little white truths

I received this mascara in one of my Mecca Beauty Loop boxes, and I was super pleased to see it - it's one of those products that I've always wanted to try - but I never buy more expensive mascaras because you can find excellent ones in the chemist/drugstore and I just don't think it's necessary, especially since you should throw them out within a few months.

Anyhoo. I'm loving this mascara and I'm so glad I've had the chance to try it. I mightn't rush out to buy it because I'd prefer to send my Mecca dollars elsewhere, but I would definitely recommend it if you're after something that delivers.

Urban Decay claims/product details:

• Designed to deliver bigger, badder, blacker lashes
• This iconic mascara delivers incredible volume and length
• Enriched with a complex blend of amino acids and proteins to help stimulate lash growth
• Creamy formula separates and coats each lash in rich, triple black pigments to deliver intense volume and luxurious length
• The innovative twisted trim of the wand allows the formula to be combed and pulled through lashes for a clean, clump-free finish
• RRP $16 AUD for 4ml or $36 for 12ml

I do love the packaging of this product. It's sleek, it's lightweight and it doesn't take up too much room in my makeup bag. Yes this one's a travel-size but the full size is sleek too.

On that, you may have heard me mention before that one of my mascara gripes is when they're too 'enthusiastic' in the girth department. This one isn't and it's one of the thinnest tubes I've used. I love it for that.

Part of the reason why it's so thin is that the brush isn't too fat. Hallelujah. If only all brushes were this slender: then I would never wind up with mascara goo all over my hooded eyes.

There's the slender brush in all its glory:

And again (I've enhanced the below shot for clarity):

My bare lashes for reference (not much to see here!):

Wearing one coat of mascara (click on any photo to enlarge it):

And with my eyes open below (apologies if I look like a stunned rabbit - I bloody hate taking photos of myself). You can see why I might have a face that's ripe for mascara errors, given all that eye-puff. 

Verdict

This is a fantastic mascara and I absolutely love it. Indeed, it's overtaken Too Faced's Better Than Sex Mascara (reviewed here) as my favourite non-budget mascara - mainly because the brush is thinner so I make less errors with this one, but also because it looks less dramatic and therefore more natural if you don't build it.

It's everything I want in a mascara: it delivers good length and thickness (probably a bit more length than thickness, which is my preference); it's not too clumpy so I rarely need an eyelash comb; and it stays put throughout the day so I don't wind up with flakes and smudges everywhere by lunchtime.

Best of all - and I'll say it again - the wand isn't too fat. Hooray! If anyone involved in mascara development is reading this (doubtful, but anyway): STOP MAKING WANDS TOO FAT.

Thank you.

A few things to note. First, this mascara was too wet to start with but it got a lot better by about day four. Second, it does build well without being too clumpy, and happily the brush does comb through the lashes well (so that claim is true). Third, you will get a clump of mascara goo on the end of the brush when you remove it from the tube (you can see that in the above photos), but I use that to coat the lashes and then brush through them with the wand, which works well so no harm done.

The other thing worth mentioning is that you can buy this in travel size, meaning you can get it for less than most budget mascaras (at full price) - in Australia, anyway. The good news here is that, given you need to throw out mascaras you use daily after three months, you might as well just buy the travel size because that's how long it takes (me) to finish one of these. 

To state the obvious: it's not better value to buy the large one if you're never going to get through it within three months. I wish all brands made their mascaras permanently available in travel-size, so ticks to Urban Decay for that, too.

All in all, this is a brilliant mascara and I can't fault it. I've given it an HG tag, and I would now pick this over Too Faced's Better Than Sex - not only because I prefer the wand, but also because it has a (slightly) less pornographic name.

Love.