Coloured Mascara: Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash in Purple and Green

 

Coloured mascaras are a right bugger. We want them to be awesome, they so frequently are the opposite!If the colour is right, the formula isn’t and more often than not, getting the colour to actually show up is nigh on impossible. With fancy-pants brands like Chanel and Diorpopping them out left, right and centre, it made me wonder if perhaps formulas are a little better of late?  Having been pleasantly surprised by a Miss Sporty mascara I purchased recently, I was keen to try out their coloured offerings and at £2.99 each it almost seemed rude not to!

This looks actually… promising!

This is ‘ Extreme Purple.’ And purple it certainly is. If you want to try a coloured mascara without wanting to worry about looking too out there, go for navy, purple or plum, as this will still give you a little of the depth of colour your normal black or brown mascara one. Pleased with this one, at any rate.

Now this is where I got my thee quids worth, boys and girls! ‘Extreme Green’ is a bit of a corker.


Okay, okay. The formula on these is not going to give you long, luscious, thick lashes, but neither is it too dry or too clumpy which other cheap coloured mascaras are often guilty of. You’re not wearing these for that reason anyway – they’re for fun. On the lower lashline with a matching waterline they can look great, or if you’re feeling daring, coloured mascara against a deep black smokey eye looks awesome!

Now, Miss Sporty… may I pretty please ask for a pink?!

Quickie Review: Revlon Lash Potion Mascara

One item on my beauty to-do list for 2014 is to find my Holy Grail mascara. I tend to stick to Maybelline mascaras which work well pretty for me, but I've never been head-over-heels for any single mascara. Naturally, due to the short-lived nature of mascaras, I'm starting my hunt on the high street and I was attracted to this gorgeously packaged mascara from Revlon. On an introductory price of £5, I couldn't say no!

 

Isn't that a pretty tube? I like mascara tubes that aren't black as it makes them easier to find in my makeup bag. I know it’s not the nicest photo, but it’s so shiny I couldn’t snap it in direct light!

This mascara has, as seems to still be de rigeur in mascaras, a really large bristle brush. The bristles are spaced out to make 3 sections on the wand. I was sceptical of this huge brush as my lashes are quite short and I tend to have trouble with large brushes, especially on my lower lashes. I didn't find it bad on my top lashes and the way the brush is split into sections helps in not getting it all over your lashline, but it's not the easiest to use on your lower lashes.

I like the effect of this mascara on my lashes - it gives decent volume and length without being too much, although it does have a slight tendency to look spidery if you really want to build it up. On first application, I really enjoyed this mascara. It wasn't omgwow, but it was pretty nice…. And here comes the "but"! The staying power of this mascara is total crap! I looked in the mirror around lunchtime and had huge raccoon circles! I put it down to my new concealer, but didn't use that the following day and still encountered smudges. Boo! I don't wear mascara on my lower lashes everyday, especially during the week, but I’d like the option, thanks!

I’d be tempted to try out a waterproof version of this, but the smudging just makes this a total no-go for me – really, really not what I want in a mascara at all! Sorry Lash Potion, but Shantay, you don’t stay.

Have you tried any Revlon Mascaras? What’s your current favourite?

LoveMeBeautyBox: January

I'm really enjoying my LoveMeBeauty subscription... I'm three boxes in now and I'm really enjoying the face that you can choose your options - it makes me more excited to try my items!



Clockwise from left:

Anatomicals your nose smells rose body cleanser:

It's a shower gel. It smells like rose. It's cheap and cheerful - not an unwanted item, but at this time of year I always end up with more shower gels than I can a stick at! The cheerful packaging will brighten up my bathroom until I've run out of Lush's Christmas goodies!

Weleda Sea Buckthorn Hand Cream:
I love love love my Weleda Skin Food (review coming soon!) and I've seen a lot of products with sea buckthorn in lately, so I was keen to try this. This is a small little tube, so perfect for your coat pocket or bag. It's a nice thick cream and it'll be coming along with me on my ski holiday

Essential Care Lemon and Teatree Facial Wash:

This was an added extra to the box this month - hurrah! Not suited for my skin type (sadly, as  it smells divine!) so I'll be palming this on off onto my boyfriend. who likes a nice face wash.

Pureology Colour Stylist Silk Bodifier:

Bloody hell, a hair mousse? I haven't used mousse since...god knows how long! The reviews on their website are a it mixed and seeing as the top rated one describes it as a 'moose,' I'm not sure what to think about this item, but I'll give it a try.

Cosmetics a La Carte Divine Lash Mascara:

Now *this* is what I was excited to try out! I've heard very good things about this brand and I'm on a mascara mission at the moment. I was very pleased to see a mascara with a SMALL WAND for a change. I've tried this out a few times and will do a full review, but let's just say I'm very pleased so far.

