Drugstore Mascaras Review

One of my guiltiest beauty pleasures is mascara, I just love it! I have my Holy Grails (see below), but I still like to try new ones all the time. Mascara is the only beauty product that I think every woman can benefit from wearing. It emphasizes your eyes and applying just one coat can be enough to get you out the door. There's lots of beauty products that are worth spending the extra cash on, but I don't think mascara is one of them. The two brands I'm most loyal to is L'Oreal and Maybelline, I really like their formulas and I think they give lashes a ton of drama. My favorite type of lashes are extra long lush ones and have found that mixing two mascaras give me the best look. I use one coat for length and another for thickness. I've tried a ton of mascaras and reviewed the top ones here for you.

Maybelline The Rocket Volum Express: B+
This mascara is really close to being an A, in fact I gave it an A- to start and changed it to a B+ because I think the Maybelline The Colossal Chaotic is superior between the two. I really like the brush, it’s very full and the tip narrows just a bit making it easy to apply to the inner lashes and bottom lash line. When using this mascara, I think it pairs amazing with my Holy Grail L’Oreal Voluminous to give lashes both volume and length. Alone, this mascara is great, it adds a ton of volume, but it can be pretty tough to get off on its own. I don’t have a problem removing it when I layer it on top of another mascara that I use as a base. I moved this mascara down to a B+ because I don’t think it gives you as much length as other mascaras and it does flake a bit at the end of the day.

Maybelline The Falsies Push Up Drama: B- (would be an A, read below why!)
The silicone cupped bristles on the wand really intrigued me and their marketing for the new shape totally sold me! I snagged up this mascara and went to town on my lashes. Right away I fell in love with the mascara, it’s formula and wand had a huge impact on my lashes giving them both length and thickness. My lashes nearly looked fake and one coat really coated my lashes while a second gave them extra drama. However, after a few weeks of wearing the mascara exclusively, my eyelids started to get really dry. One of my girlfriends had mentioned that to me when I bought it, but I wanted to test it out myself. My eyelids got so dry my skin started to flake and my under eye concealer looked terrible! It took over a week of not using the mascara and heavy moisturizing before my lids went back to normal. I’m super bummed about it because other than that this probably is the best mascara I’ve ever tried. I really hope they change the formula, I’ve tweeted them but haven’t heard any response. Has anyone tried this mascara and had the same issue? It’s so weird!

Maybelline The Colossal Chaotic: A-
Each coat of this mascara really grabs your lashes, and the bent end of the wand helps lengthen your tips for extra oomph. This is a mascara that definitely works all on its own to really amplify your lashes. The formula is thick and the directions tell you to use the bended tip to mess up your lashes, but I don’t really care for a crazy look, but that tip really does help to add extra volume you the tips of your lashes. I love the overall look this mascara’s formula and wand give, my only complaint is there can be a bit of fall out at the end of a work day, hence the minus in the grade. I consider this one of my Holy Grail mascaras, it just works amazing at building up your lashes!

L’Oreal Voluminous Original: A
This mascara is my Holy Grail and I always go back to it to use alone or use it paired with other mascaras. Its formula is great and builds really well to give lashes a natural look with a dramatic touch. It’s great for every day, it doesn’t smudge or flake and washes off easily. Typically, I use this mascara paired with another mascara for more length. I have gone through countless tubes of this over the years.

CoverGirl Lash Blast: B-
I bought this mascara in waterproof, which I typically don’t buy because I don’t need it on an everyday basis. I needed some staying power though for the birth of my second baby and wanted to cry those happy tears without having any black streaks run down my cheeks. I really like the wand, I think that shape really helps to build fullness on lashes which is a total win for me. It's very similar to the Maybelline The Rocket Volum Express, but with shorter bristles. At first try, I totally got what all the fuss and cult following was about! After a few wears, the excitement for me kind of died down. I didn’t need to use it every day, so I didn’t use this mascara until the very end, but I just remember thinking that although I liked the mascara, it wasn’t enough to buy another tube of it. So that’s my review, it’s just good enough, not anything extra.

L’Oreal Voluminous Superstar: B-
Primer and mascara in one? Sold! I really like the primer on this mascara, I think it coats each lash well and helps to hold a curl. The mascara is so so. The primer wand is hour glass shaped, which I like, I think this shape really helps to coat lashes from more angles and the mascara wand is curved, which I do not really prefer. I don’t think the curved wand does anything extra for your lashes and doesn’t give you the ability to coat your lashes evenly. The mascara itself is pretty thin (probably to go with the primer and prevent clumps) and is quick to run. The mascara really lengthens your lashes, but doesn’t do much for fullness. The lengthening is really great though, very long and spider leggy (if that’s your thing- I like spidery and full personally). Overall, I don’t think this mascara is a Holy Grail product, I think the mascara wand should also be hour glass shaped and would prefer the formula to be a bit thicker to better compliment the primer. Nothing about this mascara or primer wows me and I would be surprised if it lasted as part of their collection.

I've tried so many mascaras over the years and these are my most used or most recent used ones. I've already bought another mascara to try that's hiding in my makeup drawer. What are your favorite mascaras? Do you go high or low end? Please share your favorites below so I can try them too!