Stay put Mascara - Must Have Beauty Buy

One problem that I have always had with mascaras is their tendency to transfer onto my eyelids on a night out.  Whenever I have gone out to clubs, had a day out shopping in town or used the tube it tends to smudge.  Usually I am too drunk to notice or too busy so it doesn't bother me, but when I'm just shopping or going about my daily tasks, to suddenly catch sight of myself with mascara all over my eyelids is a tad annoying.  Even when I use waterproof mascara it always smudges grrrrrr.  To illustrate my point here is a picture of what I mean by my mascara smudging.

I'm rather tiddled in this picture so excuse the insane grin, and I'm pretty sure I took the photo myself which is why not all my face is in it.  Anyway the big arrow points to the smudging on my eyelids.  Not that noticeable from a distance but annoying none the less!  You can quite clearly see the black marks of each individual lash as they have touched my eyelids and rubbed off in the heat.  I am also not wearing false lashes and you can see that my eyelashes are sort of clumped together and don't look as full as they could - and I have quite full eyelashes naturally.

I am pleased to say however, that I have finally come across a mascara that is the answer to all my problems.  Not only does it separate and lengthen each lash to make my lashes look more full and fluttery, it also stays put in extreme heat!  Last week I went to London on what has now been stated 'the hottest day of the year'.  It was unbearably hot!!!  And even though I sweated like a pig, my mascara stayed put and did not smudge at all.  I took a picture to show you all, because I was SO impressed.

LOOK!!! NO SMUDGEAGE!!!!  ------------------->

Impressive non?  This is me after my Knit Club in London last week.  (Another self taken photo but I was sober this time so managed to get most of my face in).  The rest of me was a little dishevelled after walking in a heatwave and dodging tourists, but my eyelashes were still in tip top condition and as I had prepared them that morning.  And the secret to my new found non smudge lashes?  Is this little baby:

                        Masquara by Illamasqa

The nattily named 'Masquara' by Illamasqua in 'Raven'.  Which incidentally I have problems pronouncing!  I always want to say Illasmaqua for some reason.  Anyway I just so happened to stumble across this must have item via twitter.  Someone in my feed had mentioned that it was awesome.  So the next time I was in Selfridges I popped along to the concession stall there to buy one.  At £15 a tube, I think this is a great little buy.  I used to buy Max Factor mascaras which I believe are around £10/£11 a pop.  And we all know what happened when I used that (refer to drunk picture above top), it smudged everywhere.  So for a few extra £'s I don't think that £15 is an unreasonable amount.  I would even go so far as saying that it averages out to be around the same amount per application as a cheaper mascara.  

This is because the applicator is very efficient so you don't need to apply as much product.  With my Max Factor mascara I would apply two or three layers to get a dramatic look.  This Illamasqua mascara only requires one layer, two at most.  So buying a mascara because it is cheap, is a false economy as you end up using it more frequently so have to buy more tubes.  I think it is also worth saying that this is a waterproof mascara.  I don't know if they do a non waterproof version but just in case if you are going to try it, ask for a waterproof one (so don't blame me if you get the wrong one and it doesn't work for you!).  I really couldn't recommend this item more highly, it is utterly amazing.  I know it is quite expensive, but I think it is worth every penny and I'm a total convert.

Thank you twitter for yet another piece of amazing advice, I am so glad that I stumbled upon this must have beauty item.

Betty xxx