To keep up my rep of being a total beauty junkie I picked up a new mascara last week that I totally didn’t need.  Well, at the time I thought I might need it since it said it was High Impact mascara.  Those couple of words reminded me that I totally needed some High Impact lashes in my life, and I thought I would give it a try.

At $19 it didn’t totally break the bank either, so I spent the week willing it to replace my favourite Benefit’s They’re Real Mascara.  The mascara only comes in Black or Black/Brown, so it’s really all business and no fun (usually there are a few other colour options with mascara, but it’s not like I have bought a blue or a green one lately anyway).

The claims?  Instant volume and length that resists flaking, clumping, smudging.  They said it could stand up to heat, humidity, and an active day.

 

 

 

 

The first thing I noticed was how smooth it went on.  The consistency is a little watery so it easily smoothed onto my lashes and was easy to apply.  The tips Clinique gave for the mascara was to start at the base of my lashes and then wiggle the brush up to the tip of my lashes.  It said to repeat this step, and to prevent clumping to let the mascara dry between coats.  I am all about following instructions so I did exactly as told.  I didn’t notice any clumping at all which was great, but what I did notice was that the consistency of the mascara was so watery I had to build over and over and over again to get any “Impact”.  It went on so smoothly I didn’t really see a lot of volume, and to create the volume I wanted I had to put a lot of this stuff on.

I also found that it didn’t separate my lashes as nicely as I would have liked.  I had to use another want to separate my lashes the way I like them to be.  It seemed to clump them together, and I think it was all the brushes fault.

It really doesn’t like it when your lashes curl.  It seemed to want to straighten my lashes out which was sort of annoying.  The formula just didn’t seem to be thick enough to bend your lashes in the shape you want.

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of my day, the mascara would start to flake.  I find I have this issue with all of my mascara’s (probably because I like to put it on very thick!) so I wasn’t overly surprised at this.  I had a very hard time getting this mascara off!  It is definitely waterproof.  It was hard to even smudge it.  Apply this mascara very carefully since you are going to be stuck with it for a while.

So the funny thing was that after I tried this mascara for a week, I found out Clinique not only has this mascara in a non-waterproof version (not surprising), but a lash curling version, and they have a mascara just for your lower lashes as well!  So they really want you to buy two mascaras – one for your upper lashes and one for your lower lashes?  It seems really wasteful to me.  Wouldn’t it make sense for everything to be in one mascara?  I guess that is why this mascara is a little cheaper than most of the mascara’s at Sephora – technically you need two of them.

 

 

 

 

Overall I think I am done with this mascara.  I gave it a week and it didn’t really work for me, and I did not feel like it lived up to it’s “High Impact” claims.  I thought it worked just fine on my lower lashes (I can’t imagine buying a mascara just for those few lashes, which says a lot because I buy useless stuff all the time), but other than it being waterproof it didn’t live up to it’s claims of being “High Impact” for me.

My favourite mascara continues to be Benefit’s They’re Real Mascara!  If you have one that you absolutely love and thing I should try, let me know if the comments and I will add it to my arsenal!