Beauty Review: L’Oréal Paris Paradise Mascara

Hello again guys; it feels like a while since I’ve done a beauty related review. Over the past few months I’ve worn make up a bit less (or less make up, at least) however it definitely feels like time for a new review. There was so much hype surrounding this mascara on blogs, YouTube and simply in general that I felt like I just HAD to buy it. The mascara that I’m reviewing today is the L’Oréal Paris Paradise Extatic Mascara in the shade 01 Black. Priced at £11.99, it is a more expensive drugstore mascara however the packaging does also match that; with a rose gold cardboard outer that reminds me a lot of Benefit packaging, this mascara is definitely marketed and aiming for the drugstore high-end and it does look absolutely lovely. The actual mascara packaging is just as nice as the cardboard outer with the main body in a matte rose gold and the lid is a shiny rose gold with constrasting white typeface across the main body with the mascara name. At first glance, I wouldn’t have guessed that this was a L’Oréal product, visually it is very different to their other mascara ranges, a couple of which are shown in my photographs below. As much as I love the packaging, I do feel like this is a lot of money to drop on a mascara, but as I wear mascara more or less everyday I guess that isn’t too much but it is more than I would usually spend, to be honest.

One of the reasons why I was so excited to try out this mascara is that it has been constantly compared to the Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara, which is a product that I’ve personally never tried but have always wanted to. I did have some reservations as generally I do prefer plastic bristles on a mascara wand and this mascara has a soft fibred wand which I do find harder to work with but that said, I do have naturally full, long lashes so any wand does the job for me. The outer packaging boasts that this mascara gives Intense Volume and Spectacular, Long Lashes as well as being a Pleasure to Apply. Basically, a lot to live up to as all of those things sound pretty desirable. Personally, I like my lashes to look very full, separated and long; I love it when a mascara is visibly on my lashes and very dark black to stand out against my green eyes.

The wand is a fairly unusual shape; a curved hourglass shape, it is larger at the top and bottom and thinner in the centre so should be great at opening up the eye shape and lengthening the edges. Below it is the mascara wand on the left side, the centre mascara is Maybelline Lash Sensational and the mascara to the right is Maybelline The Colossal Big Shot, pictured together to demonstrate the clear differences in mascara wand shape, size and material. Personally I’ve found that plastic bristles grip to my lashes better than fiber bristles, but I can work with either kind if I have to. I was a little disappointed that the wand on the L’Oréal Paris Paradise Extatic Mascara is fiber as I was expecting a plastic wand (not sure why I thought that...) but I’m dreaming of long, full lashes with this mascara regardless of the less preferred style of wand. Generally, I am quite a messy applier of mascara and this wand is pretty thick, so unfortunately I’m expecting a very messy look with this mascara; I’m terrible for having an unsteady hand whenever I apply mascara, oops. I’m hoping that this mascara won’t be a regret as I do feel like I was drawn to buy it due to all of the hype that surrounded it, but I’m planning to try it out everyday for a week with a number of different base looks to give it a fair chance as although already I’m having some reservations, I do want to be impartial to start with. Plus, the packaging is stunning so there is that to be positive about!

The formula is very thick, which I like in any mascara as that helps create a fuller look when on the lashes. However, it’s also a very dry formula which makes it difficult to work with; once it’s on the lashes that’s it. It doesn’t budge. In theory, that could be great, but for me that is an absolute nightmare because as I explained previously, I’m a very messy mascara applier; I need time to work the mascara into my lashes to achieve the shape that I like (long, full and separated; basically real lashes that look fake) and with this formulation that was impossible. The shape of the wand was actually pretty nice, I just wish that it was a plastic bristled brush as I feel like I could’ve worked with the mascara much better that way but obviously this was never going to be my favourite mascara because over the course of a week, I felt like chucking this mascara in the bin. As I’ve said, the mascara doesn’t budge once it’s on the lashes; it literally doesn’t budge to the point that it’s so hard to take off at the end of the day it hurts. I felt like I was pulling out my lashes each day, which is a definite dislike for me. This isn’t even the waterproof version, it’s the standard one! It looked nice on my bottom lashes but on the top... They just looked short and stubby, clinging to each other and overall I’m just not a fan. It’s not the worst mascara in the world, but it’s definitely one that I’ll never be reaching for ever again. 

The packaging is simply beautiful, but that’s not enough to make me want to give this mascara another chance. I hate the formula and the way that it makes my eyelashes look; for £11.99 I was expecting it to be so much better. In all honesty, I’ve used £3.99 mascaras with better results so I’m super frustrated with what I’ve spent for what I’ve got. In fairness, I do prefer plastic bristles so that may be one of the reasons why I hated this mascara so much as the fibers didn’t seem to grip my lashes fully, but at the same time I do love some other mascaras such as the Maybelline The Colossal Big Shot and that has a fiber brush so perhaps it’s more an issue with the dryness of the formula. I definitely won’t be using or buying the L’Oréal Paris Paradise Extatic Mascara again and that’s a bit of a shock for me as usually I love L’Oréal products so I’m genuinely really disappointed as it was more than I would usually spend on a drugstore item. I also hated how difficult it was to take off when needed; my lashes actually hurt so much after scrubbing at them with micellar water, make up wipes... Not impressed. I’d give this mascara a 2 out of 5 simply because the shape of the wand was nice and the packaging is lovely, but the price is too much for the quality. Let me know your thoughts on this mascara in the comments!

