The Hunt for the Elusive Mascara - reviews!

If "eyes are the windows of the soul," what's a girl to do when her eyes are invisible? This is how I feel about myself without mascara. Due to my lovely Asian genes, without mascara, my eyes disappear every time I smile. And they're barely there when I'm not.

google images credit

Mascara, for me, is the essential makeup product. No matter how tired I look, how uninspired I feel, how house-bound I am, putting on mascara is something I rarely skip. This meme is entirely accurate 😋

I have spent years on the hunt for the perfect mascara. I define perfection in a mascara as follows:
1. Must not smudge
2. Must not flake
3. Must not irritate my eyes
4. Must separate lashes
5. Must lift and curl lashes
6. Must make lashes look fuller
7. Must stay on all day through watery eyes, dry winds, constant eye rubbing, using eye drops, occasional crying, while I'm working out, and when I shower (without getting my face wet).
8. Comes off cleanly at night with an oil cleanser and facial soap because I don't have time for a makeup remover.

This is a lot to ask and I HAVE found one mascara that does all this. I do rotate through a few different brands, depending on what I want to look like that day. I'll review the ones I love and would buy again, and then review a number that I've used but won't rebuy and why.

1. Dior Overcurl Mascara $28.50 Sephora

This is it, ladies! This is my perfect mascara. It actually does all of the above. It has a curved brush, so it lifts and slightly curls lashes without the use of curler. It dries rather stiff, but not uncomfortable. It does.not.budge once you put it on. No flakes, no smudging. It's also easy to apply. Just go over your eyes until it's as thick or thin as you like it. I also use it on my bottom lashes sparingly, to make my eyes look bigger. It comes off easily at night with an oil cleanser and soap. I do have to rub the oil cleanser on my eyes a lot more than normal to soften this one.
Cons: It's the most expensive mascara at Sephora, a store not known for the cheapness of its products. It lasts me about 3 months, not because it runs out, but because it starts drying out, which makes it harder to put on and flakey.

2. Benefit Roller Lash Curling & Lifting Mascara $12 - $24.00 Sephora

If I had to pick one mascara to use forever that would also last forever, it would be this. It lifts, curls, separates lashes, and it lasts all day with minimal flaking and no smudging. The reason I like it less than Dior is because it doesn't thicken quite as much as the first. Also, it will flake just a tad as it gets older and if you are hard on your eyes throughout the day. The one way it is better than Dior is that it takes much longer to use up or dry up. I actually have never had this product dry out. I usually throw it out because 6 months seems too long to use the same mascara. It washes off easily with oil cleanser and soap, more easily than the Dior.

3. Urban Decay Troublemaker Mascara $24.00 Sephora

had to open my eyes super wide to get this,
but you get the idea. Thank you, Asian genes! 

This is a new release from Urban Decay. I tried their Perversion mascara and didn't like it because it flaked and wasn't particularly voluminous. I tried this one because I liked the brush and the cool, holographic bottle. Shallow, I know. The brush is different from my typical favorite, bushy fan brush. It's a silicon brush with widely spaced, thick tines. Although it isn't my look, this would be the perfect mascara for getting that Twiggy look. However, if 4 or 5 widely spaced lashes isn't your thing, you can more gently and lightly apply this one and it comes out easily and very luscious. It doesn't flake. If you have a hard day, it can get a little smudgy by the end of the day. It's better than Dior in its applicability, meaning that it's easy to get lots of color and fullness out of this one, while you have to go over your lashes a few times with Dior. However, Dior has a more even application and other pluses. My big con with this one is that the bristles are very pokey, and if you push too far down towards your eyes with this, you'll poke your eye. That, and the mascara itself caused the worst watery eye disaster I've ever experienced. So if you're a mascara newbie and if you have sensitive eyes, I don't suggest this one. If you love full, black, thick lashes, give this one a go. I'm wearing it today, so here's a picture (ughhhhh! selfies!!! 😆).

