Mascara. My final make-up frontier… Well OK maybe not but it’s certainly one of the products that I’ve struggled to find one of which deserves to go into the coveted ‘Holy Grail’ box. A few weeks ago, I went to a talk with Salli Hughes at Selfridges Birmingham and she was kind enough to take some questions from the crowd. She wanted to know about our make-up problems so I took the opportunity to tell her about my quest to find a mascara that would withstand my oily eyes. This is when I discovered ‘tubing’ mascara. Instead of painting your lashes like normal mascaras, tubing mascara forms no-smudge, water-resistant “tubes” around your lashes. Once you’ve applied it, tubing mascara tubes bind to your lashes and cannot smudge, clump, flake, even if you cry or rub your eyes. Oil based eye make-up removers won’t remove them, the only thing that does is hot water. Salli then advised me on a few different options I had in the UK – either Clinique or Estee Lauder. As I was standing next to the EL counter, that’s where I headed first to check out the Estee Lauder Double Wear Zero-Smudge Curling Mascara.
The Estee Lauder Double Wear Zero Smudge Curling Mascara is one of the three ‘Double Wear Tubing’ mascaras you can purchase. While this one is designed to ‘Curl’, the others are designed to lengthen or give volume and life. I’m going to jump straight in and say that I don’t find this mascara particularly curling but Salli told me how to combat this too – simply using your favourite ‘normal’ mascara as a base mascara then seal it with your tubing mascara. This will give full, curled lashes and more importantly mascara that won’t budge. In fact I’ve found that the only real thing this mascara is useful for is ‘sealing’. On it’s own, it’s nothing eye opening (no pun intended) but combined with my ‘Benefit They’re Real’ I have beautiful lashes that last all day. However the application is easy, the brush is curled to she shape of the eye socket and it’s easy to wiggle around your lashes.
I was skeptical about the ’15 hour staying power’ tagline and after having been promised no smudging from others, I was surprised when this ACTUALLY WORKED! I ask myself everyday how I went so long without some kind of tubing mascara. It seriously doesn’t budge at all – even when I rub my eyes when tired. The removal is pain free because it really just does take hot water to get rid of it. If I’ve double layered I use hot water to remove the tubes then my normal remover to take off the second mascara.
The only downside to this product is the cost versus what it’s used for. £21 is a lot for something which I only use to coat another product that works in a similar manor. However when you pit the cost against the outcome (the joy it brings at the last of mascara running down my cheek) there is no comparison for me and I’ll never be without a ‘tubing mascara’ again. Wearing it on it’s own is not to bad, it’d be great for a ‘no makeup’ makeup look but if you want luscious lashed you’ll need to double layer and really, is that so bad?
Have you tried ‘tubing’ mascara? What were your thoughts?
