Get Luxury Lashes For a Drugstore Price
I’m not being hyperbolic or original when I say that the best mascara is Diorshow. That brush! Something about the formula! It’s simply the best mascara for someone like me, who wants to look like they’re wearing fake lashes without going through the fuss of wearing falsies. But I haven’t bought Diorshow in years, because it costs $30, and as soon as you’ve bought it it’s gone or dried up and lost that Diorshow magic that made you buy it in the first place. Add the fact that sometimes I wear makeup for like three hours before washing it off and putting on my pajamas… I’m just not living a $30 mascara lifestyle. The best Diorshow dupe while still staying in the Sephora bracket is Buxom, and I did that for awhile, but then I ventured into the realm of drugstore mascaras, which I haven’t explored in years. There are a few that I think are real winners, but the one that’s really stolen my heart is L’Oreal Voluminous Lash Paradise.
If the tube looks familiar, it could be because this mascara is almost identical to Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara. I’ve seen some people calling the L’Oreal a dupe for Too Face. I disagree because while I adore Lash Paradise, I loathe Better Than Sex. Too Faced’s cult favorite mascara (divisive mascara, in my opinion) is just too wet and gloopy (extra unfortch for a mascara named to make you associate it with sex). While L’Oreal has the same tube color, and the same brush shape, they’ve bested Too Faced by making their tube, brush, and formula not coat your lashes in a tidal wave of product.
Like many others with light hair, my lashes are long, but the tips are white blonde. Someone told me this was because the sun hits the ends and bleaches them, but as I avoid the sun and still have them, I have doubts. The point is, I need my mascara to accentuate my bleached tips, as it were, to really show off my lash length and, again, give me that fake lash look I’m chasing. L’Oreal Voluminous Lash Paradise does that like a dream. Some mascaras that cost three times as much don’t! I apply mascara with the blink method, which apparently isn’t what everyone does, where you put the mascara brush at the base of your lashes and then blink. If you do this with a drippy, wet mascara like Too Faced, it gets all over the place. Lash Paradise has a brush that holds plenty of product, coats my lashes all the way, and doesn’t get all over the place.
Oh, and here’s the best part about L’Oreal Voluminous Lash Paradise: It’s $10 or less and you can get it virtually anywhere. I buy mine at Target because I’m there at least once a week, but you can also go to Ulta (check for coupons!), Walgreens, the dang grocery store… Anywhere that sells drugstore mascara brands. If you’re a person who runs out of things without realizing or loses their stuff, Lash Paradise is the one for you. No longer will you have to sweat replacing your $30 mascara that’s only sold at a few retailers. Plus, if there’s a sale, you can feel free to buy three tubes and have a little stash for later.
And here’s one extra tip I’ve been using when I apply my L’Oreal mascara: I always use a lash comb after my mascara has had a minute to dry, just to separate my lashes and give them a nice fan. But lash combs aren’t really the best - they’re just ok. What works really well is to use a clean mascara brush to brush out your lashes. You can just save a mascara brush when your tube is done and you’ve given the brush a good cleaning, but the easiest thing to do is to take a sample brush from a display and use that. My current favorite is the brush from Lancome’s Monsieur Big mascara (this is a great mascara, BTW, but it’s not $10 so…). At Sephora, they have a bunch of Monsieur Big brushes in a little cup so that you can try out the mascara with the brush, which is genius because at least half of a mascaras power is in the brush. But you can just as easily take one of those little brushes and put it in your bag to use later at home to separate your lashes.