4. Loreal Lash Paradise $10.00 Walmart/Walgreens/CVS
If you're on a budget and want a great mascara, this is a winner. I'm so anti-drugstore-mascaras! They never seems to deliver on my list of non-negotiables. But this! Wow. It's basically a dupe for Too Faced's Better than Sex Mascara, which is a cult favorite, but not one of my favorites. It performs a lot like Too Faced, but unlike that one, does not smudge as badly. Compared to my precious Dior, it is more smudgy, but for $10, it's negligible. It gives you big, fat, black lashes with very few applications. I workout in it, wear it in the shower, put in eye drops, and it holds up all day. If you don't mind wiping your under eye occasionally with a wet q-tip, this is a keeper. It removes very easily with oil cleanser and soap.

That covers it for my tried and true favorites. Now let's talk about my expired favorites, or mascaras I bought more than once, but which were out-performed by the above.

Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara, $23, Sephora
I bought this one several times because it has many nice qualities. It's dark, easy to apply, and makes your lashes... present? Not particularly voluminous, but definitely present and long. As an added bonus, this one is from Tarte, which makes an effort to use natural-ish ingredients in its products. It also claims to have healthy things in it:
Rice Bran Wax: Helps lengthen lashes.
Carnauba wax: An emollient wax that ensures a smooth application.
ProVitamin B: Treats and thickens lashes.
Olive Esters: Condition, treat, and protect lashes. (per Sephora's website)
It's also vegan.
Why I eventually stopped using it was because it smudges and flakes pretty badly. If you don't rub your eyes, if your eyes don't water, you might be fine.

Tarte Gifted Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara, $23, Sephora
This is another Tarte mascara that I rebought several times. I liked it because it's free of a lot of the usual crap in makeup products... parabens, sulfates, etc. It also has a lot of ingredients that should improve the quality of your lashes. I preferred it to Tarte's Lights Camera Lashes because it spaced your lashes better. It was a pretty lovely mascara. However, I ended up discarding it because it still flakes and because it's pretty natural, it dries out very quickly and once it's dry, it's hard to apply and flakes almost instantly. If you like natural products and don't mind buying this once a month, try this.

Buxom Lash Mascara, $20, Sephora.
Looking at this again reminds me of how much I miss this mascara! This is a beautiful mascara when you first buy it and put it on. It spaces your lashes to perfection, goes on smoothly, can be layered as much as you want... basically, it looks like falsies without the glue. So why not this one? Because it smudges and flakes too much for me personally. It got very annoying to be wiping racoon circles off my under eyes all day. It doesn't help that I squint my eyes horribly when I smile, which contributes to smudging.

Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Major Volume Mascara, $14 - $26, Sephora

I thought this was my true love mascara. I got a sample from Sephora... putting it on was instant falsies. It really was. It was so thick and full! And it lasted all day with nary a smudge or flake. I bought it full size and the dream was shattered. I don't know what changed, but this magical mascara didn't feel as magical the second time I got it. It turned super smudgey... raccoon-eyes smudgey. I returned it. But... it's beautiful. If you want to feel like a super expensive, designer-wearing, stay at home mom, just get it. The bottle is lovely... it looks like a beautiful weapon and is super classy, sitting in your makeup drawer 😊 Just don't rub your eyes, smile too hard, or cry sloppily. 

Too Faced Better than Sex Mascara, $11 - $23, Sephora
It isn't, though. But boy, does it have a following!... probably because of the name. What it is is a super wet, thick formula on a fat, bristle-y brush that goes on very nicely, but smudges like crazy throughout the day. I do wear a lot of eye moisturizer products around my eyes, so that could contribute to the problem. But my darling Dior doesn't treat me like that. Also, the L'Oreal Lash Paradise looks exactly like it and performs better for half the price. I'd give this one a pass, although if you really want to try mascaras, it might be worth doing just because everyone except me seems to love it.

This covers all the mascaras about which I have strong feelings. I've used tons more and you're welcome to ask me about them, but they were either blah or worthless, so I'm not going to bother reviewing them.

Pro shopping tip.... If you want to try these expensive Sephora mascaras for less, check Ebay for new, unused, sample sizes. They run about half of what Sephora charges for a mini. Or just buy the mini size from Sephora, which, in my opinion, works just as well and lasts as long as the full size (because the full size dries out before you can use it all anyway). Remember that you can return used products to Sephora with a receipt for a full refund, or for store credit without a receipt. Win-Win!