Ms. Dahlia, Detroit/Cleveland
Age and Occupation: 24, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, IT System Administrator
Engagement Date: December 31, 2006
Wedding Date: May 2008
Blogging Since: September 19, 2007
Venue: United Methodist Cathedral & historic downtown hotel in Cleveland
About Me: I enjoy cooking, dancing and swimming. I am a geek and apply game theory to my everyday life. Winter is my favorite time of year, especially when spent curled up with good coffee and a book by Madeleine L'Engle.
Product Review: Mascara
October 22nd, 2007 @ 6:45 pm by Ms. Dahlia
There are two things that I look for in a mascara.
1- It must be waterproof, because I cry. I don’t always cry, but it can be guaranteed that if I am not wearing waterproof mascara I will cry. And if I am around my mother, and she starts crying (which happens fairly regularly- she is wonderfully emotional), 90% of the time I start crying too.
2- I can’t have raccoon eyes at the end of the day. I already have dark circles under my eyes (thank you graduate school!), and I really don’t need any help in making them any darker than they already are.
For the longest time, I used Maybelline Great Lash Mascara. And then after getting my makeup done at a Clinique counter about a year and a half ago, I switched to Clinique’s Gentle Waterproof Mascara.
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara and Clinique Gentle Waterproof Mascara.
Sadly, although Clinique really was a step up from Maybelline as far as how it felt when I was wearing it, it did not resolve the raccoon eyes problem that I have whenever I wear mascara. I wear contacts, I rub my eyes a lot, and I get dark circles. That’s how it is. Or rather, how it was until I was introduced to this amazing product from a friend.
Now, I originally balked at the idea of spending $24 on mascara (it is $25 on the Blinc website, but $24 at Sephora), but I had a $15 gift card to Sephora, and figured, why not? So I bought it, tried it and must say that I am very impressed. It works differently than other mascaras, forming tubes around your eyelashes that are supposed to come off only when using both water and pressure to pull them off. In practice, I can still rub them off, but it is a lot easier to pick a couple of small black tubes (these are really tiny) off your face than it is to deal with the mascara induced black eye. If I end up doing my own makeup on my wedding day, I am almost positive that this will be the mascara that I will wear- and if I don’t, I may still request that the makeup artist use this mascara.
As a bonus, I shared my excitement with my chemistry student brother, who proceeded to tell me about the various polymers that were in the mascara, and then assured me that they are completely safe.
What is your favorite mascara? Are there any others that I should try?
34 Responses to “Product Review: Mascara”
Clinique High Definition–it is a wand brush/comb and is fantastic!
Thanks so much for this post! (I learn so many makeup tips and product recommendations from this site…) I have all the same mascara issues as you, so this is great. I also have a weird eyeball phobia/issue, so I can’t bring myself to have lower liner…it took like 10-15 minutes for the makeup artist to do it for the wedding, b/c I cry instantly, so it’s line-cry-dab-line-cry-dab…
Can you tell that you have it on? That’s my other “mascara issue” — I get really freaky about that “my eyelashes are stuck together” feeling that most mascaras give me. I don’t like it when I blink and I feel like the upper and lower lashes have made friends and won’t let go…
Trish McEvoy mascara uses the same Blinc technology which makes it waterproof and SO easy to take off. I would still be using it if it hadn’t irritated my albeit sensitive eyes.
I’m currently a huge fan of Dior Show and Lancome Hypnose.
I use Too Faced Lash Injection. It’s Great! It also has the polymers in the mascara. It is $20 at Sephora.
I’m a Dior Show person. The folks at Sephora turned me on to it when I moved to a sub-tropical climate and wanted something that could hold up to someone that can be prone to racoon eyes with lesser mascara.
You should try Dejavu Fiberwig. Best mascara I’ve ever used. It does not smudge, it is not waterproof but when I cry or swim with it, it does not ‘bleed’, and it is easy to remove! Also, it builds up very nicely.
http://web1.sasa.com/SasaWeb/sch/product/searchProduct.jspa?brandId=1033
when i had the inkling that my man was going to propose, i put on my waterproof cover girl lashExact mascara. when he got down on one knee, i was balling and there was no end to it. i was embarassed to tell our friends afterwards because i didn’t know if the mascara stayed on or not; it did! we told our friends first, and i cried again telling them. no racoon eyes. and i BALLED, cried and cried, everytime i made a phone call to tell someone, i cried. and the mascara stayed on. i was very impressed!!
when i had the inkling that my man was going to propose, i put on my waterproof cover girl lashExact mascara just in case. when he got down on one knees, the waterworks had begun. we went to tell our friends, and i was a little embarrassed at first as i didn’t know how my makeup looked after crying, but i broke down crying again as we told our friends. went to the bathroom, and there it wasn’t…no racoon eyes or migrating blackness…almost like i’d just put them on, except my eyes were glossy and puffy. great mascara for a great price!
argh!!! i thought my post didn’t go through so i typed it up again. hmpf!
if you liked kiss me mascara, you must try kevin aucoin’s curling mascara. it ROCKS. favorite mascara hands down.
