Buxom Amplified Lash Mascara

At one time or another I've been suckered into every single mascara gimmick on the market; some work, most don't, but this Amplified Lash mascara from Buxom is in a league all its own.  You may recall my glowing review of Buxom's original mascara formula (aka the BEST mascara I've ever tried) and just when I thought this mascara could not be improved upon, those Bare Escentuals geniuses have topped themselves with something even better.

I never fully realized just how much mascara brushes affect the application until I used Amplified Lash.  It features a twistable cap to make the wand long with widely spaced bristles for volume, or short with tight bristles for definition and length.  It's like having two mascaras in one!  The difference the adjustable brush makes is incredible.  I never would have believed it until I tried it.  Want to make your very own eyelashes look like falsies?  You need this.  No mascara has ever, ever impressed me this much!  That's extremely high praise.  Seriously, quit reading this and try it for yourself.

I wonder how the Bare Escentuals people will top themselves next?  I can't wait to see!

Bare Escentuals Buxom Lash Mascara

I'm late to the party on this one, I know.  Despite hearing rave after rave of Buxom Lash mascara, despite that Beauty Bets named it her best mascara pick of 2010...I couldn't get past the name.  Isn't that completely ridiculous and silly??  Are you guys like that too?  Averse to using products with less-than-appealing names?  Just like Perricone's Cold Plasma skincare line and products by Dr. Dennis Gross, something about the name Buxom was a turn off so I never bothered with the brand or its knockout mascara.  Thankfully I can also admit when I'm wrong.  And oh, how wrong I was to overlook Buxom Lash.

I'll just let these before/after pictures speak for themselves...

Hi, Internet.  Here I am with no eye makeup on AT ALL. Please forget this happened ASAP.

And SHAZAM! that's the power of mascara, you guys!  Although my eyes look kinda crazy.  I'm just THAT excited about my mascara, clearly.

Taken with my webcam (sorry), no editing, no other eye makeup on except Buxom Lash mascara. Not even eyeliner.  None!  Can you believe it?!  Are you ready to go buy your own tube now??  I thought so. 

Are there any products you avoid solely on the basis of their ill-chosen names, or am I just weird like that?  What products have pleasantly surprised you?

Tarte Gifted Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara

  

Upon initial examination, Tarte's Gifted Amazonian Clay "Smart" mascara looks pretty conventional and even a little boring, wouldn't you say?  The wooden packaging is nifty, but that brush looks like every other mascara wand I've ever seen.  Still, I was on the hunt for a new mascara when this fortuitously arrived in the mailbox as a surprise from my mom!  Who am I to turn down a brand new mascara? 

Then I actually tried it, and WOW!  My lashes are a mile long, curled, and still feel silky and light.  You know how some mascaras can make your eyelashes feel as though you have three pounds of gunky chemicals weighing them down?  And your lashes feel all gummy and artificial?  Yeah, that's what I'd started to experience with my former mascara, so Tarte's Gifted was like a breath of fresh air for my lashes!  This looks and feels so much better.  

And here's where the "smart mascara" effect comes in: Gifted contains Amazonian clay to rebuild and replenish your lashes.  It's true, it really works!  My eyelashes were looking brittle and sparse, due in part to sleeping with my face squashed into my pillow night after night.  After two weeks, my lashes are fuller, longer, and more plentiful.  Gifted is also formulated without parabens, synthetic dyes and fragrances, sulfates, and tons of other nasty chemicals.  My eyelashes are healthier! 

I'm telling you, there is magic in this tube. 

Mascara: A History

Last week I posted a picture of an old-school mascara I found at my grandmother's house.  I think you all were as surprised as I was at this mascara formula and old fashioned application!    

It left me wondering, though: in what other ways has mascara evolved over the years?  When did the mascara wand as we know it come into existence?  I did a little research and dug up some answers!

