There is no better makeup product than mascara, it completes the look. Therefore, it essential that you know what you’re dealing with before spending more than $20. So, to let the world know, I compared two high end mascaras to their drug store equivalents.
The first high end mascara was one that we received in our Survival Kit last semester. It is the Tarte “Lights, Camera Lashes” non-waterproof mascara in black.
The other high end mascara is the famous Too Faced “Better than Sex” non-waterproof mascara in black.
The two side by side (sorry for the terrible angle in the Too Faced photo) were similar in adding length. However, the Too Faced mascara seemed to clump together more than the Tarte, which coated my lashes individually or in a thin clump. After a day of wearing the mascaras, I found that I was always whipping away fallen mascara from the Too Faced eye. When I went to take off my makeup, this mascara it was extremely difficult; it took up a large portion of my makeup wipe which is unusual for just mascara. The Tarte mascara stayed on fully and intact all day, and was relatively easy to take off at the end of the day. Additionally, I really like the Too Faced package, its unique and elegant, however, since it is metal it’s rather heavy. The brush is a great shape for reaching all of your lashes but the mascara itself is thick and heavy on your lashes, especially if you prefer thinner ones. The Tarte packaging is a bit of a disappointment because their packaging for other products are so beautiful. This mascara looks as though you’re supposed to pull the bottle out of the purple or gold “case,” but that’s really just the bottle. The brush is great for thin, long lashes but is difficult to reach the lashes on the outside of my eye because of its shape. Price wise the Tarte mascara runs a dollar more than the Too Faced mascara which sells for $22.
Tarte “Lights, Camera, Lashes”
Too Faced “Better Than Sex”
Moving on to the drug store versions of these expensive mascaras. The first is Revlon’s “Volume+Length” mascara. There were several options of drug store versions of the Tarte mascara, but they were difficult to find or too expensive for this comparison. However, if I had known how wide this brush was when I bought it, I may have tried to find another easily accessible, cheap option, this mascara only cost around $6.The second mascara is L’Oréal “Voluminous Lash Paradise,” not to be confused with the regular L’Oréal “Voluminous” mascara. This is the roughly $8 version of the Too Faced mascara.
These mascaras were extremely different for various reasons. First of all, the Revlon mascara was the worst mascara I have ever used. It was no surprise from a $6 mascara how watered down and thin it was. This mascara barely did anything for my lashes other than darken them a shade. Meanwhile, the L’Oréal mascara went on perfectly in one coat. While I’m only wearing one coat throughout all of these tests, if I was doing my make up like normal I would use multiple mascaras or coats; but with this one, I found myself satisfied with the length, volume, and coverage of just a single coat. The Revlon mascara looked as though I had no mascara on at all by the end of the day. On the other hand, the L’Oréal mascara stayed on my lashes and with full volume all day. Both came off rather easily with a makeup wipe. As for packaging, I found that the Revlon brush to be awkward to hold, it also had the same problem reaching my outer and inner lashes at the same time. The L’Oréal brush is great at reaching all of our lashes while being easily held.
Revlon “Volume+Length”
L’Oréal “Voluminous Lash Paradise”
Moving on to comparing the high end to the drug store version… First up is Tarte vs. Revlon. I think based on my review of the Revlon mascara you can tell the clear winner is Tarte. Both had brushes that were unable to reach all the lashes easily. The overall packaging of the Revlon mascara was better than Tarte’s; however, its awkward brush could not make up for the case like packaging of Tarte. Additionally, Tarte had a smoother, long lasting, voluminous formula that made the mascara look amazing, whereas the Revlon mascara was barely noticeable.
For Too Faced vs. L’Oréal, I believe the answer for who won is also clear: L’Oréal. The L’Oréal mascara is one of my all time favorites mascaras. It is a better price and better quality than the high end version. While Too Faced created an amazing package for their mascara, the L’Oréal mascara had a similar design but at a cheaper cost. The brushes are almost identical, but the long-lasting ability and better coverage of L’Oréal crushed the Too Faced mascara.