Sephora LashStash Part 3 — Urban Decay Supercurl mascara review mega-rant!

I’ve been a big fan of Urban Decay for years but in all that time, I haven’t tried any of their mascaras!  Thanks to my LashStash Favorites, I got to try their Supercurl Mascara.  Here are Urban Decay’s claims for this mascara:

What it is:
A sculpting, curling, long-wearing mascara.

What it does:
In addition to holding curl all day, this mascara boasts incredible conditioning ingredients in its formula. Packed with glycoprotein for lash thickening, Moringa seeds to help with curl definition, and Meadowfoam seed oil and Shea Butter for moisturizing and smoothing, lashes get an extra nourishing boost with just one swipe.

 

Urban Decay Supercurl

I’m generally not a HUGE fan of curved mascara wands but I did like that this mascara had a plastic bristle wand — those seem to work really well for my lashes!  I also liked that this mascara was very inky-black and that the mascara wand wasn’t goopy with mascara, which would help prevent clumps.

 

Floating Eyeball Time!

Lashes curled, no mascara

Urban Decay Supercurl mascara

 

Not bad, right?  WELL!  While it didn’t curl my lashes, it gave nice volume and length and didn’t make the curl droop out too badly… BUT — and this is a big but — this mascara did not dry.  Ever.  Even hours later, every time I blinked, my lashes would stick together.  I’d end up twitching and winking to get them unstuck.  I kept this mascara on for about 5 hours and in that time I didn’t have any real issues with flakes or smudging — however, even at 5 hours, it still felt tacky and sticky.  I ended up having to remove it after those 5 hours as I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I kept winking and rubbing my eyes which really irritated them, even though the mascara itself was not irritating.

I was worried that maybe it was the humidity or another makeup product I was using that was causing this weird non-drying issue so I tried this mascara on several different occasions — all with the same result.  Mind-boggling!

Another odd thing is that when I went to remove it — it was a STONE BUGGER to take off.  I’ve had waterproof mascaras that were easier to remove!  Most mascaras will come off with my usual cold cream (yes, even waterproof!) but for this, I had to follow it up with Clinique Take the Day off Makeup Remover.

If this mascara had adequately dried, I think I would have liked it!  It did give my lashes some volume and length and didn’t knock out the curl totally (though they did droop a little, especially the outer corners).  It didn’t clump or flake or smudge.  But it just never dried!  I’m not sure if I got a bad tube of it or what but I can’t believe any company would put out a mascara like this!

Really disappointing and annoying!   Have you ever had a mascara just NEVER dry??

Sephora LashStash Part 2: Makeup For Ever Smoky Lash and Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Review

When deciding what mascara(s) from my Sephora Favorites LashStash box to review, I noticed that two mascaras had very similar wands and claims.  So I decided to test and review them together, to compare them directly!

MUFE Smokey Lash at Left, Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Volumizing at right

First up is Makeup For Ever’s Smoky Lash.  I know this is a pretty popular mascara and I’ve seen the Pixiwoo sisters use it a lot in their videos so I was really excited to try it!

Makeup For Ever Smoky Lash

Makeup For Ever Smoky Lash

The brush is one of the bristle-brushes that I tend to think of as old-fashioned but that I quite prefer.  The brush is fairly large but not hard to use and didn’t get mascara all over my eyelid so long as I was careful.  The mascara itself looks inky-black even in the tube and there was no unpleasant scent or smell at all.

According to the Sephora website, this mascara claims to be “specially designed to give the lashes an exceptional volume-enhancing effect with infinite lengthening and immediate curling.”  Huh.  Yeah. Well.  Let’s see about that!

Right eye, no mascara

While my lashes are very blonde, you can see they’re well curled (thanks to my Shu Eumura lash curler).  You can see even the lashes on the outer edge are curled upwards.   This is important because…

Right eye, Makeup For Ever Smoky Lash Mascara

… they have started to droop once the mascara is applied.  And the lashes on the outer corner are pointing down — which is what they naturally do when they’re not curled with a lash curler.

