little white truths

I haven't done one of these posts for ages so I thought it was high time I did. 

While I do have two of my 'how long does it take to finish' tests on foot (for an eye pencil and an eyeshadow), I thought I'd change the way I do them going forward.

This year, instead of writing the opening post about what product I'm testing at the beginning of the test, I thought I'd write that post when I'm at least halfway through the product - just so that anyone reading it can get an idea of how long a product lasts from the very beginning (rather than having to wait months for a verdict).

I'm doing this because I belatedly realised that it might be a little annoying to search for how long it takes to finish something, then find my post but not get an immediate answer (or at least a guestimate) from it. Let me know if you think that's a good idea. 

Anyhoo. So I opened this little 4.8g travel mascara at the beginning of November 2015 (I've reviewed it here if you're interested).

At the time I thought it would be good to do a test post of the product because I never finish full-sized mascaras since you're meant to throw them out within a few months, and they do tend to start going gloopy by then anyway.

Three months in, this mascara is obviously almost dead because it's getting hard to pick product up with the wand - so I can say that a mascara this size will last about three months of daily use. 

What I'll do now is 'revive' it (from memory you can do that by adding a little saline solution, but I'll check that), just to ensure I get every last bit from the tube - because it is getting to the gloopy stage and it's almost ready to turf. 

I expect to get another week's use from it, but it may well be more than that because I haven't tried reviving a mascara before. After that, I'll update this post with a confirmation of just how long 4.8g of mascara should last.

I think the above is a fairly 'standard' representation of how a person might use a mascara, so hopefully the results will be reasonably accurate for you.

That's it! I'll check back in and update this post soon with a more precise verdict, but yes, a travel-sized mascara will last you about three months of daily use, before you revive it (if you ever do that).

Verdict

So I did revive the product by adding a few drops of saline, and I got four extra applications from the tube before it became pretty clear that I wasn't going to get any more.

I'm not sure I would try reviving a mascara again because it does make the formula more watery (or perhaps I just overdid the saline), plus I wouldn't recommend it for anything you've had for too long because you don't want to risk eye infection with something like this.

In any event, at least I can now confirm my verdict: a travel-sized mascara will last around three months of daily use.

Since you're meant to throw out mascara after three months, why on earth do brands make them in full size at all?!

Just putting that out there ; )