Coloured Mascara

Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Lately I've been all kinds of obsessed with coloured mascara. I first jumped on the bandwagon last year when I was in Paris. I was in Sephora and asked the girl about what colour mascara would be good for brown eyes. She recommended Urban Decay's Big Fatty Mascara in Purple Haze. It's worked great. For all you brown eyed girls, purple is the colour that makes your eyes pop!



Shortly after I returned home, I went to the states to shop (obvs) and stopped in at Victoria's Secret. They had their Beauty Rush products on sale and I picked up 2 coloured mascaras, Violight (purple) and Indiglow (blue). I was eager to try blue mascara since I'd had such success with the purple, especially since it was supposed to make the whites of your eyes brighter.






Success! Personally, I find that the blue does a lot more for me because I have pretty dark lashes and also because my eyes can look tired and red from time to time, so anything that makes me look more alert, I'm all for!



I now have 2 purple and 2 blue mascaras and I put them to the test! (The second blue one I have is Benefit's BadGal Lash Mascara - sample size from Sephora! Ha!)




Of the purple mascaras, my vote goes to Urban Decay. I find the colour more noticeable on my lashes than the Beauty Rush, which seems like it's just brushing on a slight tint of colour. The Urban Decay is also noticeable by others - a friend said to me once, "Are you wearing purple mascara??" Why, yes, I am.


Take a look at the difference in colours:




Urban Decay is on the right and Beauty Rush on the left. I definitely prefer the rich, grape-y colour of the Beauty Rush, but unfortunately it's not that colour when it goes on. The pinkier, more eggplant colour of the Purple Haze shows up rather nicely on my dark lashes. The downside of both? Neither make my lashes longer and thicker, so I prefer to put on a coat of black mascara first to get my lashes longer and then apply a quick coat of the purple.





The blue's are a bit more difficult to decide on. The Beauty Rush is definitely noticeable on my lashes; the same friend said to me, "Are you wearing blue mascara?". But, like the purple ones, the Indiglow also needs a coat of black before applying. Since the BadGal blue is the same formula as Benefit's regular mascara, it doesn't need the extra coat of black. But, since the original BadGal doesn't give me the lashes I desire, I still put on a coat of my own black mascara before the blue.


BadGal is on the left, Beauty Rush on the right. The colour of BadGal is definitely a lot richer than the Beauty Rush, which comes off fairly muted. But when put on, the colours are fairly similar. And since I end up applying black mascara beforehand anyway, I'd have to say that in the blue category, it's a tie.



Have you tried coloured mascara? What brands do you prefer?





Images of products from Victoria's Secret & Sephora.

7 comments:

Livie said...

interesting - i've never considered coloured mascara before. I always thought it would be a bit too costumey but now I'm curious to see if they do make dark brown eyes pop more.

The Anthology said...

Fun!

Years ago I tried green, of all colours. But since I'm a brown-eyed gal too, I just might have to try purple.

* Kelsey

Lisa said...

Great review! I usually stick with black mascara but I might have to give the purple BadGal mascara a try. Lately I've been using CG LashBlast Luxe in black platinum, which is black with a touch of shimmer in it. I was pretty skeptical about its claims of brightening the eyes, but I do look a bit more awake when I use it than when I use regular LashBlast.

Anya said...

I did a similar post few weeks ago:

http://www.imtheitgirl.com/2009/08/beauty-fridays-tinted-mascara.html

check it out!

Anya

MizzJ said...

Cool review! I've always wanted to try colored mascara, and these shades look pretty sweet.

nicole said...

I've tried blue mascara but it didn't do much for me because my lashes are both dark and non-existent. I've heard great things about the DiorShow mascara in blue; I even had a co-worker wear it to work and it was v. noticeable, much to my surprise.

Not sure if I'll be trying anymore coloured mascara in the near future, but if I do, I'll be using your review as a reference! Are you able to take a pic with the Urban Decay purple mascara on? I want to see what it looks like! :)

-N

Erin said...

@livie - it's not too costumey. it really only shows when the light reflects off your lashes or at the right angle.

@lisa - i'm interested to try the mabelline products that rhianna endorses that are supposed to make your eyes pop.

@nicole yeah, understandable. my lashes are dark brown which provides a bit of leeway on the colours. i think for black lashes, blue would work best (haven't tried diorshow - but i'm allergic to it anyway), or the urban decay since it's a lighter colour. i'll definitely try to do a follow up wwearing that one. =)