Monday, 16 April 2012

Mascara Monday: The Battle of Mascaras. 17 Cosmetics Special

Today, I am super excited to introduce you to Jennifer, from The Makeup Journal who has kindly volunteered to review 2 mascaras for me. Jennifer’s blog is a joy to read: great reviews, great photography, fantastic nail art, gorgeous makeup looks and to top it all off, the most beautiful green eyes which I have totally fallen for, and which may have influenced my choice as a mascara guest blogger :)  


17-cosmetics-mascara-review-va-va-voom-wild-curls-jennifer-makeup-journal-blog

Over to you, Jennifer!

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Hi everyone :) I'd like to thank Liloo for picking me as one of her guest bloggers, I've really enjoyed testing these mascaras.

First up, 17 Wild Curls Mascara in Black:


08-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review Wild Curls Mascara

07-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review Wild Curls brush

Wild Curls mascara is described as creating 'sexy, smouldering and sultry eyes that are loaded with volume and curl for a feline finish.' Strong claims eh... Well I think it does a pretty good job at doing just those things!


So what do I look for in a mascara? I know we all want different things from our mascaras but for me it must:

  • Be dark black.
  • Give plenty of lift and curl to my lashes and keep it there for at least until I get home from work.
  • Volume, volume and more volume. I want BIG lashes without falsies because I'm rubbish at applying them.
  • NO flaking or smudging! I don't want panda eyes - I have dark enough circles under my eyes thank you very much!
  • Water resistant. I don't tend to use waterproof - too hard to remove for lazy people such as myself.

So does Wild Curls tick all the boxes? Yep! I'm rather impressed with this mascara.
It is really easy to apply, the brush is thin and has lots of different sized bristles to catch all lashes. It gives me lots of volume but also some length which is a bonus. It looks quite nice with just one coat - sort of natural with added oomph but with two coats, it is lovely and glamorous. 17 claim that is will last up to 10 hours and it does. I applied it at 7am and it wore all through work until I got home at 6pm. It started to go a bit meh by bedtime but looked okay. If I was going out in the evening I would start again with the mascara so it was fresh. I also like the packaging, it is really fun. Now the price, £6.29 for 9ml - I can't fault that at all and I will definitely purchase this when the tube is finished.
Wild Curls is also available in brown, waterproof and a new 'Wildest Black'.


05-01-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review Wild Curls 1 coat

06-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review  Wild Curls 2 coats


The other mascara Liloo sent me to review was 17 Va Va Voom Mascara in Black:

04-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review  Va Va Voom Mascara

03-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review  Va Va Voom brush


Va Va Voom mascara is described as 'creating big, dramatic eyes or subtle barely-there.' 17 claim that you can 'apply as many coats as you like without your lashes becoming clumpy.'
This mascara didn't impress me as much as Wild Curls did. For starters, the brush is huge, way too big for my tastes. I found it quite hard to apply without getting mascara under my bottom lashes. The bristles are also quite dense which I found didn't apply enough in one sweep and didn't get through my lashes to separate them, leaving them a bit clumpy in the roots.


With a second coat my lashes appeared slightly better from having more product in them. They had more volume and were much darker. They still had clumps in the roots although I don't think it is as bad as some mascaras can be and could be fixed by combing the lashes through. As 17 stated that lots of coats can be applied to build up the volume, I applied a third coat. This was too clumpy for my liking and there was still not enough curl. Va Va Voom just does not compare to Wild Curls in it's curling ability, my lashes were only lifted a little with Va Va Voom. On the plus side, this mascara didn't flake or smudge either. Va Va Voom is an okay mascara, it just doesn't hit all the points with me personally.
Va Va Voom is also available in Black Brown and retails for £6.29 for 8ml.

01-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review  Va Va Voom 1 coat


02-17-Cosmetics-Mascara-Review  Va Va Voom 2 coats


Out of the two mascaras, Wild Curls wins hands down for me.
Thanks for reading!
Jennifer, The Makeup Journal xx
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Monday, 26 March 2012

Mascara Monday: The Battle of Mascaras.


Today, I have the honour to introduce you to Sophie from Melovemakeup Blog who has kindly volunteered to help me out reviewing 2 mascaras. I love Sophie: her blog is amazing, her makeup tutorials in her youtube channel are inspiring and a delight to watch. Over to you Sophie:






Firstly, thanks to the lovely Liloo for giving me the chance to try out both of these mascaras. I've road tested them both now, so I will share my thoughts..


Before I start, here are the wands for the two mascaras, both totally different.. The Exceptional Definition (left) has the shorter bristles on the right, longer on the left, and then the little spikes at the top.  The Essence mascara is a standard bristle brush, but is absolutely massive!



Boots No7 Say:
"No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara. This amazing new mascara has a truly magic wand and unique, conditioning formula. The innovative three-in-one brush gives lashes exceptional definition and volume. "
Essence Say:
"The ultimate lash-wonder for eyes which will take your breath away: the extra large brush ensures even more volume. ophthalmologically tested."

Here are the Mascaras in action.. As you can see, I have very fair natural lashes, so a great mascara is a big  must for me.



No7 Exceptional Definition:

I love this mascara! I have never used a mascara with 3 wands in one before. This wand is so good for grabbing every single lash, even the finest innermost lashes that you didn't know were there, that's what the little spikes on the end are great for. The double sided brush is great, I like to use the longer side to get through and coat my lashes, and then the shorter side to really comb through and remove any clumps from my lashes.

The results are luscious long looking lashes with both added volume and length, and also great curl too. In the photos (above) I have used one coat of  the mascaras - as you can see my lashes look long, but not overly clumped at all. This mascara lasted really well through the day too, no smudging, no flaking. It gets a big thumbs up from me!

Essence Lash Mania:

My first impression on this mascara when I applied it was great. I was wowed by how amazing my lashes appeared, they looked full and very voluminous. The problem I have with this mascara though, is that the wand is huge, and I'm talking the size of my eye huge! It is very easy to make a mess with this, and I did get quite a bit of the formula on my eye lid and lashline.

After about 4 hours I also noticed that this had smudged underneath my eyes quite a bit, and I looked a bit like a panda. I liked how this made my lashes look, but for me the brush is too large which caused messy application, I don't think it added very much curl either, which the No7 mascara did. The Boots mascara definitely wins for me!

Thanks for reading!



Want to see and read more from Sophie? Please make sure to check out her blog and her fabulous YouTube makeup channel! :)
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