Hi Everyone!
After finishing a tube of mascara, I like to clean off the wand and keep it. I have gotten a lot of high-end travel-sized mascaras from Sephora, so, this way, I get to use a good quality brush to improve the mascara. I don’t know how accurate it was, but I once read that all mascaras (designer and drug store) basically have the same formulation- it’s the brush that makes the difference. Since mascara should only be kept for a few months, I personally don’t find it necessary to pay more than $15 for a mascara. I can’t justify spending more than that because I like to have different mascaras for different uses (day, night, natural, volume, etc.)
Most of them are nylon and have the tapered, cone shape. The 4th from the right is a silicone brush and it’s a bit skinnier in the middle. The Too Faced Better Than Sex and the Lancôme Hypnôse wands have that corkscrew shape. but the Lancôme one is skinnier. If I had to choose favourites, I think they’d be the Buxom, Tarte and Maybelline ones.
If you follow me on IG or you’ve read my Dupe It Out post on mascaras, you’ll know that the cult favourite, Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara, is one of my least fave mascaras. I’ve gotten a travel-sized tube twice and both times they dried out super fast, plus, the shape of the wand leaves my lashes looking clumpy and I have trouble getting in the inner and outer corners of my lashes.
I decided to put the wand to the test to see if it was the formulation of the mascara that I didn’t like or if it was both the wand and the formula. After sterilizing the brush, I dipped it into my L’Oreal Voluminous Original Mascara and did one eye with the L’Oreal wand and the other with the Better Than Sex wand. The Better Than Sex mascara was leaving clumps on the end of my lashes and again, I had trouble getting in the inner corner of my eye to get the inner lashes. The wand collects a lot of product in the middle. The top pic is a clean Better Than Sex wand and the bottom pic is when it has the L’Oreal Voluminous Original mascara on it. So, now I know that it’s both the formula and the brush that I don’t like.
I think I’m one of the few people who doesn’t like the Better Than Sex OR the L’Oreal Lash Paradise. I should try the Lash Paradise with a different brush though, because I think I don’t like it because it has the same corkscrew shape as the Better Than Sex wand.
UPDATE: I finally found a place in Canada that collects mascara wands. I’ve been hoarding these, but I really don’t use them and I’d rather it go to a good cause. In case you’re wondering, only about six of these were bought by me, the rest were deluxe samples. In a recent post on Facebook, Project Wild Wands Canada said that “Toronto Wildlife Centre is in immediate need of wands due to a large amount of bats that are there at the moment.” When I dropped them off, the volunteers didn’t seem to know anything about it, so I would suggest calling beforehand if you plan to drop by or mail them.
You can mail or drop off to:
4-60 Carl Hall Rd
Toronto, ON
M3K 2C1
What are your fave mascaras? Do you hoard your wands too?
Love,
