Dupe Alert - Benefit Roller Lash vs. Maybelline Lash Sensational - Comparison and Photos

I haven't had a drugstore mascara in my collection for a while. The last one I used was the Colossal Lash mascara from Maybelline. It was old and waterproof, so it was difficult to remove, and I ended up throwing it out once I started accumulating high-end mascara samples.

As I started exploring makeup more, I started learning about brands I'd never heard of before. I first heard of Benefit Cosmetics when they released their Roller Lash mascara. The next time I was at Macy's, I saw a Benefit counter, and asked the girl to put the Roller Lash mascara on me. I found the results to be awesome, but not worth the $24 price tag.

A few months ago, Sephora was giving out sampler bags with $25 purchases. The contents include eight perfume, makeup, or skincare samples and a makeup bag. I made my roommate create a Sephora account so I could claim two of the bags, and in the second bag was a sample of Benefit's Roller Lash mascara.

I'd been thinking of my first experience with Benefit at that counter inside Macy's, and hearing multiple beauty YouTubers rave about this mascara rekindled my interest in it. And indeed, I was wowed again by the results, even more so now as a fledging makeup enthusiast with a more well-rounded viewpoint. Roller Lash became the only mascara I used for a while.

But I had to consider--what would I do when I ran out? Shell out $24 for the full size? It seemed like a large jump to make. Fortunately, around this time, one of my favorite YouTubers, BeautywithEmilyFox, posted a massive mascara review on her channel. She's said multiple times that Roller Lash is her favorite holy grail mascara, so I asked her if she'd found a drugstore dupe for it. And she said the closest thing she's found to match it is Maybelline's Lash Sensational.

I've also heard positive things about Lash Sensational. I knew Maybelline made good mascaras, and at the recommendation of someone whose opinions I trust, I decided to give it a try.

I picked up Lash Sensational at Ulta for $7.24 with a coupon. The tube comes with 0.32oz and is $8.99 regularly. Benefit's Roller Lash comes with 0.30oz and is $24 full sized. What's more is that Lash Sensational boasts a "fanning brush." the same kind Roller Lash has.

The two brushes look remarkably similar. and I hoped the product inside would be similar as well. Right away I noticed that Lash Sensational was a wetter formula. Whenever I use it, I'm somehow able to get mascara on my eyelid, my tightline, the outside of the mascara tube, and on my fingers. But the results were pretty great.

Left: Benefit Roller Lash. Right: Maybelline Lash Sensational

Both mascaras lengthened, defined, and curled my lashes. But I found that Lash Sensational gave me just a little bit more volume than Roller Lash did. I think I prefer Roller Lash on the bottom lashes, though. Lash Sensational is wet enough to get all over my skin, and the brush is slightly too large for a precise application.

My lashes have been kind of naturally curly lately. They're not completely straight, but can curl with some encouragement from mascara. I applied these two yesterday at 3pm before I went to go run some errands. After errands, I met up with a friend and watched a really long movie. I didn't get home until almost 4am, so I'd been wearing both mascaras for 13 hours before finally removing them. Not entirely sure how that happened.

I checked the mascaras in a fitting room about two hours after I applied them and nothing had changed. At the end of the 13 hours, my lashes were still curled, and I had a similar amount of smudging under both eyes. There was no flaking or irritation or transfer onto my lids. On other days I'd been testing these out, I found that Lash Sensational was a little more prone to smudging and transferring than Roller Lash was.

For what they are and how they performed, I think Lash Sensational is a great dupe for Roller Lash. They both lengthened and curled my lashes and kept them curled throughout my entire day. If anything, I actually like Lash Sensational a little bit better for the volume and intensity it gives me. Both mascaras are great. If you can afford it, Roller Lash won't steer you wrong. But if you're looking to save some money, Lash Sensational is a great alternative.

I've still never worn a pair of falsies in my life (even though I have two unopened pairs in my makeup bag), but I don't think I'm missing out too much. I just throw on a few coats of either mascara and I'm good.

(Pro tip: if you have both of these mascaras, layer them. No really. It's awesome.)

Sephora Brush It Off Cleansing Brush Wipes - Review and Photos

For some reason, some of my favorite videos to watch on YouTube are the "What's in my travel bag" types from beauty bloggers. I really don't travel that much, but I want to. I'm planning ahead. Yeah, that's it.

But I did go home for a few weeks during the Christmas and New Year holidays. With work piling up before my trip, I didn't have time to thoroughly wash my makeup brushes. So I took my essential brushes home with me, along with this thing:

I bought these on a whim during a Sephora sale for $7. The video that accompanied the product description hyped these wipes up, but of course it would. 

It seemed like a great idea for travelling: individually wrapped, pre-moistened cloths that you swipe your brush on to clean them. The video says that natural hair brushes don't need as much vigorous cleaning as synthetic ones do. Natural hair brushes can be swiped back and forth, and synthetic you can swirl into the cloth in a circular motion.

Sounds like a cool idea, but I wanted to test them out.

Before (ELF Beautifully Bare blending brush)

The instructions say to place a wipe over a towel and swirl your brush in it until it's clean. It also claims deep cleaning, which I find hard to believe when you're just wiping your brush on a cloth, but...

After

That looks pretty clean to me. 

Once you've used the entirety of one side of the cloth, you can flip the cloth over and continue cleaning on the other side.

I ended up using two wipes to fully clean all of my brushes. I tried to flip the wipe over to use the other side, but I found that the backside didn't clean my brushes as well since so much product had permeated into it. I swiped my brushes on a clean paper towel afterward to dry them off, and I did see that some more product came off on the towel. I can't really expect a single wipe to clean my brushes as well as a proper deep cleaning would, but for what it is, it did a really great job. 

They were super convenient to take on my trip, and they could probably also be used to clean brushes in between applications to remove any color or product before using the same brush again.

Has anyone tried these Sephora brush cleaning wipes? Has anyone tried cleaning their makeup brushes on a regular makeup removing wipe? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!