Thanks to everyone who read my last review on the Schick Quattro razor! Although I got a good tongue lashing from Lefty for posting a review, I was encouraged by the outpouring of support from many of the Beauty Brains community. So here’s another quicky glimpse inside my bathroom cabinet.

Warning: Do not read this if semi-banal product reviews turn you off. There’s another post on the page you can read instead. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.

Maybelline Lash Stilletto Mascara

I love this product, especially the cutesy packaging. (It’s shaped like a high heel and, surprisingly, it stands up very nicely on my dressing table.) I like the way it distributes evenly when I put it on. It splits my lashes really uniformly – some mascaras make the middle lashes look one way and the lashes on the outside look differently. This one is very consistent. I think the secret is the applicator. It seems to take a very small amount of product to do the job. The wand looks like it hardly has anything on it at all.

But by far the best feature is how it thickens and lengthens without out clumping. With so many mascaras I’ve tried  that’s the trade off – I can get thickness but at the cost of a clumpy look. This one gives me the best of both worlds, and I adore it for that.

The only thing I didn’t care for is the slight base odor of the product. I can actually smell it for about 10 minutes or so after I put it on and that bugs me. But once that wears off, it’s just fine.

Does your mascara force you to make compromises? Leave a comment and share your gripes with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Beauty Bug is bugged: The Beauty Bug got into a mascara conversation with the Store Director of Sephora who said that all/most drug store formulations contained tar which makes your lashes fall out. Is this true?

The Left Brain responds:

We love these stories about how salon/specialty store products like Blinc and Darphin use safer chemicals than mass market products. If you compare the ingredients you’ll see that many of these brands use similar, if not identical, ingredients.

So how did this rumor about tar in mascara get started? It could be because “coal tar” dyes have been used in permanent hair colors. But these chemicals are not approved for mascara.

So you can rest assured that Revlon, Covergirl and the other drug store brands do not contain tar that will make your lashes fall out. Thinks about it – MILLIONS of women use these products. If they did make your lashes fall out, our cities would be filled with bald-eyed women!

By the way, if you’re interested in learning more, read our post on how mascara works.

Remember back when the Beauty Brains told you about a company developing a legitimate product for improving eyelash growth?  Well, that product is one step closer to reality, now that the FDA has confirmed a bimatoprost derivative appears to increase eyelash length and thickness. (You can read the entire 108 page report here).

Eyelash Growth Proof

In the study cited by the FDA, 78% of people showed an improvement versus 18% of people using a placebo control.  Also, only 4 subjects in the 278 person trial reported eye problems.  This is the kind of evidence that was lacking with the Jan Marini Eyelash product.  The fact that bimatoprost was a patented ingredient by Allergan also had something to do with Jan Marini’s troubles.

When Can you get Latisse?

Allergan still has some hoops to jump through, but once a panel of independent medical experts vote on the new product, it’s as good as approved.  Since it is a drug, the product, called Latisse, will only be available through prescription.  That should be sometime during 2009.

-Mid Brain

What have you used to make your eyelashes longer?  Leave a comment and let the Beauty Brains community know.

Rebecca’s contact concern: I read at Consumer Reports.org that contact lens wearers should not use lash-extending mascaras because they contain microfibers that become trapped under the lens and scratch the cornea. What qualifies as a lash-extending mascara? Do the labels “lengthening” and “lash-extending” mean the same thing? Do they mean anything? If a mascara is labeled safe for contact lens wearers is it indeed safe?

The Left Brain’s cautionary contact connection:

Excellent question, Rebecca. I’m a big fan of Consumer Reports so I tracked down the article you referenced along with a few other resources. It turns out that there is a real reason for concern in this case.  

Contact concern

After reading what Consumer Reports said I found another source, The Look You Like: Medical Answers to 400 Questions on Skin and Hair Care, that describes the basic problem:  lash extenders consist of tiny synthetic fibers in a liquid base. When the liquid evaporates the fibers are left behind on the lashes, making them look longer. But as these fibers become loose they can stick get in your eye and become stuck to your contacts.  

