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!

Lorac PRO Metal Palette - Review, Swatches, and Photos

In my venture to explore the high-end side of makeup after many years of drugstore exclusivity, it seems reasonable to start out small. Fall 2015 brought us a limited edition palette from Lorac called the Pro Metal palette, which features a small cardboard compact of eight very shimmery shades. The mirror inside is an added bonus. The palette retails for $28 at Ulta, but I was able to grab mine during Black Friday for $18.

 

The palette comes with 4 grams/0.144 ounces of product, compared to Lorac's bigger palettes, such as the Pro palette (16 shades, 8.8 grams/0.32 ounces, $42) or the Unzipped palette (10 shades, 11.2 grams/0.39 ounces, $42). The Pro Metal palette is a little less than half the cost of a Pro palette with half the number of colors. That doesn't sound too shabby to me. The box even comes with two tutorials for your day and night needs. 

 I've heard a lot of hype and raves about the Lorac Pro palettes. I was very excited about receiving this palette in the mail, and probably checked the tracking number every day in anticipation of its arrival. When I opened the box, I was not disappointed, let me tell you .

The colors are gorgeous. They're very metallic, as their namesake implies, but the shadows have more of a reflective quality that gives them their shine, instead of a ton of glitter. When you put your finger in them, it feels as though you could stick your finger right through them. The colors are so soft and pigmented, though the softness does contribute to a bit of powderiness and fallout.

The colors swatched beautifully. For most of them, I had only to gently swirl my finger in the powder, and one swipe on my arm was all it took to get the color payoff. However, the darker colors, Onyx and Cobalt, went on a little bit patchy. They aren't as intensely shimmery as their lighter counterparts. In fact, Onyx looks like the only one with any actual glitter in it. Cobalt had to be built up just a little bit before the blue really started coming through.

The real test was wearing the shadows. I tested this palette out for three days with a different combination of colors. There was quite a bit of powder on my brush when I dipped it into the shadows, and for all the pigmentation they showed in the swatches, I found that I didn't get nearly the same intensity on my lids. They seemed to leave most of their color behind on my brush. My very powdery, glittery brush. Some colors seemed to fade right away, but the look lasted throughout my entire 8+ hour work day.

On day 1, I applied Rose Gold to the inner half of my lid, Amber to the outer half, and brought in Cobalt and Onyx for some depth. The shadows were not very pigmented and creased on me by the end of the day.

On day 2, I wet my brush and applied Gilded to the inner half of my lid, Amber to the outer half, and Cobalt and Onyx in the outer corner. The shadows were pigmented but creased again by the end of the day.

On day 3, I started with my Urban Decay primer and set it with a nude shadow. With a wet brush, Gilded went on the inner half of the lid, Clover on the outer half, and Cobalt in the outer corner for depth. The shadows were pigmented and no creasing was to be had.

I can usually get away with wearing eyeshadow and no primer, but I probably had to use a primer with these ones because of how soft they are. Dry or wet, they blended perfectly. Because the shadows are reflective and not glittery, the two colors I applied to my lid blended seamlessly and it was near impossible to see where one started and one stopped.

However, for all the hype surrounding Lorac and their eyeshadows, I don't feel like I should have had to wet my brush to get the full pigmentation and color payoff on my lid. The only other downside of this palette is that there are no matte shades, so this is not a complete palette. I did have to pull matte crease colors from another palette. But then again, I'm always mixing my shadows.

Alas, the colors are gorgeous, and I certainly have a weakness for shimmery eyeshadow. I lean towards neutral looks, which this palette definitely has, but it also has just enough muted bold shades to take me out of my comfort zone. 

I still love the palette, and if priming my eyes and wetting my brush are the only inconveniences I must face to use these colors, then so be it.

Welcome to Beautifully Noteworthy

When I tell people that I only got into makeup this year, their reactions are usually very surprised. To certain friends, I'm known as that one girl with the killer makeup game. My winged eyeliner elicits borderline fury out of another friend. I get excited talking about makeup and finding people I can talk about makeup with. My friends think I know a lot about makeup and that I have a lot of it, I guess I can see why they'd be surprised.

I actually started dabbling in makeup a year or two ago, but I wasn't an avid makeup user until this year. I remember some of my first products--L'Oreal cream foundation, Maybelline Great Lash mascara (everyone in their teen years uses that mascara), and a kohl eyeliner that smudged like crazy on my waterline. I feel like I've come a long way since then. I shop for makeup often, I watch tons of beauty videos on YouTube, I like experimenting with products and colors and looks, testing new brands...

But I also have quite a ways to go. I think of myself as newbie, still--a "makeup start-up," if you will. Most of my collection comes from drugstore brands. I only visited an Ulta and a Sephora for the first time this year. I only made a Sephora Beauty Insider account like a month ago. I lean heavily towards neutral eye looks. I've never even worn a pair of false eyelashes before.

But I love what makeup can do. It's so flexible and transforming, you can make yourself look any way you want. If I want to look like a Sunday-lazy bookworm who's only wearing makeup to go for a coffee run, I can. If I want to look like an ethereal goddess too good for this world, I can. There are so many brands and products I haven't tried that I've heard amazing things about, I just want to have them and try them. The last time I walked out of Sephora, I practically had swatches going all the way up my arm. I had a blast, but I can't say the same for the male friend that accompanied me (he's a trooper).

I want to continue exploring makeup, but in a more social way. I want to be able to tell people about the things I try and get excited about it with them. I want people to join me on my venture deeper into the world of makeup. I want to share what I know and hear your thoughts.

It's why I decided to call my blog Beautifully Noteworthy. I figure that if I'm going to talk about something, whether I like it or not, it's noteworthy. It deserves to be talked about, and I want you to know about it.

But this blog isn't going to be just about makeup. I also like books and cats, I want to share stories and advice, and talk about lifestyle and health. Makeup is beautiful, but there's a beauty to the world beyond it, and also to you. You're beautiful, too. Don't forget it.

I'm still playing around with this blog's template and contents. Might change the background and colors. But while I'm doing that, I hope to have actual content up soon. I'll probably start with reviews of products I've been trying out. I'll dig up my camera so I can post swatches. Stories and advice will come as I think of it (I'm a big believer of self-love, and more people should be, too). Book reviews may be more infrequent, but be assured, I really love books (recommend things for me to read!). I got a cat a few months ago that I just adore, so expect pictures of him periodically.

So that's my intro. Thanks for hanging out with me, and I'll see you again soon with something interesting.