I will post photos of my makeup collection soon, but before I start the monumental project of cleaning, sorting, and stressing over the photo-ready quality of my collection, I will share a secret with you: I love luxury makeup. I know, gag. Don’t we all. But really, the packaging, the quality, the ingredients, all of it gets me going at the luxury level. EXCEPT mascara. I have my Diorshow that I know and love, but I just think it is silly to spend $25+ on luxury mascaras when I have found a brand that not only performs on par, I actually prefer the mascaras.
Drumroll please….that brand is ALMAY. Yes, I said it, Almay mascaras are the best of the best. Let me tell you why.
- The pigment is fantastic, and the “Blackest Black” color option is right up there with the darkest of the luxury brands.
- I have sensitive eyes, and Almay has never once brought on the need for my eyedrops. Incredible.
- They don’t flake, smudge, or move during the day! With the exception of the Get Up And Grow mascara, which was phenomenal for my lashes but did weirdly travel to places it should never have gone under my eyes.
- They are super affordable – $8 I can do for my most beloved makeup product.
- This mascara WORKS. My favorite is the Triple Effect kind, which has the oddest brush, but this sucker is effective. It gives me the fullest, longest, darkest lashes – and I get complements all the time when I am wearing it! The wand is weird and takes some practice, but once you get used to it you won’t go back.
- I repurchase these mascaras over and over.
When I say repurchase, I don’t mean I’m on my second tube, I mean I have loved this mascara brand for the past 8 years. Repurchasing anything is hard to imagine for a makeup junkie (after all, the grass is always greener in the beauty world!) but I keep coming back to Almay. I cheat at least a few times a year and try the newest/greatest/most cult-favorite mascaras, and the performance either never lives up to the hype, or they flake/smudge/irritate my eyes, or they are perfectly fine but not worth the $25.
It’s not that I am saying luxe mascaras are bad – they aren’t, in fact I think many are amazing, I am just saying that Almay is as good or better. This happens so rarely in life, where
the cheaper option is actually superior, that I feel it is worth a call out. Thank you to the amazing Almay mascara chemists! I have never tried any other products in the Almay line, but if you have let me know what you think!
My current mascara collection:
From left to right: Almay Thickening, Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme, Make Up Forever Aqua Smoky Lash, Almay Triple Effect (my favorite!), Almay Intense I-Color for Blue Eyes, Diorshow Iconic
beauty in the big city 