Mally Volumizing Mascara
On any given day, if I could only wear one type of cosmetic, it would be mascara. A while back, I had gotten one of the gift bag things with an Ulta purchase that was full of all sorts of goodies. One such item was a full-sized Mally Volumizing Mascara. I hadn’t used any Mally products before (though I am interested in trying the Poreless Face Defender), so I went into this as a clean slate – no preexisting opinions or notions.
Here’s what Ulta’s site says about the Mally Volumizing Mascara I received:
This Volumizing Mascara has a unique formula that helps create the look of gorgeous, full, luxurious lashes. The combination of natural waxes and carefully chosen powders gives lashes an instant boost. The plush brush works with the powders in the formula to help thicken lashes without clumping, giving you gorgeous volume that lasts and lasts. Apply 2 coats to the top lashes and 1 to the bottom to get instant volume that lasts.
Okay, cool! I know Benefit Gimme Brow has fibers in it for a similar effect for your brows. That should work great.
Pristine, first-use mascara wands are a beautiful thing, right? I was excited to open it, but found that it didn’t have that pristine quality newly-opened tubes have. It had surely not been opened, but the formula looked very wet and clung to the wand. The bristles are the more traditional plush variety, which I find slightly more difficult to work with (less precise) than the shorter synthetic ones.
My first application was just okay. Initial consistency can be weird on plenty of products. I like to give mascara a few weeks before calling in a verdict, as you’ll find it sometimes differs between its initial use and several uses in. I often find I like my favorite ones best after about the 4th use.
Four, five, six uses later – things weren’t getting better. This particular mascara is very, “wet,” in consistency and while it did not run on me once dry, my lashes stayed wet for an inordinately long time. I’m talking minutes, not seconds – and this is even just with one coat. I never pump my mascara, and yet the wet, runny mascara came out on the applicator wand in gobs. Even wiping the wand to remove excess, I still wound up with blobs of mascara on my lashes, clumping them together; I had to either get a lash comb or wipe the wand completely clean then run back through my lashes to remove the errant blobs. This consistency really calls for the shorter, firm-bristled synthetic brushes as opposed to the plush ones; it simply picks up too much product. And two coats? Yeah, I tried that once. I waited one minute in between coats (kind of silly), applied it, and then it just gummed up on itself and guess what? More clumps. Cute.
Unfortunately, this product also didn’t do much for my lashes in terms of volume, either. My lashes did appear more defined because this is a heavily pigmented, very black mascara. They didn’t enhance length other than just making my natural length more obvious. It doesn’t appear as though the natural waxes and, “carefully chosen,” powders did much for me.
It was at this point I looked into other reviews of this product – there are basically two kinds of reviews on it.
1. “OMGAW I LOVE IT! Best mascara EVERRRR!”
and
2. “This is really wet, comes out blobby, what the heck I can’t freaking use this.”
I guess I fall into the latter. I wanted to like this product, I was so hopeful that the formula would thicken or stabilize or something but nope. Several uses in, it is just as wet as the first use; I don’t have time to sit for minutes waiting for mascara to dry before I do anything else to my face or put on my glasses. I also just don’t have time for gimmicky mascaras, period.
I won’t be tossing it in the trash, but it will definitely be reserved for days where 1) I have time to sit waiting for it to dry so I don’t get mascara on my browbone from blinking and 2) I only want my lashes to appear darker, not much else. That said, I will not replenish when this runs out/dries up, either – at $20 a tube, Mally Volumizing Mascara is vastly overpriced for how it performs. I wanted to like it (hell, I WANT to like most mascaras!) but this just isn’t for me. there are many far superior drugstore options out there, let alone prestige.