Review: Make Up For Ever Smoky Extravagant Mascara

My readers may be surprised to know that I have a Sephora Beauty Insider card. I don’t use it much since I only buy from Sephora when I go to the US, but it allows me to get a Sephora birthday gift. This past year, I was able to pick one up since I went to the US right after my birthday.

This year’s Sephora birthday gift was a collection of 3 mini items from Make Up For Ever. This is a review of one of them, the Make Up For Ever Smoky Extravagant Mascara.

What it does: (from the Sephora website)
This clump-free mascara delivers long-lasting wear in one stroke. Using 4D technology, an exclusive microdefining wax complex envelopes the lash surface in ultrablack pigments for far-away impact and up-close precision. The dual-purpose, cone-shaped brush has a precision tip that separates lashes as the rounded base creates extravagant volume from any distance.

Price: $24. Sephora also sells the travel size (which I assume is the same as the one I have) for $12

Brush: This product has a traditional bristle brush in a conical shape,with a very tapered tip. I assume the full size version has a similar brush.

Availability: Make Up For Ever is available at Sephora st ores and Sephora online. The brand is also available in China, Korea, Japan and France.

Pros:

This product gave me very volumized lashes
The brush helped to fan out my outer lashes, giving me a slight cat-eye effect.

Cons:

This mascara smudged under my eyes after a few hours, giving me a black shadow of pigment which had to be removed with makeup remover

Would I repurchase? No. Mascara smudges are a deal-breaker for me, even though I liked how the product made my eyelashes look.

Wow, for the past 5 mascaras that I’ve reviewed, I didn’t like any of them, all because of smudging!

In general, it seems that I do not like high end mascaras very much. It is not that I have anything against them, but with all the great drugstore mascaras available, I feel that the value for money isn’t there!

Instead of this mascara, I recommend:

L’Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes (link goes to my review)

Maybelline the Colossal Volum Express Mascara (link goes to my review)

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K