Women are different!  No kidding!  Each and every one of us, but that’s a good thing.  afterall, I’d hate to be part of an identikit line up, as I’m sure that most of us would be.

Our hair, lips, bones, shape everything.  All these individual parts make the whole that the outside world sees, but almost without exception, we all want to change, enhance, tweek bits of ourselves to make a difference to the au naturale look we all sport in the mornings.

Some choose surgery and dramatic haircuts, others choose clothes in a certain style, most change their looks though, with a spot of makeup!

Having said that though, the changes we make to our own look are not necessarily the same as those that another woman might make, should she have control of our wardrobe or makeup bag.

We’ve all taken surreptitious glances at other women and thought “I wouldn’t have put that dress/coat/hat/hairdo on her” or maybe “a different shade of lipstick would look better”  It’s human nature, or more specifically woman-nature! 

But is it really about how others see us, or how we see ourselves?  Gok Wan is the champion of body confidence and being happy in our own skin, and in the same token, whenever I’m working with a client, be it a straight makeup application or a personal lesson, I invariably get told that my client doesn’t know how to ‘do eyeshadow properly’ or ‘where to put blusher’ etc etc.  And I always say that whilst application is the key to a flawless look, it’s more about being happy with the reflection in the mirror than how you got there.

Equally, there are occasions when I’ve itched to flex my artistic wings on a client, only for them to prefer a barely-there look, and that’s fine!  Whilst I can encourage a client to try something a bit more feature enhancing, if they’re not going to feel comfortable with their reflection in the mirror, then I’m not going to force a woman to be someone they aren’t.

It was at a lesson I was teaching recently that I began to think about why we choose certain products and why we look for different results in them.  Is there really a need for such a massive multi billion pound cosmetics market with new products released almost daily, and new brands being launched seemingly every month?

The “hmm, there could be an article in here” moment came when I selected 2 different mascaras for my client to try out.  One was lengthening and thickening, the other was just lengthening, and both were from the same brand.

Both the mascaras gave a lovely finish, however, my client and I both preferred a different finish and it got me to thinking about what we’re looking for in a mascara, and why?

So, I asked my trusted forum members and came up with the following -

Almost without fail, everyone wanted thicker, yet defined lashes.  Certainly no-one seemed to want the fat clumpy mono-lash look that celebrities seem to be sporting at the moment.  They all want their lashes to look like lashes, but with more oomph. 

Surprisingly, lengthening didn’t come out on top, though around 40% of the ladies all said that they wanted it, but most wanted a thicker look, but with separated lashes.

Popular recommendations from the forum members are -

Max Factor Masterpiece Max

Lancome Hypnose

Lancome L’Extreme

Estee Lauder Zero Smudge

Estee Lauder Projectionist

Clinique High Impact

Benefit Bad Gal

Rimmel Sexy Curves

Max Factor False Lash Effect

Clinique Long Pretty Lashes

L’Oreal Extra Volume Collagen

Blinc

and with some research of my own, and some very willing clients, we’ve drawn up a shortlist of other mascaras that do what they claim to do -

Estee Lauder Turbo Lash - yes, the motion mascara, it’s great!

Barbara Bort wavelength

Paul and Joe duo

Barbara Bort longlash

Estee Lauder Sumptuous

Beauty UK

Rimmel Glam Eyes

Urban Decay Sky Scraper

Urban Decay Big Fatty

Clinique High Impact Curling

These are the products that we, the professionals, and the non-pro-makeup-junkies, recommend.  Heartily recommend, and keep on buying.

Look for a brand where it says what it does, and check back here before you buy!

Sam Donald

www.SamDonald.com

With rich bright jewel colours of Sapphire, Amethyst, Garnet, Emerald and Amber, there really is a choice for all with Estee Lauder’s new volume lifting mascaras.

Already world renowned for their fantastic mascaras, their bold colours are bright and fun and add a playful edge to any makeup look.

Layer them up to make your lashes a statement over neutral toned shadow, or add to a matching eyeshadow and liner to make eyes a real ‘wow’ factor.  For me, I love layering these over blacks and greys, making the lashes appear longer, fuller and with a whole false lash look, but without the fiddly glue!

Sam Donald

www.SamDonald.com

Sam Donald

As a massive fan of Lancome Mascaras, and a believer in ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’, I rarely choose to buy new mascaras for myself, simply because I haven’t found anything better.

I got a hold of a tube of Too Faced Lash Injection in a goody bag recently, and as a lover of their Lip Injection, I was eager to try this out.

Such a dissapointment.

First up, the brush is just far too fat.  Is that possible?  well actually yes.  Most of the product got wiped off on the brush’s way out of the barrel, leaving very little in the bristles to put on my lashes.

Secondly whereas my Lancome mascara (and even Max Factor’s mascara) will suffice with one coat, giving longer and fuller lashes straight off, this took about 6 applications to get even close to their one, and really didn’t lengthen them at all.  And through the day, I noticed the my lashes seemed to droop.  Probably down to the numerous layers of product to get them looking any different.

At £13.50 a bottle, it’s quite a lot of money for a mid range product from the self select counter.  Spend another £5 and spend the money better on a Lancome mascara, or save £5 and buy a Max Factor one!

by Kate Caffery

I was given a sample of this recently so I’ve been road testing it for a couple of days and……. it’s amazing!

There’s a gimmicky brush with it (the assistant said “you have to sort of twirl it while applying it” ) so I’m not sure if it would do for pro kits as I haven’t tested it with a disposeable.  But for personal kits I would say it is a must have. It really separates the lashes finely and seems to add curl -even my husband commented that my lashes look longer (and he never notices my makeup!)