I swear by Benefit’s She laq to help keep my mascara from running. It also works on eyeshadow, cheeks and lips!
I really hate mascara.. it makes my eyelashes feel all heavy! I have really short thin eyelashes (blah), so I’ve been using Talika. Are you not planning on using fake eyelashes for your wedding?
Similar to Miss Bird of Paradise…if you like blinc you have to try Fiberwig (see Mrs Plumeria’s post on it http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/03/30/eyelash-update/) It’s the japanese technology that Kevyn Aucoin based his mascara off of except now it’s avaliable in the u.s.
I used Blinc before Fiberwig and now I’m a convert. I already have long lashes but after I started using it 3 different people within a week told me how long my lashes looked. I also found that Blinc flaked a little too much and Fiberwig doesn’t.
I recommend Shu Uemura– great for sensitive eyes.
I love fiberwig thanks to the previous WB post about it. I couldn’t wear wax-based mascara because the skin around my eyes is so sensitive. Now that I discovered fiberwig I get to wear mascara every day!
Blinc is my go-to waterproof mascara — hands down. I have to admit that, unlike the above posters, I am not a fan of Fiberwig.
As far as regular mascara, DiorShow is definitely the way to go!
I love the bobbi brown no smudge mascara. I am a Korean girl with no double eyelid (Koreans all know what I am talking about) and I love to rub my eyes and get teary a lot. This mascara NEVER smudges. I even went in the ocean with it once with no problems!
Another suggestion is the eyelash extensions. Not like traditional fake eyelashes, they actually “glue” the fake eyelashes to your real ones so it looks really natural and stays on for a few months. I have a few friends who had done it and it costs between $50-100.
BaghdadBride - i tried fiberwig too. out of those 3, for me, it’s #1 kevin, #2 fiberwig, #3 blinc.
i just bought lancome’s virtuose, and I LOVE it. i don’t know if there’s a waterproof version, but just thought i’d throw that out there. 
i’ve stayed away from mascara my whole life b/c no matter what the brand, how expensive or how water proof it claims it is, i always end up looking like a raccoon. i think it’s b/c i have oily skin. UNTIL… i bought kanebo international brand mascara. you can purchase it at bergdorf for about $45 (i know, not cheap!) and it only comes off with VERY warm/hot water. i loooooooooove it.
I second the Dior Show recommendation. Believe me, it’s worth every penny. They have a waterproof version I plan to wear on the big day.
It forms tubes around your eyelashes that only come off when both water and pressure are applied?? Really? That sounds a little scary…
I don’t wear mascara that often, but when I do, I like Estee Lauder or Clinique.
Well, I work for Sephora and this is definitely my favorite!!! All the girls in the office swear by Dior Show, but everyone always tells me how long my lashes look- so I’m spreading the gospel of the Blinc mascara! Love, love, love it! If you wanted to forgo the mascara and have naturally long lashes (and you have deep pockets) use the Jan Marini lash growth product, and your lashes will grow so long, you’ll have to trim them! True story, my mom uses it and had no lashes, and they are so pretty now!
I love Fiberwig! It comes off so easily and doesn’t smudge when I rub my eyes.
I love MAC waterproof eye stuff. that stuff doesn’t come off even if I want it to.
I love MAC waterproof eye liquid liner and mascara that stuff doesn’t come off even if I want it to.
I’ve used L’Oreal Voluminous since high school, and have never been as happy with any other mascara I’ve tried. This stuff works so well for me that I just can’t see spending $20+. It comes in waterproof, too.
KISS ME mascara is soo cool~! if you are a CRY-ER, then i recommend kiss me. unfortunately, i used whatever my makeup artist put on me the day of but for rehearsal, when i was letting it ALL out, my lashes STILL looked FABULOUS!
Kiss Me was recommended at a makeup session at Sephora, and I ended up using it on my wedding day (did my own makeup). It was great I’ve been hooked since then… I never was into mascara because of the same reasons you noted (I’m also a grad student with under-eye circles!) but now I use this mascara whenever getting dressed up.
fiberwig or opera mylash - you can get fiberwig at sephora for $24 or so, but it is only about $18 (which includes shipping) at sasa.com.
Bad Gal Lash is the best. I think it’s by benefit. Several of my friends have made the switch after I suggested it and they love it too. It’s around $18 and is carried by Sephora.
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