Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara Review

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara | $20.00 Sephora | £19.50 QVC

Last Saturday I talked about the L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara and this Saturday it's the Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara. Who knew I was such a mascara fiend?!

Mascara isn't something that massively excites me all that often - I got this little small size in a set of Tarte products that I bought when I was in Florida at Christmas and I definitely wouldn't have made the effort to pick it up on its own, but once I finish up a few of my mascaras that I'm currently trying to get rid of, I'll definitely be replacing this - though the fact the Sephora price is so much cheaper thanks to the conversion makes me think I'll use it as an excuse to place my first Sephora order to be shipped to the UK (along with some more of the amazing brushes I fell in love with when I was over last time!)

Whilst the L'Oreal mascara gives defined individual lashes with a lot of length this one brings volume to the table as well, without compromising on the length. According to the Sephora website this claims to volumize your lashed by 424%, I don't know if I'd go that far but it definitely adds it by the bucketload. It also claims to condition lashes, but I'm trying to use up a few mascaras at the moment so I'm switching between them and can't comment on the long term effects of that. I'm fairly lucky in that my eyelashes are already fairly curly so I also can't massively comment on the curl power of this bad boy, but if it delivers the way the lengthening and volumizing promises do then you won't be disappointed.

This mascara feels so light on the lashes, no matter how much I build it up it never gets dry or flakey or crumbly, it feels like there's nothing on my lashes, and it never smudges. I'm not a massive fan of the snakeskin purple packaging, but it's what's inside that counts and what's inside delivers, so I'll forgive the tacky snakeskin print.

All round, discounting packaging, this baby is a 10/10!

L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara Review

L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara

Now, here's the thing. This mascara isn't online. Not on boots.com or on Feel Unique, it does appear on the L'Oreal website but you can't actually shop from their own site?! And for about two years I could never find it in a store, so I'm not sure what's going on there. When I saw this in Boots recently I swooped in and grabbed it, unsure if I was dreaming or if this was actually reality - which it thankfully seems to be.

If you see this mascara in a store, grab it. That's the L'Oreal telescopic in the gold tube, not the silver. Whether it was discontinued and has only just been brought back, whether there's just been a strange shortage of it for a few years or whether it's back for good I'm not taking the risk and I'm prepared to stock up.

In case you can't tell I love this mascara. I grabbed it at the airport way, way back in 2010 and have been repurchasing since then - not many products can claim that in my collection - until the official drought of 2011-mid 2014 happened. It was a harrowing and heart breaking time which saw me only really buying high end mascaras as nothing else really satisfied me. But now it's back!

During the drought I did try the L'Oreal Telescopic False Lash Effect (the silver tube), hoping it would be the same, and boy did it fall short. It was clumpy, did absolutely nothing for the length of my lashes and smudged about under the eyes within a few minutes of application. Just not for me.

Why when they're from a similar range they're so different I don't know, but this one just ticks all the right boxes for me. It adds a good amount of length without being too much for day time, as seen in the above pictures, but you can also layer it up for a more dramatic look on a night out. And no matter how much I layer this mascara up it always seems to manage to not clump. You know that 'I may have really long lashes but I actually only have 3 of them' look? Yeah, you don't get that with this little wonder tube. In terms of lasting power it stays all day with no smudging under the eyes (a serious rarity) but it still comes off reasonably easily, the majority comes off with my cleansing balm and then I'll go in with a tiny bit of eye make up remover on a cotton pad to remove the rest. And it just comes off, no tugging or pulling required.

So, all in all? I'm back in love with this mascara and I have my fingers firmly crossed that it's here to stay this time!