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Like most amazing things in the world, the ancient Egyptians had first dibs on the creation and wearing of mascara.   They believed the eyes were the window to the soul, and that eyes needed to be shaded from evil spirits.  Kohl eyeliner and mascara provided a barrier of protection for both men and women alike!  And then everyone realized, "Hey, this makes our eyes look really nice, yeah?" so eye makeup was also worn to attract attention, to celebrate, and to generally look amazing.  Those hot, genius Egyptians! 

Mascara then went in and out of vogue for the next several centuries, falling by the wayside to other such beauty trends as lead based white foundation and blackening your teeth to look just like Queen Elizabeth I (People seriously did that!  It was a status symbol to show you could afford lots of sugary, teeth-rotting treats.  17th century hotness = eww). 

And then came the Victorians.  Despite being prudish and puritanical to the point of ridiculousness, the Victorians did know a thing or two about beauty treatments.  Well brought up ladies were trained to be vain, protect their complexions, and devote entire days to beautifying themselves.  Mascara was revived, DIY-Victorian style.  Women would mix their own cosmetics, from rose salves to rouge, in the comforts of their homes.  A popular recipe for mascara was mixing elderberry with ashes over a hot fire, then coating your lashes with the mixture.

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Look at that stylish girl!  I bet she is most definitely wearing mascara.  Now excuse me while I jealously swoon over her clothes and accessories.  I would have no problem dressing like this!  Where are my smelling salts?!

*ahem*  Anyway...

In 1913, the newly created beauty industry was forever changed when a Mr. T. L. Williams concocted a marketable mascara product for his sister Mabel out of coal dust and petroleum jelly (AKA Vaseline).  And that, dear friends, is how Maybelline was born.  Vaseline is a great eyelash conditioner, by the way.  Mr. Williams was on to something good.  It eventually became the solid version like the one that belonged to my grandmother, and a cream formula you'd squirt onto your brush like toothpaste.

Helena Rubinstein saw a way to improve mascara application, and in 1957, designed a tube with the brush already attached!  What a revelation!  This paved the way for an innovation from the legendary makeup guru Max Factor, who developed the first brush that could be directly inserted into a tube of mascara.  Other companies caught on, Maybelline added a spiral brush, and voila!  Mascara as we know today!

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I wish ladies in ads today looked that euphoric and excited about their beauty products, don't you?
   
Of course, now we have volumizing, curling, lengthening, and strengthening formulas to choose from.  We can coat our lashes electric blue, acid green, or ultra violet if we wish.  We have brushes and applicators in every shape you can imagine.  We even have vibrating mascara wands!  In short: we've come a long way, baby.  May the innovations continue!

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Vintage Beauty, Rainbow Eyeshadow, and Herbal Eye Treatments

Our electricity is back!  Hurrah!  I'm so excited, I couldn't help but post twice in one day (lucky you)!  I've spent the time (re)reading Neil Gaiman's creepy short stories by candlelight, learning the hard way that car cell phone chargers will reduce your car's battery power to nothing (whoops...), discovering I'm really excellent at playing dominoes, and helping out a friend whose house was damaged.  In addition to all that, here are a few bits and pieces of what I've been up to, beauty-wise.


Vintage makeup talks with my grandmother
I stayed at my grandmother's house for the whole ordeal; she's excellent company, plus she has a gas powered water heater and therefore hot showers!  In one of her bathroom drawers, I was surprised to find this:

Can you tell what it is?  This is how mascara used to be applied, with a little brush like that!  The product came in a solid cake form like this one from Maybelline, and also in a tiny squeeze tube like eyelash glue or toothpaste.  My grandmother told me the squeeze tubes were awful, and the brush was also perfect for eyebrows.  Isn't this crazy?  I was amazed!


Eyeshadow experiments
A few weeks ago I found a "rainbow eye" tutorial and decided I needed to try it for myself.  I love playing with colored eyeshadow, even though I rarely wear it in public since it usually clashes with my beloved red lipstick!  In any case, I wanted a rainbow spectrum of crazy eyeshadows without committing to a full size product.

