Maybelline Falsies Big Eyes Mascara | Review

Big Eyes 1If you read this blog regularly then you may know that nothing gets my pulse racing quite like a new mascara (I know, I know – some call me an adrenaline junkie but I just won’t stop). Although I only recently re-purchased my beloved Benefit’s They’re Real (my review of which you can read here), a few new releases lately had piqued my interest. One was L’Oreal’s Miss Manga, which I was dangerously close to trying out until I saw the advert for Maybelline’s offering.

Maybelline Falsies Big Eyes claims to be quite the revolutionary piece of makeup, giving us “360 degrees of lash glam volume” with its double ended mascara wand. The idea is that our bottom lashes are different beasts to our top lashes, and so deserve a separate brush to properly catch each eyelash.

Big Eyes 4This was a concept I wholeheartedly supported; how many times have we poked ourselves viciously in the eye with a fat mascara wand as we attempt to delicately wiggle it down our bottom lashes? Too many, ladies, TOO MANY TIMES. I know Clinique has a special Bottom Lash Mascara but I for one can’t quite bring myself to spend £12 on a product that can only be used on half of my eye; so Maybelline offering 2 brushes in 1 product was much more up my street.

So, does it deliver on its grand problem-solving promises? The answer: ehhhh kinda.

Big Eyes 2Firstly we’ll talk about the Upper Lashes wand. It’s not my usual wand of choice, being a fibre brush whereas I’m much of a plastic fantastic kind of girl. It’s also one of those wands that has twists in it for what appears to be no good reason. I like the brushes to be quite straight and even so that I can work all the magic with my fancy hand wiggles and so on. Wands like this never really seem to catch my lashes where they’re supposed to, and can distribute product too unevenly.

And then there is my main bugbear with this mascara. The length of the wand itself. Just look at it. The decision to make the wand double ended and have the product in both the lids was, in my opinion, the wrong one. It means you have to manouvre all of the bulky packaging while applying the mascara, giving you much less control than when you have a longer wand to play with. It also might bash off your nose and lead to you smearing mascara over your cheek if you’re a bit, er, like me…

Big Eyes 3The Lower Lashes wand, however, IS really good for the job. A nice, simple brush, it’s got much smaller fibres to properly coat the finer hairs on the bottom. I’ll go as far as to put my lady balls on the line here and say that it’s better at catching the lower lashes than They’re Real – and that’s a big claim for me to make.

Big Eyes 7I think the results photo here shows perfectly my overall issue with the mascara. Bottom lashes = PERFECTO. Top lashes = PERFECT-NO (sorry, that was the best I could do). As you can see, the top wand just didn’t work for me and resulted in uneven distribution as well as my inner lashes being missed due to the cumbersome wand issue.

In terms of formula, I think the mascara does fairly well. It lasts nicely and doesn’t seem to smudge. It’s also a welcome change, after using the very wet and stubborn Lash Vegas and They’re Real recently, to have a mascara that actually comes off with a face wipe and doesn’t leave me looking like a panda until I’ve quadruple-cleansed.

Overall, my thoughts are that Maybelline are onto a winner in terms of concept, but didn’t quite get it right with the upper wand. I’m sure other people would be able to manouvre the upper brush much better than me, but personally I don’t think I’ll get much more use from it. The bottom lash wand is an absolute god send though, and I think I’ll continue to use this alongside my normal mascara to better complete my look.

Have any of you tried this mascara yet? What do you think?

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4 Responses

  1. Lauren January 26, 2014 / 7:27 pm

    I love their real, would take a really amazing mascara to tear me away from it. This has got your bottom lashes perfect but doesn’t seem worth it it for just the bottom
    Lauren
    livinginaboxx

    • Claire January 26, 2014 / 11:09 pm

      They’re Real has been my favourite mascara to date, but for some reason I’m not loving it AS much this time around – not sure if I’m just too used to it now and seeking amazement again 🙂 This one wasn’t the one to sway me though, but the bottom lashes did turn out well! xx

    • Claire January 26, 2014 / 11:09 pm

      It is a really good idea, just wish the top lashes brush was as good as the bottom 🙂 Let me know what you think of it though! xx

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