I found additional details in a 1985 New York Times article that quoted Dr. Oliver H. Dabezies Jr., a clinical professor of ophthalmology at Tulane Medical School. Dr. Dabezies specified that the synthetic fibers used in masacaras are actually nylon fibers. I thought it was interesting that he notes using cosmetics with soft contacts is particularly risky because those types of lenses “are like sponges that absorb everything, including mascara.” So soft lenses are prone to clouding due to absorbed bits of mascara while hard lenses can trap nylon fibers that can cause painful scratches which can lead to eye infections. 

Safety testing

What about mascara that claims to be safe for contact-lens wearers? According to the article, “even these claims, however, do not indicate whether the products have been tested with all types of lenses. Maybelline’s mascaras, for example, though labeled ‘’safe with contact lenses,” were not tested with the new extended-wear lenses. Nor has Max Factor’s ”For Your Eyes Only” line.” I recognize that this article is a bit dated, but it does make me wonder if these companies have updated their testing. 

Which brands contain nylon?

I did a quick search and found several brands that use Nylon-6 or Nylon-12. 

Yves Saint Laurent MASCARA VOLUME EFFET FAUX CILS Luxurious Mascara 

Volume.com mascara

The Body Shop mascara

Revlon Lash Fantasy Total Definition Primer & Mascara

You can do a quick check on your own brands by looking at the ingredient list for any chemicals that contain the term “nylon.”  

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Based on what I’ve seen, if you wear contact lenses it might be wise to avoid using mascaras that contain nylon fibers. Product names like Longer Lash, Lush Lash, and Lash Lengthener, don’t really tell you very much, so to be safe you need to look at the ingredient list for any ingredient says “nylon.” 

 
What do YOU think? Do you wear contacts? What kind of mascara do you use? Leave a lengthening comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community. 

From The Beauty Brains Forum Member: Purple Rules

Neutrogena has introduced two new products that promise to make you look great and to improve the condition of your skin and lashes as well. I tried out the Healthy Volume Mascara and the Nourishing Eye Duos.

Super-size it

The mascara promises to give you 400% fuller lashes and to moisturize, protect and improve the condition of your lashes. 400% fuller lashes! Even professional athletes only promise 110 %. They say “the exclusive super sized Visible Volume Brush quickly coats and builds every single lash.” The brush certainly is super sized. It’s on the far left in the picture and is clearly larger than any of the other brushes. The mascara contains Olive, Meadowfoam Seed and Sweet Almond Oil, which “penetrate lashes on all dimensions to moisturize, protect and improve the condition of lashes” and rinses clean with water.

Big brush

The proof is in the pudding, of course; what really matters is how it applies and how it wears. The super sized brush made applying the mascara a challenge at first but gave me soft, natural looking eyelashes. The mascara didn’t clump or smudge and still looked great at the end of the day. I wasn’t able to remove it with water alone but it came off easily with a little help from a gentle cleanser. One coat resulted in a nice, natural look. Two coats gave me a little more oomph without getting clumpy or spidery. I don’t think my lashes were 400% fuller but I don’t own calipers so I can’t be sure.

Eye conditioner

The eye shadow duos are “the next evolution in eye shadow.” They contain a multi-vitamin complex that is “clinically proven to condition the delicate skin around the eye.” Each duo contains a coordinated base and accent color. The colors are sheer and easy to apply. I tried “Sweet Dusk” (a great color if you have green eyes) and “Iced Coffee.” They’re not highly pigmented and appear much lighter on. They stayed on well when I used a primer underneath but when I tried to build up the color for a more dramatic effect, I had problems with creasing.

Healthy and wholesome

Both products give you a healthy, natural look that’s entirely in keeping with Neutrogena’s wholesome image. I don’t know if my lashes and the skin around my eyes are healthier then before but both products apply easily and stay on well. They also wash off easily, which is important. There’s nothing more frustrating then watching your lashes go down the drain along with your makeup. You’re not going to achieve a dramatic evening look with these products but that’s not what we’ve come to expect from Neutrogena.

The mascara sells for 7.99 and the eye shadow duos sell for 8.49.

What kind of make up looks best on your? Natural and wholesome, or dramatic and glamorous? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread and talk to Purple Rules directly in the Beauty Brains Forum. And if you’re interested in getting free goodies of your own, join the Forum now and show us you’ve got what it takes to be a Beauty Brainiac!