Make Up Store – coloured mascara in Aubergine.

Mascara is such a tricky thing to write about. What is super important, absolutely-won’t-buy-without for one person is a total turn-off for another person, and that’s without going into the merits of formulas vs price vs brand vs removal vs vs vs…

My key factors for mascara are pretty simple:

• I wear glasses – if mascara leaves little smudges on the lenses, it goes straight into the bin.
• I’m willing to overlook mild flaking after, say, five hours, but I have no time for smudging and sliding. Greasy formulas are a no-go.
• If it’s a black mascara, it’s got to be inky black. I have ruddy, pale skin and grey blue eyes – anything that’s ashy or chalky is going to visually fade out my eyes even more.

And that’s basically it. Can’t be a smudgy, ashy, smeary mess.

Make Up Store mascara in Aubergine

I randomly picked up the cobalt blue mascara from Make Up Store several months ago and was, to put it mildly, rather surprised at how goshdarn nice it was. After using entry-level waterproof mascaras that left my lashes crispy, brittle and all-’round fried, I was extremely gunshy about using any waterproof mascaras, but the Make Up Store mascara was smudge-proof yet flexible, gave a nice coating of product without being mondo thick and yet it removed quickly and painlessly, no extra scrubbing required. Winner.

Make Up Store mascara in Aubergine

Golly gosh. I went back to Make Up Store in Broadway this afternoon and asked for their blackest mascara in that same excellent formula. Well, uh, guess what. The only waterproof mascaras they offer are, you guessed it, the bright coloured ones and a lone deep, dark eggplant. Everything else was in lengthening/moisturising/volume formulas which, of course, are the types of mascaras that leave smudges under my eyes and marks on my glasses. Fie!

I think you can guess what I ended up getting by the title of this post – the aubergine was dark enough that it could pass for black in all but the brightest of studio lights and/or bright midday sunlight, so near enough was quite frankly good enough today. I really didn’t want to trek all the way up George St just to get another tube of Too Faced Lash Injection, y’know?

Before and after.

My natural lashes have a gentle curl and I’m cursed with lashes that are of medium length and have a tendency to bleach out at the tips, looking even shorter sans mascara.
If you’re looking for super volume and length, this isn’t the mascara for you. It’s primarily a coating mascara, enough to define the lash with colour and taper the tip of the lashes slightly. The effect is more of a natural coating than a super-saturated fill of colour. The mascara also dries down to a matte finish.

Will this be a permanent replacement for my long-term relationship with Too Faced Lash Injection? Probably not, but it’s still a nice summer fling!

I picked up this mascara from Make Up Store in Broadway, Sydney for a crisp AU$38 before their store club discount.