl. The consistency of this mascara is not quite as thick as others I use so again I thought it would be no good for me but once on the lashes it really did everything it claimed to on the packaging! It lengthened, it curled and it volumised! I usually apply up to 5 layers of mascara or more but I found after only a couple my eyelashes looked in tip top shape. However, me being me kept on applying ... now this is the bit i love, no matter how much i applied it didn't seem to clump or make my lashes appear brittle or caked. I have never used a mascara that has kept the lashes looking clean and fresh after so many applications of it. Hopefully these photos will give you an idea of how it looks, sorry I do not know how to crop photos to only show my eyes and close ups only come out blurry.
Due to the price tag as you would expect the packaging looks fairly cheap, silver plastic with pink flashes where Barry M's name is printed. The mascara wand is slightly stubby and the bristles, although quite stubby and short - there are lots of them which i really think makes the difference.
The longevity of the mascara is amazing too, I applied at roughly noon on Saturday and here it is at midnight after sitting in the dark watching a movie and rubbing my eyes from time to time. I did not reapply the mascara at all during the day, I didn't feel the need to, which again is rare for me! This is a mobile photo so is blurry but I'm sure you get the idea.
It feels so light on the lashes, so much so, at one point I had to check in the mirror as I thought in a moment of madness I had forgotten to apply mascara!! I thoroughly recommend this mascara to anyone and think it will be great for anyone who isn't used to wearing it or who doesn't like anything that feels too heavy on the eye. This is going to be a a definite re-purchase for me and will be a product I will be sure to keep stocked up in my mascara drawer.

Hats off to Barry M - I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

Friday bargains!

Every Friday I finish up early and usually head into town to do a bit of shopping. Today, I decided it would be best to go straight home as I am desperately trying to save money and will also be in London next week so spend, spend, spend. However, having to buy a birthday card for a friend, led me past Superdrug, Sally's and The Body Shop!

First, I headed to Sally's. I really would like to meet 'For Audrey' by China Glaze in person but unfortunately they didn't have it in stock. I managed to resist everything else in Sally's but narrowly missed purchasing a large, thick barrelled curling tong (i've wanted this for ages) ... i managed to convince myself it could wait until I had tried my new slim barrelled curling tong! Really, how many hair curling instruments does girl need?? ....... Frankly, I don't care, I want I want I want! Anyway, shop number 1 - result!! No purchases.

Then onto Superdrug. The other day I picked up a few bits and pieces from Rimmel as they are on a 3 for 2 offer. I NEVER buy Rimmel products. The only Rimmel product I think i've purchased is their blemish stick, which in all honesty i loved. So today, I thought I would take a look at the offer again, with the intention of NOT buying. Now, I have to admit the first item I reached for, is something that I bought my friend a few weeks ago for her birthday. She swears by Rimmel mascara so I bought her the new sexy curves. I never thought to purchase for myself until I watched Pixiwoo use it. I'm so pathetic that I had to wait for Pixiwoo to recommend something before I was convinced. Shame on me. So anyway, that was the first purchase along with a nail polish and 'Foxy' lipstick. Shop number 2 - FAIL. 3 purchases.

I will be trying out this mascara tonight. I bought it in 'Intense Black' as I have very fair lashes so i like them to look as thick and dark as possible. It has an unusual shaped wand .. kind of inny outy (thats a technical term you may not recognise). My current mascara of favour is Chanel, alternating with Diorshow or Lancome hypnose so I will keep you posted on results.So after Superdrug, I headed to The Body Shop. A few of us will be attending the beauty bloggers event with Body Shop next week so I thought I would pop in and have a look. I love their Vitamin E cream and used to use it religiously so this was the first display at looked at. I spotted a gradual tanner. It was called 'Cocoa Butter Everyday Summer Body Lotion'. Now I am very big on my fake tan and also have a lot of gradual tanners which i rarely use. However, the other day I purchased Palmers cocoa butter gradual tanner so I thought it may be good to compare both these products. I will start using over the weekend and will update on the progress. They both simply smell of cocoa butter with no colour guide as you would expect from a gradual tanner anyway. So far it is difficult to detect any undertone of the tanning system odour, although I am sure this must come out eventually once on the skin. There was a 2 for £14 offer so I also picked up the 'Vitamin E Everyday Summer Face Lotion'. This will be great as I can tan and moisturise with the fabulous Vitamin E at the same time. Shop number 3 - FAIL. 2 purchases.You will be pleased to know after my vow of 'no purchasing' failed, I did still remember to buy the birthday card that I initially visited the shops for!

If anyone has used these products already it would be great to hear from you.

Also if anyone else will be attending the Body Shop event next week, get in touch .. I will be at the afternoon session, it would be great to meet everyone!

Anyway, I probably won't be on too much over the weekend, have lots of plans including a birthday party, shopping, visiting family and having a good old spring clean of my flat!

Have a great weekend Everyone!! x