REVIEW: Benefit They're Real! Mascara

I received this sample in my November 2012 Topbox.  It's a super hyped product so I was definitely happy to receive it to sample.  There was no way I was going to pay $29 CAD / $23 USD to try it out.  What the crap, I just checked Sephora for the official price and found that you get this exact a 0.14oz tube of this for $12 CAD / $10 USD -- holy moneybags!

I thought it was cheeky that they labelled it as "Beyond Mascara"

This is what is promises to do:

ginormous brush

PROS:

• ginormous brush - gets all thin and baby lashes
• nice wand design
• amazing length
• fair amount of volume
• decent hold of curl - even on my stick straight asian lashes

CONS:

• crazy expensive
• tube dries out quickly - starts getting really clumpy and sticky
• minor smudging after 5-6 hours - at the outer corners
• curls droop after 4 hours - again, on stick straight asian lashes

Verdict:

It's a bit of a wet formula, which I didn't like because I felt like each stroke was coating my lashes with too much and I wasn't able to define them as well.  Once it dried out a little bit, I loved it so much because it gave me the absolute perfect length, volume and curl.  I could see what everyone was raving about, and concurred.

Unfortunately, that opinion changed quickly...

One of the biggest downfalls of this mascara is that the formula dries out insanely quickly.  I only used this mascara five times, spread out over a month, and after the fifth time, I tossed it out even though it still had a bit of product left.  The formula had become so viscous that my lashes were clumping and spidery with even one coat.  It had become impossible to work with.

I'm not willing to pay $23-29 for a mascara that I can only use 12-15 times.
My guesstimate of 12-15 uses formulation:
I got 5 uses out of 0.1oz.  A full size tube has 0.3 oz.  The range is to factor in any excess drying haha.

Funny thing that I noticed when I was on Sephora.com:
0.14 oz is $10 USD
0.30 oz is $23 USD
This means that it costs 71cents per 0.01 oz for the smaller tube, but 77cents per 0.01 oz for the full time tube.  You get more value by opting for the smaller tube!  (You also minimize on drying out the tube with a smaller tube).

- M