L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara: Lashes Fantastic!

Hi everybody,

How are you doing today? Lately, my makeup obsession is mascaras: only last week, I've bought two tubes of mascaras for the rainy days. Or so I thought. Once I purchased a tube of mascara, the temptation to open it is high. These mascara tubes just scream, "Open me! Let me out!" and I could not help myself, I had to open L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara. This is L'Oreal latest mascara which goes pretty much unadvertised as far as I'm aware (the one that gets more air time is Double Extend.)

L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagen mascara in Blackest Black (~$7 USD at Walmart)

The price of Extra-Volume Collagen (EVC for short) mascara flanks between the famous Voluminous (~$6USD) and Telescopic (~8USD). Although I love Voluminous very much, I am not very much into Telescopic since I need more volume than length for my lashes. Therefore, I was more than thrilled to see EVC on sale and guess what? It's by Voluminous, meaning it is a volumizing mascara but this time around, EVC provides "12 times more impact instantly." Say what? With all the mascara fervor boiling inside of me, I decided to nab one tube and proudly marched to the cashier (with a 2 dollar coupon.) Although my intention is to save it for a rainy day, I decided to try the EVC out the moment I get home. "12 times more impact" finally got into me, I guess.

The tube right out of the box*

First of all, what's up with L'Oreal to name this mascara "Extra-Volume Collagen"? It's such a mouth-full, don't you think? "Voluminous" and "Telescopic" are more memorable. If you want to go more than one word, "Lash Exact" or "Lash Stiletto" are also fine. But "Extra-Volume Collagen"? I feel like I were about to get a lip implant or something! The name does not sound very mascara-friendly.

The EVC tube is huge, which makes me think if L'Oreal decided to jump into the mascara big league of Cover Girl Lash Blast and Maybelline the Collosal Volum' Express. To answer my suspect, the mascara wand is as huge as the tube:

The mascara compared to my eye: it is almost as big as my eye!

The brush is indented at the middle which is kind of similar to that of Rimmel Sexy Lash mascara. However, it is not the plastic wand like that of LashBlast or Sexy Lash but the regular nylon one. It seems like L'Oreal took a step back on their mascara wands: Telescopic is the only one that has the plastic wand in L'Oreal mascara lineup. The wand, for three days, felt very awkward as it is really big for my eyes. Its claim is to grab each and every lash but since it is so big, there is not too much room for me to physically wiggle it around. After the third try, I finally got a hold of it and now EVC and I are buddies :)

Now, for the show and tell: let me get my pictures do the talking on how well this mascara works.

My bare nekkid lashes (boo!)
I decided to take all the pictures in this angle to show some lashes

After 1 coat of mascara, the lashes look darker but not really impressive

After 2 coats, see the difference? Lashes also start clumping a little bit.

After 3 coats, see the length and volume?

If you compare the last picture to the nekkid lash picture, you will notice some lashes did curl upward. During the whole process, I did not curl my lashes even one time. This is the unadvertised result and I am very excited. EVC claims to have no clumps, flakes, or smudges and I was determined to find out.

• No clumps: from the pictures, you can see lashes were not separated well, so this mascara does clump a little bit. However, it is not because of the material but of how this mascara is physically constructed. The opening where the wand comes in and out is bigger than usual and therefore, does not do a good job to remove excess mascara. After blotting out the excess material from the wand, this clumping issue was eliminated.
• No flakes: I wore it for 12 straight hours in very hot and humid condition. Before removing my eye makeup, I studied my lashes and saw no smudges. It is not even waterproof!
• No smudges: not even once did I see even a tiny hint of raccoon eyes during my 12hr testing period. This mascara is amazing!
  

Unlike other mascaras that require a certain period to thicken up, EVC is really thick right from the beginning. It holds the curls very well: after 12 hours, my lashes still zoom upward and I still look fresh. This does not happen that often, the two mascaras that did the same thing to me are Volum' Express and Cover Girl Professional volumizing mascara (~$4USD at Walmart, the cheapest mascara out there!) While Volum' Express smudges and Professional does not volumize that well, EVC seems to have it all: length, volume, and curl. What it does not have are (a) a catchier name, (b) a better design, and (c) a better wand. Other than that, I can't complain: this mascara is really high drama fabulous! Compared to Voluminous, ECV is a lot easier to remove with water and soap (or eye makeup remover.)

(*) explained: all the time when I opened the EVC, its black and shiny look reminds me of one thing: a pocket vibrator! There are some vibes out there that conceal as a lipstick or a mascara to get its owner out of embarassing searches at the airport. The EVC mascara seriously resembles one of those, I'm not kidding!

If you love a mascara that volumizes, lengthens, and curls your lashes, L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagen mascara is for you. If you love L'Oreal Voluminous, this one is definitely for you: it does fix the heaviness of Voluminous and adds some curls to your lashes. I think I can leave my lash curlers alone for a while.

That's all, folks! I hope you have a good day and as always, stay gorgeous!

Take care,
Your Makeup Blogger

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