The Search for the Perfect Mascara

We all go through it. That seemingly endless search for the one mascara that makes you feel like you don't really need the falsies every day. It can be a spendy search for sure and a very frustrating search sometimes as well. Today my cousin mentioned wanting to find a good mascara for her wedding and in the hopes of saving her from that impossible search I immediately recommended my favorite mascara. Oh no I'm not going to tell you what it is quite yet. What fun would that be? You may not finish reading if I told you right off the bat! LOL So here's the search I went through and what I thought of each brand.

#1 Great Lash by Maybelline

I'm sure at some point we've all given this one a go. It's the mascara you remember seeing your Mom use when you were a kid. And I mean come on it has a pink tube! Who isn't drawn to a pink tube? Well if you've never used mascara and never seen a woman who has amazing lashes this mascara might work well for you. However if you know even a little about makeup you know that this just doesn't cut it. It gives no real length and clumping is a serious issue with this one. So out of 5 stars I'm going to have to give this mascara one star. 

#2 XXL Mascara by Maybelline

This one really isn't that bad. I actually used this one for about 9 months before deciding to try something else.  I really like the conditioning side, it seemed to help to lengthen the lash. And at this point having only tried a few mascaras I thought this was as good as I was going to get as far as length went. One of the downsides was because there is the conditioning side you run out of mascara before the typical 3 month mark. Also I did notice that it would flake off. Not a lot but enough that it was annoying! So for this mascara I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. 

#3 Glam Eyes by Rimmel

I have to admit I bought this one because I liked the tube. Hellooooo it has pink on it! LOL But I quickly was disappointed. I really didn't like the brush on this one. Soooo skimpy! I didn't feel like it covered my lashes very well. And because of that you keep putting more on and you get the lovely spider lashes. No one wants spider lashes! I also felt the mascara itself was rather thin, almost like it was watered down. So for this mascara I give it 1 star out of 5. 

#4 Lash Blast by Cover Girl

Now I don't know if I'm just hugely picky about my mascara or what but this one is another one that I didn't like the brush on at all. I felt like the bristles weren't long enough to really grip your lashes and transfer the mascara to your lashes. Once you did get it on it just didn't seem like it was giving me any help with the length at all. However I suppose if you have fairly long lashes this one wouldn't be too bad. So I will give it a 3 out of 5.

#5 Total Impact by Femme Couture

I bought this one at Sally Beauty Supply thinking that because I was buying it from a beauty supply store it was bound to be a good one right? Not so! The brush on this one is pretty good. But once you get this stuff on you either have to do the old toilet paper blink trick that your Mom use to do or not blink for at least 10 minutes because that's how long it takes this stuff to dry! I can't tell you how many times I messed up my concealer under my eyes because this stuff got all over the place. And considering it didn't do much for the length it was SO not worth the hassle. I give this a 2 out of 5. 

#6 Curl Up & Dye by Hard Candy

Let's be honest, who wouldn't want to buy this adorable mascara tube? And I think that's what they're hoping for. You're walking down the aisle looking for a good mascara and this adorable packaging jumps right out at you and you think.... I MUST have that mascara! Well I'm here to tell you to STEP AWAY from the cute packaging!! Let's start with the brush.... NO NO NO! It's long, skinny & curved weird. I'm gonna give it a big fat F in the brush department. Let's then move on to the mascara itself.... it's really thick and hard to get on without clumping or spidery lashes. Oh yes and let's not forget it doesn't dry very fast either. Yet another messy application. Oh and the worst part of all.... put the brush back in, screw it down tight and mascara starts ooozing out of the lid. Not a fun mess to clean up! So this I'm sure you've guessed gets a 1 out of 5! 

#7 Hyperlash by Smashbox

This mascara has one flaw.... the price! It's 21.00 for one tube. So even if this had been my favorite it's not something I could continue to buy every 3 months. I like the brush on this one and the consistency and time it takes to dry is great but I have to say that for the price I was not impressed with it's lengthening capabilities. In that department it didn't compare to my favorite. I would give this one a 4 out of 5. 

And now it's time for my favorite of all time!!!!

Are you ready?

Not sure if you're ready for this. 

Wellllllll ok guess I'll tell ya....... 

#8 Healthy Volume by Neutrogena

At 8 dollars this is an absolute steal! I love this mascara. I love the brush, the consistency, the dry time and most importantly how long it makes my lashes look! I have been using this mascara for over a year and love it. I don't know that I will every switch. So if you want to skip the search and move straight to the good stuff I highly recommend this mascara. And of course I give this one a 5 out of 5!!