Review: Essence mascaras

In a recent video I talked about these mascaras from Essence, a very inexpensive drugstore brand here in Europe (it's a German brand.) Even drugstore makeup can be a bit pricey in Europe with some mascaras from Max Factor running to around $20 USD a pop, so Essence caters to the lower-end price spectrum and is popular with teenagers.

Essence Volume Boost Base Mascara

I had high hopes in this drugstore fiber mascara base, because of how inexpensive it was and how much I have heard about fiber mascaras. A fiber mascara is essentially a mascara that contains small fibers inside (I don't know what the fibers are made of), which stick onto your lashes to add length. They are very popular in Asian countries but are largely unknown on the Western beauty market. Some high end fiber mascaras include Fiberwig and Kanebo. This one by Essence was dirt cheap so I was very excited to try it out.

Sadly, I was unimpressed by this. This product made my lashes very brittle, and while the fibers seemed to add length, they also made them very uneven, almost bumpy looking. It was very hard to coat the lashes evenly with mascara after. This mascara base is white and it didn't dry clear, so it was hard to fully cover up the base with a black mascara. It did add volume but it also made my lashes look really bumpy and just not....smooth and luscious. It also did nothing for waterproofing or at least smudge-proofing; I didn't feel like my mascara performed any better with this on. In fact, I think my mascara looked better without this product on!

In conclusion: If you're curious about fiber mascaras, give it a go as it's so cheap, but overall I wasn't impressed with this at all.

Essence Lash Mania mascara

This is essentially trying to copy at least the packaging of Dior's Diorshow mascara, and it has a similar fat brush as the Diorshow. But I think that's pretty much where the similarities end. I do not own Diorshow so I can't say how they compare, but overall I wasn't impressed with this mascara. It did have a very nice deep black color and I didn't have any problems using the wide brush, but it didn't do much for my lashes. This mascara was just OK. Not horrible, but not wonderful. I have better results with Covergirl Lashblast or Max Factor 2000 Calorie. Once again it made my lashes very hard and brittle, and sort of clumpy looking. This did nothing for separating and defining the lashes, and it was hard to do my lower lashes with the fat brush. The mascara also flaked after a period of wear.

In conclusion, I guess if you're on a super tight budget then give Essence mascaras a try, but there's plenty of other drugstore mascaras out there that are just better. I don't think I will foray into Essence mascaras again.