My Foundation Collection

Hello again; over the past few months I've spoken about my mascara collection, perfume collection and now I felt like it was a good time to show you all my foundation collection. My skin tone is very pale, with a lot of pinky undertones and so I'm often struggling to find a foundation that suits my skin as I've found that the majority of pale foundations are yellow toned, which I'm aware does suit some people and this is why I have so many different foundations. As I spend more or less every month on a budget, all of my foundations are drugstore foundations and for me that's absolutely fine; the higher the price doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of the product is higher after all. Generally, year round I'm always the absolute palest shade of foundation that you can possibly buy but it can be hard to find a foundation for everyday; a lot of the foundations that I have are full coverage as I tend to go foundation free unless it's for an important event.

 

To make it a little easier to see what foundations I own, I've put them into catagories through their brands. The two foundations shown in the first photograph are the L'Oréal Paris Infallible 24hr Foundation and the L'Oréal Paris Infallible Total Cover Foundation. The 24hr hour version is priced at £10.99 and is my favourite foundation by far out of my collection. It's in the shade Porcelain and it has a lovely pinky tone to it so it's an excellent match for my skin tone. It's easy to apply with its pumped lid squeezed onto a blending sponge and it does provide excellent coverage without looking cakey. It's fairly pricey for a drugstore foundation but I've found it to be worth every penny. In contrast, the Total Cover version is one of my least favourite foundations in my collection. Priced at £9.99, it's cheaper than the 24hr version but still fairly expensive when compared to some of the other foundations available in the drugstore. I've found this foundation to be incredibly oily, it's also in the shade Porcelain and is the same pinky tone so in theory I should love it. The main issue is that my skin is very dry so the oily texture of this foundation seems to simply slide off of my skin, even when used over a primer. However, the other issue is that the squeezy tube style packaging makes it difficult to apply lightly as it's very easy to use far too much. What I do like about this foundation is that it's probably the most full coverage foundation I've ever used and it eliminates literally every flaw but it doesn't last as well as I'd like, sliding off and becoming cakey extremely quickly.

 

The next brand focus is Maybelline and I own countless base products by them; my absolute favourite product is the Matte Maker pressed powder and I use it complete my base every single time. Since I found this powder I've never needed to discover another and for the pocket friendly price of £3.99 it's one that I feel like I'll be using forever; it's the perfect pale (ghostly) ivory shade for me too! I feel like everyone remembers the Dream Matte Mousse foundation as that was literally my first ever step into the make up world in my teenage years. It's such a low coverage, cakey and slimy foundation that for £7.99 it's actually a bit of a joke, plus the ivory shade is literally orange on me, but as I found it I thought I'd include it in this post. Actually, I've found that all of the foundations that I own by Maybelline are very orange on my skin considering they're all in the palest shade which is ivory. The Dream Satin Liquid is a reasonably priced product at £7.99 and is a foundation that I really wish I could love; the pump style lid is super easily to apply and it's medium coverage, however the word liquid is the best way to describe it as it's very runny and comes through quite streaky on the skin, which is a massive shame as it's so affordable.

The last two products in the image above are creams, which is why I'm going to compare them together. The first is the Maybelline Dream Fresh 8-in-1 BB Cream which at £7.99 is both extremely affordable but also great for everyday makeup; in the shade Light it's a little dark for my skin tone, but again I feel like that's the slight orange/yellow tone of the product. The texture is ok, it's not oily but it's quite runny so it's easy to use too much product because of the squeezy tube design of the packaging. The second is the Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream which is fairly expensively priced at £9.99 for a drugstore product, but it's my absolute go to for everyday make up looks; it has excellent coverage but doesn't look or feel heavy on the skin and the shade ivory is a great colour match for pale skin with pink tones in it. The squeezy tube packaging still isn't my favourite, but it's thinned out nip style end does limit the amount of product that squeezes out so I rarely use too much with this. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone with pale skin that's looking for an alternative to foundation.

 

The final part of my foundation collection is from the brand Rimmel. I own so many foundations by that brand because it was the first brand that I found had great shades for pale skin. I purchased the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation because I love the concealer from the same range, but unfortunately the shade True Ivory is definitely too dark for me, which is so annoying as it's great coverage and doesn't feel sticky or cakey on the skin at all. It's definitely more of a yellow or orange toned foundation but I do like the pump lid design of the packaging. If I'd bought the correct shade I'd like it much more I think as it's good value for money at £8.99. My favourite out of the foundations by Rimmel is the Lasting Finish 25hr Wear foundation; I actually own three of them, two of them are the full coverage version (with a red lid) in the shades Light Porcelain and Ivory and the other one is the medium coverage version (with a white lid) in the shade Nude. Priced at £7.99, it's such an affordable choice for anyone who shops on a budget. The only one that truly fits my skin tone is the Light Porcelain but all of them are nicely pink toned, but two of the shades are too dark, the Nude in particular is far too dark for me, there's the most obvious line against my neck, regardless of how much I blend. All of them have a pump lid, which as you'll have guessed by now is my favourite style of packaging and both of the coverages have a great consistency but overall I do prefer the full coverage but that also may be because of the matching shade to my actual skin tone. 

Lastly, I own two BB Creams and both of them are the 9-in-1 Skin Perfecting Matte BB Cream in the shades Very Light and Light. They're essentially the same product in two different shades; both of them work well but ultimately the Very Light version suits my natural skin tone better, but the Light shade is still a reasonably pale shade. Priced at £6.99, it's a super affordable choice in terms of creams and foundations, but what I would say is once again, the squeezy tube design of the packaging does make it difficult to limit how much product that come out. It feels like I'm forever using far too much without meaning to, which is annoying at times. Overall, all of these brands and foundations are great, but it's dependant one what you want to use them for; for me personally I like to have a very pale foundation that will cover my skin all day without needing to reapply it, which is why I prefer the L'Oréal Paris Infallible 24hr and the Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream as they both manage to do both of those things well and no one wants to look like an Oompa Loompa after all! Until next time :)