Friday, May 09, 2008


did you ever notice when you were watching cartoons that the way the illustrators distinguish a girl character from a boy character is by giving her long, flirty eyelashes? sometimes they throw in pink lips or a bow, but it's always the eyelashes that prettify a cartoon character girl. it's my opinion that enhancing your own eyelashes is one of the quickest, easiest ways to beautify your face and open up your eyes! this is how i justify my obsession with lash products.

i try an abnormal amount of mascaras, everything from drugstore to department store to anything foreign i can get my hands on! for some reason it's the one thing i can never talk myself out of buying, and therefore i consider myself somewhat of an expert on it. when i find something i think is really outstanding, i can barely contain myself! i want to get on top of a building with a megaphone and scream it out so that all my friends can use it and fall in love, too. the great thing about the internet is i can scream it out from right here in my comfortable living room, and here goes!

my latest lash acquisition is Missha The Style Mascara Base. now Missha is a difficult company to get the 411 on here in the U.S., as far as i can find, there is no active (or atleast not working on my computer) U.S. branch of their website. the link i have above is to their Australian site, where you can atleast see and read about the products if you're interested. they are a Korean company that first started out on the internet, from what i can find. i first heard about this mascara base on Make Up Alley (the start of sooooo many lemmings! damn MUA!) in the product reviews, and luckily i was able to swap for a new, sealed tube from another MUA member. the reviews (check them out here) absolutely raved about this mascara base and how amazingly it performs for it's $5 price tag, comparing it to Shiseido's Base which retails for $22 and is a favorite (although i don't think it's that great myself). anything that people rave over AND is a lash product AND clocks in at under $5 gets my heart racing! i was so excited to try it out!

when i did finally receive it, i was so anxious to try it that i ran into my bathroom and washed off the mascara i already had on. i curled my lashes, unwrapped the tube, and was very surprised when i pulled out the wand because of it's unusual hourglass shaped bristles! when i applied the base, the first thing i noticed was that it did NOT overload my lashes with clumpy, opaque primer and instead seemed to attach itself to my lash tips and lengthen them. score number one! i hate it when a lash base gives you thick white spider lashes. secondly, it seemed to really hold the curl i had pressed into my lashes, a big plus for me because i like my lashes curled STRAIGHT up in the air with a precise, L-shaped bend (yes, i know, this is a big no-no and all the magazines tell you NOT to do this, but when you have shorter lashes this definitely does make them look as long as possible). when i used the base, i only used it on one eye, and then applied mascara, and afterwards, i noticed that the eye i had used the base on retained it's curl much better than the plain mascara lashes. it also lengthened a bit and didn't make my lashes too thick and gummy looking, which i LOATHE. all in all, a score in my book for $5!

if you're a lash maniac like me and you'd like to try Missha's The Style Mascara Base, i would suggest trying Ebay. most of the people who wrote the reviews on MUA purchased theirs this way, but there are a few Missha stores scattered throughout the U.S., so look it up, you might be one of the lucky few that live near one! and if you're interested in reading more about the company, check this out, it seems to be the most thorough source of information i've found.

what's your favorite mascara base? let me know in the comments!

5 comments:

AbiSanchez said...

I believe you when you say you are a mascara expert! Hahah! So any mascara recommendations under 20bucks? I prefer something more volumizing than lengthening :D THANKS SO MUCH!!

The Kitty said...

hello Pinkbaboy! well i have LOTS of recs for you seeing as how i try EVERYTHING it seems! right now i'm loving MAC's Plushlash which is about $11 i think, amazing since most drugstore mascaras are that much or MORE these days! it's volumizing without giving you spider lashes. many people really love CG Lash Blast for volume, it's not my fave, but it's ok. Maybelline Full'n'Soft is really nice, a few coats and you get good volume. the MOST volumizing mascara i know of is Too Faced Lash Injection which clocks in at $19. although, if you're going to buy that, DO NOT buy the mini, for some reason the small mini size is like a completely different mascara from the regular size! the regular size is mega-volumizing, holds a curl like CEMENT and and is dark, inky black. it's one of my faves :D hope that helps and thanks for the comment! :D

AbiSanchez said...

WOW! You HAVE tried a lot :D
Anyway, I'm using the cover girl one right now. It's ok, I just find it really hard to put on coz the brush is HUGE! (I don't know if there's another lash blast kind, but the one I have has the plastic bristles like Maybelline define-a-lash) Would any of your recommendations have the same problem? Oh, and are all of them waterproof? I have really watery eyes..

Sorry I have a ton of questions. Like you, I am one of those people who think the eyelashes should be top priority on making oneself look good. They can make or break your whole look :D

Have you tried those mini eyelash curlers? Are they any good? Coz I have trouble curling my lashes at the corner of my eyes. Heehee.

Thanks SOOOO much!

The Kitty said...

hi again! don't be sorry, i LOVE it when people comment on here and i love answering questions about beauty (esp. mascara!!!) even more! :D ok so for your q's, i agree, i also am not a big fan of those humongous brushes, i mean, just because you make the brush bigger doesn't mean it's going to make your LASHES any bigger?! kwim?! they advertise Lash Blast by saying "...Our Biggest Brush EVER!" well, that doesn't mean it's going to make my lashes any bigger! i find that i most prefer a traditional mascara brush (not one of the new plastic bristled ones) that is medium sized with really dense bristles. Maybelline Full'n'Soft has a really good brush, and it comes in waterproof, too. TF Lash Injection is also waterproof, but not in your traditional way, which is great because using WP mascaras everyday is very hard on your lashes. it's one of those 'tube' mascaras, like Blinc's Kiss Me mascara, that forms tubes around your lashes, like little lash socks, and just comes off with warm water. but it is completely smudge, flake, and waterproof. i think you'd really like it if you're going for volume and waterproof-ness :D i have never tried one of those mini-lash curlers, i have definitely thought about it though because i have the same problem with you re:the corner lashes! to me, using another lash curler seems like such a PITA, so what i do is ALWAYS, always use my blowdryer to warm up my curler so the curl stays longer, and try to position the curler so that it gets my outer lashes. you don't really need to curl the super tiny lashes that are right at the inner corners of your eyes, so try to position it off to the side a bit to get your outer lashes. and feel free to ask as many q's as you want! :D

AbiSanchez said...

Oooooh, I think I'm gonna try the too faced one. The way you're describing it.. so is it kinda like the clinique long-wearing mascara that pursebuzz did a review on. The one that comes off with warm water? Only, the TF mascara is volumizing! Heehee. Thanks so much for all the help!!