In search of Mascara to give Va Va Voom!

I was recently asked to recommend a mascara that gave a faux lash effect at the same time as being lengthening….. ah the holy grail of mascaras. I love to research new products, so this was a great challenge for me. Last year one of my favourite discoveries was the Thickening Mascara by Living Nature. I loved the subtlety of it and how it was really easy to build up with extra coats. If you wanted a light framing of your eyes then one coat was fab. If however you wanted more of a defined look, then it took a few more coats and these did not clump at all. I still love this mascara a lot and it is fab for regular day to day wear. The only area it misses out on for my eyelashes is lenghthening. Tops marks do go for it’s packaging, its non-flakiness, the fact that coat after coat it does not clump and finally its ingredients that leave my lashes feeling well conditioned.

Sadly, my favourite was not going to be the one to recommend on this occassion. So, two weeks ago I ordered a couple of new mascaras to fulfil the brief and have been having some fun trying them out. First off I ordered Lights, Camera, Lashes 4 in 1 mascara by Tarte Cosmetics. I have read a lot about Tarte Cosmetics, but this was my first purchase from their range. As a brand they pride themselves as being free from parabens, mineral oils, phthalates, SLS, triclosan, synthetic fragrances and gluten. Their eco-chic claims don’t stop there as they are also vegan friendly, cruelty free and have an environmentally friendly edge. How many other make up brands support co-operatives in the Rainforest?

Even before I had tried Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara I had read the official chat describing it as curling, volumising, lengthening and conditioning. On top of this, it was claimed to increase the appearance of lash volume by 330 %. After reading this last part I quickly sourced some UK stockists including QVC  for £17.76 and Sephora and I ordered my 7ml mascara fairly quickly ( I chose QVC).

The packaging of this mascara is unlike anything I have seen before. We are talking purple animal skin! I was not sure how this would effect the application but it certainly did not hinder it. The wand comes out the tube easily and the brush is not short of mascara product. I ended up taking some product off at the top of the tube before I began to apply. This mascara really gives lashes oomph even just with one coat!  I don’t curl my lashes as a rule and cannot imagine wanting to with this mascara. The difference was amazing. Big lengthy and curl difference.

My eyelashes did not feel soft to touch but I did not mind this as the results were so good.  I found that one coat was enough and any more might have lead to clumpy/spider leg style lashes…. luckily this was not the look I was going for. This product did not flake off during the day and the curl kept it’s shape until I took my make up off at night. Overall, fairly impressed with the effect this mascara gave. I was not sure about the wand to start with, but it coated my eyelashes well. Lights, Camera, Lashes for me turned out to fulfil it’s promise and lengthened, volumised and curled my lashes. I can’t say at this point if I felt it has conditioned my lashes or not, but it has certainly given them some va va voom. My only concern at this point is that if I don’t take of the excess product from the wand, then I do end up with some randoms spots mascara on my upper eye lid.

I am not sure where I first read about Honeybee Gardens Truly Natural Mascara, but pretty much everything I read about the brand and their mascara was super positive. Like Tarte Cosmetics they are gluten free, vegan friendly and cruelty free but on top of this they are the proud owners of  Champion Status in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They also get top marks for being free from parabens, petrochemicals and synthetic colours. Honeybee Gardens started off as a kitchen cosmetics company 20 years ago and I love that they are 100% natural products that get great ratings from EWG. In fact it is refreshing to hear a company say that they wish to “treat every customer like a friend”.

I bought their Truly Natural Mascara in the UK from Amazon. for under £10 including postage. The slim packaging of this mascara is silver with a see through part in the middle. First impressions were that I loved how the tube left the wand with just the right amount of mascara liquid on it. When you open this mascara it has a great sound … you know the sound you get when you open a mascara? Then there is the brush. There are some mascara brushes that you would want to apply with cautiously, this is not one of them. I could not wait to get those bristles in amongst my eyelashes.

The wand pulled my eyelashes into shape and coated them evenly with no clumps or fibres hanging off. Apparently this is because it contains no clay in the ingredients. I chose the colour black magic and found that my lashes were defined after the first coat. I went in for another coat and there was still no clumps whatsoever and my eyelashes also did not stick together. On my left eye I have some upper and lower lashes that love to get entangled together, this mascara kept them separate.

Honeybee Gardens mascara lasted just as well as Tarte’s and it did not flake off  or smudge throughout the day.  I also found that it did not leave my lashes feeling brittle at all. Truth be told this has to be one of the best volumising and lengthening mascaras I have tried. It truly is idiot proof!  I would be happy to give this to anyone and would be comfortable that they would have awesome lashes using it.

Overall, If you want some drama in the eyelashes department these two mascaras will not leave you disappointed. To see if anyone noticed the difference between them, I tried one on my left eye and applied the other on my right eye and people could not really tell the difference, both looked fabulously volumised.

Have you tried either of these? What is your go to natural mascara.