little white truths

A friend of mine gave me this sample mascara because she didn't want it, and I almost didn't take it because of my hatred for Benefit's They're Real mascara and its ridiculously large brush.

In the end I decided to review it at least, knowing I could pass it on to another friend who's a Benefit junkie.

If I thought They're Real's brush was oversized, this one really takes the cake. My golly. What was Benefit thinking when it designed this fat paddle?

• An unadulterated black mascara for dramatically full and voluminous lashes
• This magic mascara is like a set of sexy black false eyelashes...without the glue! 
• With its famously big brush and volumising formula, this matte-black mascara builds beautiful, bodacious lashes
• To use: wear alone or apply They’re Real! Mascara to the tips of lashes for a glossy finish
• RRP $19 USD for 8.5g

Seriously, look at that brush. I'm surprised by its size whenever I open the tube and it's definitely time to pass this one on after only a week of testing.

The brush is unusable, in my opinion - especially if you have puffy eyes like mine.


I've applied it above. You can see I've struggled to apply mascara to the outer lashes because I can't get the brush there. I've also struggled to coat the lashes in full because I can't get the wand close enough to my lashline.

Below you can see the same issues, and I haven't even tried to get the lashes towards my inner corner because I would surely have wound up with mascara where I didn't want it. Ridiculous.


Verdict

I'll rant about the brush again briefly and then move on to the formula itself.

It's a terrible brush. Really terrible. I can't get it close to my lashline; I managed to get product on my puffy upper eye area each time I used it; and it's unusable for precision jobs like the lashes on the inner and outer corners. Rubbish.

Aside from the ridiculous shape of the brush, as you can see from the above photo, too much product is picked up on the end so you risk clumping/uneven application unless you wipe off the brush each time. You can wipe it on the edge of the tube a bit (instead of using eg a tissue, which is a waste of product), but the way it's shaped makes it hard to clean the end properly. Such a terrible design.

On to the formula. I think this is better than They're Real - for me at least - because it delivers a more natural lash and I didn't mind how it made my lashes look if I didn't get too close and see how badly the brush had fared in terms of coating each lash well enough.

One bad thing though: it smudges. I've had a look online and quite a few people mention this issue, so it's obviously a formula problem and you'd hope that something costing this much would perform better than something you can buy in the pharmacy. It does not.

It also flakes a little (although this issue isn't quite as bad as the smudging), so you're left to remove little black bits from under your eyes throughout the day. Not ideal.

All in all, this product isn't worth the price tag (or any price tag, in my opinion) and you're much better off buying something cheaper that performs better.

I've long felt that Benefit is completely overrated as a brand and this product does nothing but confirm that view for me.

Avoid.