When is Mascara Worth $22?

When it works!

Imju Fiberwig

$22.00 Retail

(Click picture for a clearer view of the fibers)

This product delivers as promises! I am on my second tube and let me tell you, the technology is amazing and is exactly what us lash anorexic girls have been praying for! They don't call it "paint on false lashes" for nothing. That's really what you're doing. Coat after coat, you can build and lengthen your lashes to your heart's content. For length, I just apply using the very tip of the wand and lightly stroke the tips of my lashes. You can actually see the fibers grabbing on and becoming one with the lash. It's crazy! This mascara hardly clumps on me despite the multiple layers I apply.  The mascara wand is not much different than your average wand, maybe just a tad chubbier so the results of the product is all in the formula.

I highly recommend using this product with Shu Uemura curler for highest impact. My one suggestion for this product is to open the tube, let the formula become oxygenated, then let it sit unused for a few weeks. I find that brand new, the formula is much too wet and does nothing but mutate what few lashes I do have into four extra saturated lashes. So not the look I go for. When I first tried it, I was ho hum about it and just set it aside. Mind you, I didn't feel it worked, but couldn't deal with trashing a brand new $22 tube of mascara (as if letting it rot first, then trashing it is better!). Then one day, I was out of mascara and reached for it just to tide me over until I could get another tube of my old time favorite the OG L'Oreal's Voluminous and lo and behold it was like a totally different mascara. It seems the older the tube, the better the formula works. Like fine wine, its better aged!

Here's before:

Here's after:

What a difference, huh? Also, using a primer doesn't make much of a difference. Can you tell which side has been primed?  Another great element to this product is that although it boasts staying power through sweat, tears, and rain it comes off easily when you want it to. Just apply warm water and gently rub your lashes between your finger tips. The product comes off like creepy spider legs. No raccoon eyes, no gray water streaks. Easy on, easy off! 

You can find Fiberwig at Sephora or Planet Beauty. Yes, $22.00 is pretty steep but I save this mascara for special occasions and since an aged tube is better for me, I don't really mind letting it sit there for a while without use. So if your lashes are like mine, skinny and mini, I do recommend splurging and trying it out just once or check it out at Sephora before you buy. You won't regret it! Just remember what I said about a brand new tube!

Lash Lineup!

Here you have it. Sephora's line up of its usual lash enhancing suspects. This time around is bigger and better! For $35 you get a gang of 10 of Sephora's best selling mascaras. Get yours while you can! I was too late for the last set but its not happening again! 

Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster!

If you're not a Sephora Beauty Insider, time to join the party because you're missing out on some great perks, like pre-launched items! Check out the above Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster Collector's Edition! Inside, is 84 shadows, 60 glosses, 6 blushes, plus powders and liners.  This collection is 40% bigger than last year's and is selling for the same price of $48.00! Don't forget, Free Shipping on purchases totaling $50.00 or more and your free samples! 

As a Beauty Insider, you get exclusive first dibs this week before the collection launches to the general pop!  Otherwise, you're just gonna have to wait and run the risk of it selling out! Sign up today and never miss out again!

bareMinerals Free 10 Day Supply!

My absolute swear by it, can't live without it foundation brand, Bare Escentuals bareMinerals is offering a free 10 Day mega sample of any shade plus a free baby Kabuki brush through Sephora!  You can add it to any order of bareMinerals you make online (free shipping on orders over $50.00!) by entering promo code: myshade or pick it up free at any Sephora store.

Honorable Mention: Instyle.com

Sephora vs. Ulta

"Like a kid in a candy store!" is the cliche which comes immediately to mind if asked how I feel upon crossing a Sephora threshold.  With a beauty rep acting as my cosmetic Willy Wonka, we stroll gaily through an array of powders, creams, and liquids promising to transform me from a much more dull, boring self to a more vibrantly enhanced version of me. Their shelves glimmer, sparkle, shimmer with promises, hopes, and dreams stored in cleverly packaged tubs, jars, and tubes. Sephora is pretty much like a Sally's or Planet Beauty beefed up on steroids and has been my one-stop-shop beauty store. Our relationship was briefly threatened when Ulta was introduced to my area of Orange County.  After visiting the store a couple of times though, I wasn't won over.

The main difference between the two make up meccas is while Sephora specializes in offering exclusive higher end products of a little over 200 brands such as Chanel, Benefit, and Nars, Ulta comes in boasting over 10,000 products from more than 400 brands.  A majority of products offered at Ulta are drugstore brands such as L'Oreal, Revlon, and Cover Girl but without the wallet friendly prices. Of the 26 products in common, the most notable brands are Bare Minerals, Stila, and Smashbox to name a few.  

Also, both stores offer their own namesake beauty line and I have sampled products from both.  Thumbs up for the Sephora brand. Their products can keep up with the best of them. However, the same can not be said of the Ulta brand.  Once upon a time, I bought a train case packed full of a variety of different products from nail polish to lip stick to blushes to eye shadows. Within a couple days I trashed the brushes without a second thought.  I have used brushes with synthetic bristles before, but the Ulta brand brushes were extremely stiff and plastic-y.  Kind of like you're using those fiber optic light toys to apply make up. Ugh! I shudder at the mere remembrance of the feel! The products are comparable to NYX products though and the train case is awesome, I still use it today.

At Sephora it seems that the reps are a lot more knowledgeable in make up product purpose and application technique. However, it may be hard to get all the specifics on a certain brand unless a specialist of that brand is in attendance the day you decide to visit. Ulta reps are more like cashiers than beauty experts.  Most of their knowledge may be based upon their own personal experience. Or maybe it's just the ones I have come across because I recall on one occasion I asked an Ulta rep for a product suggestion and was referred to a competitor without a single suggestion of a product carried at Ulta. 

Of course, the above is just one make up addict's opinion. Either way, it's still fun to peruse the aisles and look for one off sales or deals that justify the purchase of yet another tube of lipstick so don't take my opinion to heart. Check them both out for yourself and let me know what you think!