Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Review (and...swatches?)

Maybelline Great Lash was probably one of the first mascaras that I used, back in 7th or 8th grade when I started wearing makeup. But even though the pink and green packaging is the cutest thing ever, I eventually realized that I really was not a fan of the actual product. The formula was always kinda wet and clumpy for me, and it just made my lashes look spidery. So when Maybelline came out with the new Great Lashes Lots of Lashes mascara, I wasn't sure if I wanted to give the product a second chance.

Eventually I was tempted with a $1 off coupon that kept popping up in my Facebook ads, and I picked up the Maybelline Great Lash mascara in Blackest Black. The packaging is as cute as ever, and I really liked the heart-shape theme that was carried throughout this product (there are hearts on the packaging and the brush is described as "heart-shaped"). Also, the fact that the acronym for the product name is "LOL"...my inner geek thinks that's hilarious and actually really adorable.

Bare lashes without mascara

Lashes with one coat of Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara

The actual product is...ok. I like to build my mascara gradually but if you apply more than a few coats of this it can get pretty clumpy. I also prefer thicker, drier mascara formulas, and Great Lash can be rather watery. I like how it looks on my bottom lashes, but it didn't impress me on the top lashes. I actually do like the brush, although you have to turn your hand around to do your other eye in order to get the same effect, which is something I don't normally do. I'm currently carrying this mascara in my makeup bag for touch-ups during the day and I do use it, but it won't be replacing CoverGirl's LashBlast as my favorite mascara. It's not bad, but I wasn't blown away by it, either.

Rating: 3/5
I like it better than the original Great Lash mascara, but I didn't like the original very much in the first place, so that's not saying much. The brush is pretty neat and if you prefer wetter formulas, maybe give this a try!

Urban Decay on HauteLook! - Haul and Swatches

Much to my excitement, my order from HauteLook was dropped off just as I was cutting myself and my sister a slice of cake. Cake and new makeup? Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

Everything I ordered was priced at $2, and with shipping the total came to about $21 for eight items. I got five of the loose pigments in Shag, Goddess, Graffiti, Gunmetal, and Smog. These are all available on the Urban Decay website for $20 for .04 oz/1.2 grams, although some of the boxes that mine came in said .03 oz/1.0 grams, and some said .04 oz/1.2 grams. Either way, since I only paid $2 for each, I'm not really too concerned about .2 grams. I also got the Smoke Out Eye Pencil in Maui Wowie, which is a discontinued item but is still available on the UD website for $6 - the original price being $14. I picked up the matte eyeshadow in Chronic, which is $17 for .05 oz on the UD website; it can also be found on the Sephora website packaged with Sin as a set, which is discounted to $10 from the original $34. Finally, I got the Big Fatty Mascara in Electric Blue - I've always wanted to experiment with bright mascaras but I wasn't convinced it would look good on me, so I didn't want to shell out a lot of money for one, but $2 seemed like a fantastic price. Anyway, these normally go for $17 for .26 oz both on the UD website and from Sephora.

In other words, getting each item for $2 is definitely the best price I could possibly have expected to pay for them. Sure, none of the items are necessarily Urban Decay's hugely popular cult classics, but they're still the same products that someone else must have paid full price for. The only product I'm slightly disappointed in would be the loose eyeshadows - I swatched them quickly over my arm without primer, but they didn't show up as nicely as I would have liked. For $2 I still consider them a steal and I would buy more colors if they showed up again for the same price, but I'm not at all convinced that they would be worth the full $20. The matte eyeshadow was very pigmented and the packaging was cute, and I think the blue mascara is one of the most entertaining things I've ever gotten a chance to experiment with. I literally cannot resist putting it on my lashes! And I haven't tested the eye pencil too much yet, but from swatching it on my hand it seems like it would be a nice neutral color for my skintone. Honestly I'm not sure how helpful the little smudger end would be, but if you're into that I guess it's a nice addition.

(I have a few more pictures to upload tomorrow, so I might head over to Starbucks later in the day to get those done - I'm so sleepy tonight that I can't even be bothered to watermark the pictures I'm putting up tonight. Also, I didn't swatch Smog because I have the same color in a bunch of palettes so I gave it to my mom.)

To be completely honest, the price that I got these for pretty much cancels out any negativity I feel towards the products - but had I paid full price, I'm not so sure I would be saying the same thing.

XOXO, Ally