Un-Excepchanel

Hola readers! lately i've been a very busy kitten collecting and testing new products so expect lots of reviews and info-fests in the days to come! today i'm going to be telling you about my experience with Chanel's newest mascara, Exceptionnel de Chanel, $28 (YES, twenty-eight dollars!).

i should first tell you that in this particular case, the marketing got to me 98% and my love of mascara was responsible for the other 2%. i ADORE Chanel-- the clothes, the PURSES! the shoes, the jewelry! the CLOTHES! and the makeup. however, my being a basically champagne-taste on a beer-budget kitten, i don't have the opportunity to own very much Chanel at all. since i'd never owned a Chanel mascara before and heard many good things about them, i decided after seeing the amazing brush that comes with Exceptionnel that i'd jump and go for it once and for all. so after $30 had been liberated from my purse, i blamed it on the lure of the brush, not on my own lack of self control!

so let's get down to this mascara and i'll tell you what it's all about. first off, that wicked brush is a six-sided hybrid of a regular, basic mascara brush and the new silicone-bristled versions popular today. it has short, densely-packed regular bristles (the black ones) that are for amping up lash volume and long, thin silicone bristles (the white ones) that are for separating lashes and encouraging curl. the formula is a thicker, wetter one than i normally like, but that's just personal preference. it comes in four colors (Smoky Noir, Smoky Brun, Smoky Violine and Smoky Marine), and has a special 'rolling' application technique that is recommended. to get a better look at the brush and the how-to on application, go here and check out The Film (for fun), The Design (for a good look at that brush), and The Application Technique (which is self-explanatory).

so my personal experience with the mascara? i'll sum it up in a few words: not worth the money or the time! i hate to spit blaspheme on the name of Chanel but this is just an average volumizing mascara with a very fancy brush (that, btw, doesn't actually DO anything fancy). when i got it home i was so excited to try it out that i immediately washed off the mascara i was wearing and got to work on my application technique. on one eye i applied as i normally do, sweeping straight up, NO WIGGLING, with a light touch, and on the other eye i did the Application de Chanel, which is basically just rolling the wand as you sweep it through so that all sides of the brush come into contact with your lashes. not only did the lashes i did the Chanel application on end up overloaded with product, uncurled (the HORROR!), and clumpy (not in an actual 'clumps of mascara' way but in that other horrible way where several eyelashes fuse together and end up looking spidery and gross), it also was a gigantic pain in the ass to try to do all that rolling and rotating while putting it on. i kept having to pull the brush away from eyes and squint to see what i was hitting my lashes with, long or short? black or white? grrrrr! too much stress for one tube of expensive mascara! i'm going to stick to my beloved Covergirl Volume Exact for days and my Diorshow for nights (a mascara i've had a giant change-of-heart towards lately) and count all my money while laughing maniacally. oops, that's right, Chanel has all of it!

have you tried the new Chanel Exceptionnel mascara? if so, what did you think: heaven for a reasonable price or brush-luring highway robbery? let me know in the comments!