IPSY, December 2014: Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes 4 in 1 Mascara in Black

Hi!

In today's blog I am going to be reviewing products that I received in my beauty subscription service called IPSY for December 2014. IPSY is a beauty subscription service that costs $10.00 a month or I think if you purchase all 12 months at the same time you get one month free. Unfortunately, since this service is so coveted, they usually have waitlists. I was on the waitlist for at least a month or month and a half before I had the opportunity to bypass the waitlist if I allowed IPSY to post on my facebook and I subscribed to a bunch of youtube videos. I was glad to do it to get off the list. You get decent sized products and I have always received at least 5 products in my bags. IPSY does have a beauty quiz that you take and you can review products that is supposed to help customize your bag, but I guess doing it for 4 months wasn't enough for it to get customized or they don't pay attention to the beauty quiz. I eventually cancelled my service because they were sending me a hand lotion, a face product, and a hair product in one bag and then two items may or may not be what I wanted to actually try.  I did not request any of those products on my quiz. It was really disappointing. I also have specific needs when it comes to eyes my mascaras and eye liners have to be waterproof otherwise it causes a lot of problems.

In this blog I am going to be reviewing Tarte Cosmetics Lights, Camera, Lashes 4 in 1 Mascara in Black. It looks black to me, but the packaging doesn't actually say. I was super excited that I got lucky enough to get a Tarte product to try in my bag! I felt special, lol. My excitement lasted only a moment until I realized that this product doesn't specify waterproof which means I probably will not be able to actually use this product, but I am still excited to try it out. I am just thankful I get to try out a Tarte product. Tarte is out of my price range and I'm a pretty big MAC fan so I will splurge on MAC products as I need to but mostly I try to go for the cheap stuff when I can. I know I'm a dork, but I am really happy to be trying out a Tarte product.

IPSY does not have descriptions or prices of products.

Rating:

Price: 9/10
Packaging: 10/10
Amount of product: 10/10
Longevity: 10/10
Application: 10/10
Pigment: 10/10
Formula: 9/10
Eye lash fallout/breakage: 10/10
Wand: 10/10
Volumizing/lengthening: 8/10
Smell: 10/10
Overall rating: 9/10
Would I purchase: 9/10
Total rating: 124/130=95.38%=95.4%=A

My personal rating: 9/10=90%=A

Comments:
Oh my... they made a limited edition of this product in waterproof! I would love to buy the heck out of that. I would have loved to get that version of this product to try. According to the official Tarte Cosmetics website this mascara is only $21.00 that is actually not bad. I was expecting $30.00 plus for it. I'm pretty sure my MAC Splashproof mascara that doesn't exist anymore was around that price. So that's actually not bad. The packaging is purple on the outside and has writing in gold. It has a design on it. I think it look super cute! I think that you get a decent amount of product for the price. This product does not claim to be waterproof/splashproof, but I have had it in my eyes while I have been writing this and I have not had an issue with the product leaking into my eyes which is a good start! I think it is a bit on the long-wearing side. Definitely a lot more than my usual drugstore brands that last about a half hour before deciding to leak into my eyes causing problems. The application is super easy. I barely had to touch the mascara wand to my lashes and the product was going on. The product went on smooth and even. The product and wand naturally wanted to grip my lashes to apply product. It was actually really cool how it felt that it did that. Even though the product goes on and the pigment is nice, I feel that it does need a couple of coats for the pigment to really show up to it's full potential. But if you apply a first layer and then wait a few minutes to let it dry, the second application is even easier. The pigment and the volume are definitely buildable with a few layers. The pigment and length is the first thing I noticed. The formula/texture of the formula feels wet and slick, but not oily, but slick enough to be able to slide the product on the eye lashes easily. The good kind of slick. The product stays on the lashes even with the second coat applied. I can usually tell a bad mascara fairly quickly because I have used some mascaras that literally caused breakage and fallout of my eye lashes after the product dried on my eye lashes. I was horrified. The formula was so stiff and dry and I will admit that I have weak eye lashes and the combination is not good! But this mascara does not do that with my sensitive eye lashes, YAY! As you apply multiple coats for volume the product starts feeling a bit heavy on the eye lashes, a little bit heavier than I'm used to or would like, but it's not terrible. I've experienced worse. I will be 100% honest with you when I say that I have never loved a mascara wand as much as I love this one. I don't know what they did with it, but I wish I could give it a 50/10 because I love it that much. There are a ton of bristles that are compact, but work so well with my eye lashes. I don't know if this is a feature or just my eye lashes, but this wand literally seems to grab and hold my eye lashes as I apply the product like it wants to go on my eye lashes. I have never had a wand work so well with my lashes before. I am beyond amazed! lol. The wand is big enough to apply mascara to my top lashes, yet small enough to apply on my lower lashes. I don't even know how to begin to describe the experience. Wow! I will admit that this wand works better with my top lashes than my lower, but I have seriously never experienced something this wonderful with mascara before. It's nice. I think that this product does a good job lengthening my eye lashes, and that it does lengthening better than volumizing. Adding layers does help the volume, but it's not like anything shocking or outstanding. It does a decent job. I noticed and was happy when I saw the mascara lengthening my eye lashes. It's a subtle length, it's not anything overpowering or terribly noticeable, but I can tell that it did lengthen a bit. I usually don't do smell for mascara, but this mascara has a fairly strong smell to it that I have to comment and rate it. This mascara to me smells like alcohol and soap. It's kind of citrus and it's kind of sweet. In the packaging you can smell it, but once applied to the eye lashes I can't smell it. It's not a strong offensive or overpowering smell, but it does have a noticeable scent. I am not going to say that this is the best mascara I have ever used, because quite frankly it does fall a bit short of the hype of Tarte cosmetics, but the wand is out of this world. Wow! It's worth it to buy this product just for the wand, lol. I think the formula could be a bit better and deliver what it promises, but now that I know my MAC Splashproof mascara has been discontinued, and the price of this product is similar to the MAC, and this Tarte mascara does come with a waterproof option, I would definitely buy this product and use it. I hope it comes with the same wand! I will be purchasing this product in waterproof to test it out and I may have found my new go to mascara! Thank you IPSY =-)

I absolutely adore and love the wand of this product!

Sincerely,
Marina