I’m always happy to find a good staple, of course, and there’s nothing more exciting than realising that this is the product I have always been looking for, but once I’ve found it, I keep wondering if I can justify trying out new products.
This is the case with L’Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara. I love it: one or two coats will give me fairly dramatic but still natural-looking lashes, or I can keep building up the coats for maximum false lash effect. I have actually had people ask me if I was wearing false lashes when I was just wearing this mascara.
But I also sort of hate it, because I’ve lost reason to try new mascaras, which now always leave me vaguely disappointed and thinking that I just should’ve bought another tube of Million Lashes. Even a sample of Diorshow mascara I received didn’t stack up to this seven-dollar drugstore mascara. If you want bold, dramatic lashes, this is will be your new makeup bag staple.
Formula and Shade Range
The one thing I have never understood with mascara brands is the need to make several shades of black, and Million Lashes is no exception. It’s available in Black, Blackest Black, and Carbon Black, as well as Brown. I have tried every shade of black, and truthfully, I can’t see much of a difference, beyond Black being more a natural brownish-tinted black and Carbon Black being the darkest, ‘truest’ black in the range. I stick to Carbon Black just out of preference.
The formula is neither notably thick or thin, and it does smell like fake floral fragrance. The smell does fade with use, and unless you’ve just opened a new tube or are sniffing your mascara (for whatever reason), it’s fairly unobtrusive.
The waterproof formula is thinner than the non-waterproof version, with a stronger chemical smell and a shade range limited to Black or Blackest Black. When they say waterproof, they mean it, so be warned: I wore the waterproof in 103 degree Florida humidity to visit Universal Studios and then to go to a pool, and it didn’t budge one bit. It took a makeup remover wipe and washing my face to get it all off.
The original formula is pretty good at not budging, unless you get it wet (sweat doesn’t seem to effect it, though—just water). If you get the original formula wet, prepare yourself to have the dreaded racoon eyes. (Speaking from experience, don’t test fate and wear non-waterproof Million Lashes to go to a pool party... It isn’t going to be pretty.)
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| Right has no mascara, left has one coat waterproof over three coats non-waterproof |
In terms of lasting power, I can get through a full day of work and classes without any fallout or other mascara issues occurring. With the waterproof formula, as I said before, until you take it off, that mascara isn’t going anywhere.
Wand and Application
I used to hate the applicator wand Million Lashes came with, but it has grown on me as time has gone on and I have worked out the best application method. It’s plastic and fairly flexible—not flexible enough to be bendy or to feel flimsy, but just enough to make application that much easier.
As a makeup artist, I adore mascaras with plastic wands and shorter bristles: they’re the easiest to clean and sanitise, and unlike wands with true bristles, they don’t get stray lashes caught in them. It just makes my job that much easier. For an average customer, this isn’t a make-or-break thing, but when you have to set aside time every day to sanitise your mascara wands, it becomes more important.
The bristles are fairly short, and spaced out in a way I can only describe as being similar to corn kernels on a corn cob (is my country side showing yet?). They’re so short, in fact, that I was actually quite off-put by the wand the first time I bought Million Lashes. I was used to applying mascara by starting from the closest to the base of the lash I could get, then wiggling my way up to the top. With bristles so short and a wand shape that’s rather chunky, all that left me with was spidery lashes and a mess of mascara on my eyelid.
Instead, the wand lends itself better to being held near the lash base but not lose enough to touch your skin (where, if you curl your lashes, the curl begins), and then brushed upwards through the lashes (I like to blink down on the wand as I do this). For building more volume, I pat the wand against the base of my lashes. For more length and/or definition, I use the wand to brush the tops of my lashes out.
This is a buildable mascara, to an extent: after about six or so coats (yes, I am that serious about my lashes, though I only dip the wand twice for all those coats), you’ll start to get a spidery I-only-have-six-lashes-total look. But for an everyday sort of dramatic look, two or three coats will be more than sufficient, so worry not.
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| From left to right: bare lashes, two coats of mascara, five coats of mascara |
L’Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara costs between
$6.99 (Target and Wal-Mart) to $8.95 (drugstores and the L’Oreal website), and
there are sometimes coupons for it, too. With an amazing quality and a price
that won’t break the bank, there’s almost no competition in my makeup bag for a
better mascara.
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