So what did MUFE claim again? “specially designed to give the lashes an exceptional volume-enhancing effect with infinite lengthening and immediate curling”

Volume-enhancing?  Yes, I’d say so.

Infinite Lengthening?  Slightly but not much.

Immediate curling? *hysterical laughter*

What I did like about this mascara was that it’s very dark and gave plenty of volume.  Even though my lashes are drooping (and they continued to droop throughout the night until they were all straight or pointing down), there is enough volume to make them noticeable.  I liked that the mascara didn’t smear or flake or smudge and that it was easy to remove at the end of the night.

Would I buy the full size version?  No.  But I might try the waterproof version as waterproof mascaras are generally much better at keeping a curl in.  I will continue to use the small sized tube I have — BUT I’ll be using it over a lash primer (I use a Wet N Wild waterproof mascara as a sort of primer.)

Will I fare better with Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara? 

FAIRYDROPS Scandal Queen!! Or — a brief introduction to mascara mania

*tap tap tap*  Is this thing on?  It is?  Ok, let’s go!

Hi! I’m Daena.  Welcome to my blog.  While I could write a long boring intro about who I am and what my blog is about… I’ll save that for another day and get right down to business.

While I’m pretty much obsessed with makeup, my favorite is mascara.   Oftentimes mascara is the only makeup item I wear.  Being pale, naturally fair-haired (unnaturally rainbow-haired) and light eyed, a bit of mascara can mean the difference between looking normal and having total strangers come up to me and ask if I need to sit down and need a drink of water.  (True story.)  Without any definition to my face, I can look a wee bit ill.  And with my goth days behind me, that’s not a look I’m currently cultivating.

So, mascara to the rescue!  I’ve tried so many kinds and am usually disappointed.  So around the holiday season when Sephora came out with their “Sephora Favorites Lashstash” that had 10 mascaras to try (including 2 full sized ones!) — well I was all over it!  Surely — surely — I could find an amazing mascara with 10 to choose from.  And not just 10 mascaras but ones that I had heard really great things about.

Now I have to say, I can be pretty picky about mascara.  Just to make things more difficult on myself, I know.  Since my lashes are decidedly average, I want a mascara that does everything.  I want volume, I want length and I want the mascara to hold a curl.  My lashes naturally are very straight and point almost down so I curl the everliving crap out of them before I apply mascara and the last thing I want is for my hard-earned curl to droop.

When I got the Sephora Lashstash in my greedy hands, even the packaging was right up my alley — all pink and glitter and shiny.  Definitely appealed to my magpie nature!

Sephora Favorites Lashstash

But wait… it gets even more shiny…

My precioussss.....

Inside is a plethora of mascara!  The big issue now is — WHICH TO CHOOSE FIRST???  Gahh!!!  My eyes are immediately drawn to FAIRYDROPS Scandal Queen mascara.  Seriously.  Fairy. Drops. Scandal. Queen! In a hot pink tube.  Maybe this will be The One.  Like the Neo of mascaras that will set my eyelashes free on a magical fairy journey of awesomeness.

Really? (Ya, really.)

I remembered i had read a bit about this mascara at Musings of a Muse. (She’s awesome, go read her blog. No, wait I mean AFTER you read mine, silly!) I rushed off to Sephora to read up a bit more.  According to their website, Fairydrops is:

Without:

Sulfates

Synthetic Fragrances

Synthetic Dyes

Phthalates

GMOs

Triclosan

Sounds great, right?  It’s also supposed to be a volumizing mascara that is water/sweat resistant and full of fiber.  Oh wait… fibers.   Uh oh.  Fibers in mascara are usually like a one way ticket to Itchy City for my eyes.  Suddenly, the FAIRY is sparkling a bit dimmer.  But, we’ll crack on anyway.  This mascara also has a super spiffy wand that is so spiffy it’s patented in Japan.  Let’s take a look!