I also recently discovered Shiro cosmetics, an indie makeup company geared to girls with "geeky" interests, like video games and Internet culture.  When I saw ten eyeshadow samples for $9 in Shiro's Etsy shop, I ordered up a rainbow of shades to try, plus some really pretty shimmery shades.  Experimenting with them has been sooo fun.  Some are even lip safe, so I got to alarm my family with purple and orange lipsticks.  Shiro really deserves its own blog post, so I'll save swatches and more details for later!


Herbal eye treatments
I'll be honest: I don't really like spring.  At least not where I live.  The weather and temperatures are volatile and unpredictable, and everything starts to bloom.  It's pretty, but it also means allergies are in full swing.  It's hard to enjoy the beautiful trees through swollen eyes and migraines, you know?   

I've relied on Wei East's Intensive Herbal Eye Treatments for years to get me through!  I can't believe I've never mentioned them here before.

Two refreshing herbal eye pads come sealed up in a nice little packet that's perfect for travel.  You place them over your eyes for twenty minutes, and before you know it, your eyes are bright again and your migraine has diminished!  I swear, this is a miracle treatment.  It's also wonderful for tired eyes, or when you can't seem to fall asleep at night.  The pads are soaked with green tea, Tibetan chrysanthemum, and peppermint extracts that make for an amazing combination of soothing relief.

LOOK AT THIS MASCARA YOU GUYS

I have something of a weakness for gimmick-y mascara wands.  Show me a mascara brush that could pass for medieval weaponry, is rectangular shaped instead of round, or isn't even a brush at all and I will show you the money.  So you can imagine my excitement over the latest offering from DiorShow: not only does the applicator look like a strand of DNA, but it spins too!  DiorShow's 360 mascara promises to deliver makeup artist-caliber application with its double helix design and oscillating wand.  This is too ridiculous and awesome to pass up.  You better believe I'll be trying it as soon as humanly possible.

Mascara Review! Sephora's Advanced Lash Booster

Is it my imagination or have my eyelashes gotten longer?  This Advanced Lash Booster mascara from Sephora's eponymous house line of cosmetics contains a special lash growing serum right along with the mascara formula.  I've previously blogged about trying out a commercial eyelash growing serum here, but unfortunately that went as I expected and I've been using it, um, intermittently at best.  But an eyelash growing serum contained in a product I'm going to use on a daily basis anyway?   Genuis! 

I've been using Advanced Lash Booster almost a month now, and while I can't tell yet if my eyelashes have actually grown, this mascara certainly makes them look longer.  The formula lengthens, curls, and never, ever clumps.  It's pretty similar to Sephora's Atomic Lash but with a little less curl and tremendously more length.  I can't decide which I love more.  But these Sephora mascaras are, without a doubt, the best I've ever purchased.  You can't go wrong with either.

This lash growing serum within a mascara concept mostly got me wondering about other cosmetics that serve a dual purpose.  For example, I see different foundation formulas offering up anti-aging properties and acne fighting components.  Do these actually work?  I can't imagine that an anti-aging foundation could replace intense retinol and vitamin creams, but it couldn't hurt, right?  I'm definitely intrigued.

What sort of dual purpose products have you tried?  What have been your experiences?       

More Mascara! Review: Sephora's Atomic Volume

I got a gift bag from Sephora this week that included lovely trial samples of mascara, eyeshadow, and tinted moisturizer.  I've never actually used tinted moisturizer before, so I'm excited to try it out and give my skin a break from the Bare Minerals I wear daily.  The eyeshadow colors are Pink Beige and Swimming Pool, which are pretty self explanatory.  I'm not sure I can pull off the blue so much, but the beige is gorgeous and just the right mix between subtle and shimmery, which I really like for daytime.  But first, I couldn't resist trying my new mascara!

The first I sampled is Sephora's Atomic Volume.  The applicator boasts a sort of "brush within a brush";  both a brush side and a comb side to "create maximum volume and extend eyelashes from root to tips."  It promises to deliver these results in just one swipe!  At $15 a tube, it's about twice what you'd pay for a drugstore mascara.  Is it worth it?