NYX Eyeshadow in Black Sparkle:

Meh. It's not that black. It's not that sparkly. I'd rather have had a neutral shade to be honest - this one is nothing to write home about, nor something I'd use regularly. A bit disappointing, but at least I know what I'm not missing!


So...a bit of a mixed bag this month, but the mascara was well worth the £10 subscription in my opinion!

Have you tried anything new or unusual lately? Fallen in love with any subscription box items?

 

Quickie Review: Maybelline Illegal Lengths Mascara

Sometimes I pick something up in Superdrug and I take it to the till thinking, “This is crap. You know this is crap. Why are you buying this?” This is one of those items. I’d picked up my trusty favourite, One By One and a Colour Tattoo in Permanent Taupe, and, with nothing else I wanted on the 3-for-2, I grabbed this. I knew it was crap, but I bought it anyway. Why do I do it?!

The product in question is Maybelline Illegal Lengths mascara. It’s supposed to be a fibre mascara, which has fibres in that build up on your lashes and make them much longer.

 

This packaging is one of the cheapest pieces of crap I’ve ever felt. I’ve already scratched some of the silver off, and it feels super light. When you take the brush out, there’s no resistance, it’s like the bottle neck is too large for the brush.

The brush itself is very long, and the bristles are quite sparse. Not my favourite type of brush, but that’s just me.

Um. Are there fibres in this? *squints* Straight away I thought this just wasn’t going to work for me. I really don’t like wet mascara formulas, I just think they always end up looking really natural and they’re not buildable. Anyway, let’s slap it on/

 

 

My bare eyeballs, obviously. As you can see I don’t have much in the way of length, volume or curl.

One coat.

Two coats.

Three coats.

Well…. yeah. This DOES make your lashes longer. So I can’t fault it on that claim, I guess. Does that mean I like it? No. It’s messy, the brush does nothing to separate my lashes and it doesn’t lengthen any better than any other mascara.

Basically. Save your pennies. Save yourselves.

Quickie Reivew: Volume Flash Mascara x 10 Extreme Black

I gots a bit of a giveaway goin' on over here....

Sorry, Rimmel. I love your eyebrow pencils like, a billion, but I will forever hate you for somehow sucking me in to buying this crappy, crappy mascara. I've long given up believing anything any company says about mascara, but srsly? "No clumps?"

Wow, that's a hot mess right there. Alright, well, let's give it a go anyway.

Wooooooah. That's only 2 coats, believe it or not. Alriiiighty... well, let's wipe the wand off on a tissue - the tube doesn't have a 'grabber' in the neck on the wand so a lot of product comes out - and see if that makes a difference....

 Wow. That's diaperesque, no?

And still that wand just grabs the product! Bloody hellfire. What does it look like on the eye now?

After all that.... very meh. Volume Flash Extreme, meet The Bin.

Quickie Review: Collection 2000 Extreme Coloured Lengthening Mascara in Teal and Blue

Stupid deals. I'll ALWAYS go for the deal, even if I'm not sure I'll like the product. A couple of days ago, in desperate need of a new mascara, I spotted a 3-for-2 offer on Collection2000 eye products. I purchased the new Skyscraper mascara and two of their coloured ones.


Pretty packaging...

Blue, without flash and with.

Teal, without flash and with.

...pretty colours. And on the eye?

Blue, 2 coats. The colour didn't intensify more after applying more than 2 coats, so I don't feel the need to show a clumpy mess for no reason :P I also had to adjust the colour levels here but it's pretty a accurate representation of colour.

Teal, 2 coats (sorry about my eyeball), Teal, a bajillion coats.

In the second picture, I applied more after wearing it all day. You can see from my bottom lashes that the colour has faded.

Thoughts....

I'm not a massive fan of the brush. The bristles are very short, which combined with the dry formula doesn't make it easy to get non-clumpy lashes -and you do need to build the colour on with Teal. The mascara wore well throughout the day but I noticed the colour faded during the afternoon and got darker with both shades. Bit of a shame - I want my lashes to be colourful if I'm wearing coloured mascara, and it's not something you can really touch up, like gloss or blusher. Both shades are beautiful though - the teal is really eye-catching and where the blue is quite dark, it's a subtle but pretty difference to your regular black or brown.

So would I repurchase? Eh... probably not. At the price, I think this is a pretty good product. The mascara does lengthen a decent amount which is nice for a budget mascara - I'd certainly give the black version a go - but the fact the colour fades throughout the day makes me a bit of a sad panda. I did try the teal on my brows last night (didn't get a picture, herp derp) and it looked awesome, though!

The mascaras retail for £2.99 and also come in black and purple. Ok, so I might try the purple...