Mascara is the one of the products I never leave my house without. I feel that it is also one of the most personal makeup products out there because everyone likes, needs, and expects something different for their lashes.
I decided to take a look at a few from the drug store that all promise beautiful long, fluffy, or voluminous lashes.
Essence Lash Princess – False Lash Effect Mascara
This mascara is $4.99 at Ulta! That’s pretty affordable when compared to some other options. The brush is a tapered natural bristle that’s more narrow in width even at the wider base. I will say that I prefer a fluffier brush in most cases, but I’m not going to be that quick to call it a dud.
Here are some before and after photos of the mascaras application and effects when applied at 5:20am.
I love the color it’s very deep black. I also appreciate how it lengthened my lashes and lifted them. The one thing that I didn’t care for upon application was that it caused some of my lashes the clump together. I like when my lashes are evenly coated with good length and volume, but also separated a bit.
11:17am Update: It has already smuged and flaked from my lower lashes you guys.
Over all this mascara isn’t awful. If you have $4.99 it will definitely get the job done for you. That being said I won’t be repurchasing it. Through this small experiment I’m hoping to find a good balance of price and quality.
Essence Lash Princess Volume
This Essence mascara did more of what I wanted to my lashes and it’s also only $4.99 at Ulta. It provided great volume, length, and separation. The curved wand made it easy to apply on my lower lashes and also gave an extra bit of lift and curl to my top lashes.
Here are some before and after of the application taken at around 5:30 am.
Update 10:45: It smugged already, but it isn’t flaking as bad as the False Lash Effect.
Over all even though it smugged I really like how this looks on my lashes I find that the length is pretty satisfying. My co-worker even complemented my lashes!
Maybelline The Falsies Volume Express
This mascara is $5.94 at Walmart and my old go to through high school. I wanted to revisit it to see if my taste was still similar to back then. I remember this giving good volume and being a deep black. I never remember it being flaky or smugging, but I also had no idea about about makeup back then.
Here are a the before and after of the application.
This did end up smugging, but didn’t end up flaking which I appreciate a lot. I wish it had added more length, but the volume isn’t too bad. Overall this isn’t something I will purchase again. I want a little more from my mascara even at this price, especially when compared to the Essence products.
Milani Highly Rated
This mascara is fairly new to Milani’s product line. I haven’t tried too much from them, but hear great things about their products. I purchased this for $8.97 from Walmart. When I opened it the first thing I noticed was that the formula is kinda dry. The brush is a natural fiber brush in what I would call a relatively “standard” shape.
Lets take a look at the before and after photos.
I like this mascara on my lower lash line it hasn’t smugged or flaked off. I do not like it on my top lash though. Though I wish it would have provided both more volume and length. Before taking it off I tried adding another layer to see what would happen. I definitely liked that the second coat made the lashes look much fuller, but hate that the dry formula makes the brush clumpy and I have to scrap some off before going in. Also, not everyone has the patience to apply twp coats at 5 am.
L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black
This mascara is so black even Jake commented on how dark my lashes where when I wore this one day. It sports a natural fiber brush with a typical brisel shape. I felt that it gave great definition to my lashes and over all it was pretty good.
Here are some before and afters of the application.
The big down side to this mascara is that it smugged the worst out of all of them. Even the inner corner! I will use this in a pinch but not on a hot day were my under eye gets dewy.
Final Thoughts.
Slowly I’m coming to terms with the possibility I’ll have to wear water proof mascara on my bottom lashes to avoid smugging. I think for now I’ll be reaching and finishing the two Essence mascaras first. Over all I enjoyed the final look of volume and length that they provided. The price is also wonderful, too.
All photos were taken in selfie-portrait mode on my Google Pixel 3.
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