Photo credit: Sephora.com


First impression: Oh my gosh.  This could be the mascara I've been looking for.  It may even be better than my beloved Rimmel Sexy Curves.  They were so right about the one swipe.  My lashes looked instantly longer.  There is absolutely no clumping to speak of.  My only gripe is that it doesn't really thicken my lashes; mascaras I typically use make it look as though I have a million eyelashes. While Atomic Volume doesn't seem to do this, it does lengthen the eyelashes I have like nothing else.  I'm truly impressed at the results I got from just one coat of mascara.  I curled my eyelashes after applying the mascara early this morning (which is a bad, bad thing to do, I'm a horrible example) and now, at 4:30 in the afternoon (nine hours later!), my eyelashes are still perfectly curled.  I even got a few compliments on how much longer my eyelashes looked.  This mascara is definitely a keeper. 
 
Next up to try is Sephora's Lash Extension mascara.  It's formulated with one of those lash growing serums I wrote about in my last post.  I love that the serum is in a product I use daily anyway; this is going to be way, way easier than remembering to apply RapidLash every night.  Expect a review soon!

Mascara Reviews UPDATED

I'm something of a mascara junkie.  My biggest inspirations for style and makeup come from from Old Hollywood movie stars, so I'm obsessed with getting long, gorgeous pin-up girl worthy eyelashes.  False lashes are the best way to achieve the look, but they can be challenging to apply and aren't very practical for everyday wear.  So I love experimenting with mascara. 

Currently I'm using Smoky Lash by Make Up For Ever.  Initially, I loved it.  Not only did it give my lashes serious volume and length, it darkened them perhaps more than any other mascara I've tried.  But now that I've been using it about two months, it flakes off constantly.  I'll take out my compact for a lipstick touch-up and discover little black flecks underneath my eyes and all over my cheeks.  Not so attractive anymore.  Plus, a few hours later it isn't even apparent that I'm wearing mascara at all.  This was great the first month, but I definitely wouldn't buy it again.  Next!

Earlier today I picked up L'Oreal's Telescopic Explosion mascara.  The customer reviews on Target's website made this mascara seem a bit lackluster; people seem to be kind of ambivalent about it.  Then again, the original Givenchy (which, fun fact, is pronounced jee-vaun-shee, not give-en-chee) version has similar reviews on Sephora.com, so I wanted to try it out for myself.

First impressions?  It takes me FOREVER to apply mascara.  I put on at least two coats, sometimes three, and reducing the wand to 1/4 of a regular mascara wand is certainly not going to save me any time in the mornings.  But it's perfect for reaching those tiny lashes toward the inner corners of my eye that are so difficult to get to.  While other reviewers warned against clumpy, spider-y eyelashes, my actual result isn't like that at all.  It did clump at first, but my eyelashes eventually separated and curled and lengthened as promised.  Some friends watched me apply it and were amazed at the difference it made; the effects seem to last, too.  Overall, it's not bad, and for $7.99, it's pretty good.  The time issue is what concerns me more than anything.  We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE:  Okay, I'm not sure what happened but applying this mascara for the second time was AWFUL!  I definitely experienced the clumping...it looked like I had exactly four eyelashes.  It did not curl, it did not lengthen, it did not do anything but make my lashes look like short little stumps.  I'm really disappointed, especially after getting such great results last night.  I'll try it one last time (maybe it just takes practice and technique?) but if my eyelashes look like that again, this mascara will have to be abandoned.

As much as I love trying new mascaras, there's one formula I always go back to: Rimmel's Sexy Curves.  Everything about this product is wonderful, from the applicator to the packing to the formula.  It flawlessly does all the things a mascara is supposed to do.  It lengthens, curls, and when I wear it I'm frequently asked if I have on false eyelashes.  One coat looks good, two coats look better, and three coats look amazing.  I liked Sexy Curves so much I ended up trying all of Rimmel's mascaras.  If you're looking for a truly great drugstore mascara, buy Rimmel.  I was pleased with them all, but Sexy Curves still remains my absolute favorite.

Are you a mascara addict like I am?  What are some of your favorites?  Which mascaras would you never spend money on again?