Buxom Lash Mascara

Hi guys!

I've been trying to blog about some "boring" products; I love showing off things with color, but often it's the products we use everyday to build a look on that can really make or break it. So, bearing this in mind, I decided to show you Buxom Lash mascara! Mascara is one of my favorite products; if I have any makeup on my face, you can bet that I'm also wearing mascara. It's like insta-pretty! Unfortunately, it can also be one of the trickiest products. So many mascaras make claims they can't live up to, and then you have to worry about formulas that clump, smudge, flake, and/or look spidery. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, a lot of this has to do with one's own chemistry, so a mascara that may not smudge or flake on me might give you raccoon eyes, depending on your skin type and a bazillion other factors I can't begin to conceive of, seeing as how I am not a chemist. Likewise, some of you may like an emphasized but natural look, while others of you want va-va-va-voom mascara that lengthens, volumizes, curls, and darkens. I happen to fall into the latter camp, which makes finding a good mascara harder for me. I've fallen in love with a few mascaras that don't clump and stay put for days, but only darken, or only volumize, or only lengthen, instead of doing all of these things to make my lashes look over the top. Honestly, if I felt more comfortable with false eyelashes, I'd probably wear them every day. Until then, I'm hunting down the perfect mascara to give me a false-eyelashes effect.

Enter Buxom. I've heard rave reviews of this mascara; just hop on over to Sephora's website, and you can read about how much people love this product. I got a full size mascara in a free set as one of my Beauty Insider perks, and was thrilled, since I've been wanting to try it, but have had hit-or-miss experiences with Buxom and their parent company, Bare Escentuals. I have this mascara in Blackest Black, which I find to be a true black, and it will run you $18 for .37 ounces (on the generous side of average for mascaras, whose volume usually hovers around .3 ounces, give or take). While this mascara doesn't flake or smudge on me, it doesn't exactly bring the drama, either. It makes my lashes darker and lengthens/ curls just a tiny bit, but I see no volumizing  from this mascara. The formula is a little on the thin side, which some of you may prefer; it makes clumping less likely than with a waxy formula, and seems to dry fairly quickly. It washes off easily with a good face cleanser, requiring no extra eye makeup remover. The brush is a rubbery deal with spikes on it; it has an hourglass shape, which is supposed to catch all your eyelashes; personally, I find this shape hard to use. I can't tell you how many times I've poked myself in the eye with this applicator, and while I may be pretty klutzy (confirmed fact), I don't do this with other mascara wands. I think it's because of the bulbous tip; I try to get the narrow part up against the base of my eyelashes, and end up gouging my eyeball with the wide part. This might be great for some eye shapes, but not for mine.

Here is the tube itself; it's fatter than most mascara tubes! I guess because it's Buxom?

Buxom Lash!

The sticker at the bottom

Buxom! It's made by Bare Escentuals... I wonder how much this differs from the B.E. mascara?

Buxom with the wand out

Here's a close up of the wand. Look at those spikes!

 In the following picture, I applied mascara to only one eye (the left one, in these pictures). Sorry if I look really tired... Apparently just mascara and foundation is not a good look for me! I think you can tell from the pictures that the mascara definitely darkens and defines my lashes, without getting clumpy. However, I don't know that it volumizes at all, and any lengthening is negligible. There might be just a hint of curl... It's hard to say. I did not curl my lashes before putting on this mascara.

Close up of eye with Buxom mascara

Close up of eye with no mascara!

I am wearing Buxom Lash on my left eye, but not on the right

Once again, Buxom Lash on the left but not on the right. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

I'm giving this mascara a 7/10, because although it doesn't give me the dramatic lashes I look for, it doesn't smudge, flake, or clump, and this is a more reasonably priced high-end mascara. However, I do think that there are better mascaras out there that can be had for cheaper. If you want slightly emphasized lashes, though, this may be your perfect mascara; it's a dark black that will subtly enhance what you already have, even if it does not give you full, plush lashes. Currently, I'm using this under Dior's Dior Show Black out, and I love this combo; the Dior by itself clumps if I do more than one coat, and this on its own isn't quite enough for my taste. This being said, I wouldn't re-purchase this. It's just not what I'm looking for, and I don't want to have to buy two mascaras (totaling close to $50!) each time I need mascara. You may be wondering why I'd give this such a relatively high rating when it's not something I'd go back to; I think it is important to differentiate between a good product that isn't what I'm looking for, and a product that performs poorly overall. This is definitely the former; this performs well and is a good formula, even if it's not right for me personally.