What's cool about high end makeup is that for the most part, there is always a dupe. Certain luxury brands are owned by larger companies, and they share factories and everything. This means that lots of products end up being the same between brands. For example, YSL, Armani, Maybelline, etc are owned by L'Oréal. This is great, because say you love a lip gloss from YSL but it's really expensive. You'll probably be able to find that same lip gloss at the drugstore but under the L'Oréal Paris brand.
This is also true for Boujois and Chanel. Bourjois owns Chanel, so some times the products are the same, just cheaper if you get them from Bourjois.
Knowing this, when I was in Spain and in need of a mascara, I looked for one from Bourjois, because chances were that their mascaras were Chanel quality without the price (although ALL mascara is expensive in Europe, don't know why). Bourjois Volume Clubbing Ultra Black Mascara was 15 euro, but still cheaper than a high end mascara in Europe.
What attracted me to the mascara were the claims about how long lasting it is. It was supposedly tested by clubbers to make sure it could last a whole night of sweat and steam. It's also supposed to be very volumizing and black.
First thing I noticed when I applied it was that it was wet, although on the drier end of the wet mascara spectrum, if that makes sense. I'm not the biggest wet mascara person, because I just find them quite hard to work with, and with the exception of the Trish McEvoy mascaras, they don't build up as well as drier formula mascaras. This formula actually really reminded me of the Lancôme Hypnose Drama mascara.
The brush is also super big and kind of difficult to work with. I prefer normal to smaller brushes so that I can get into every lash and get my lower lashes fuss-free. Also like the Lancôme Hypnose Drama, the brush isn't uniform all the way around (although this isn't squiggly like the Lancôme). Two sides of the brush have a reservoir on it to get a bunch of product on the brush (a lot of volumizing mascaras have this), and the other two have the fiber bristles (not enough of them in my opinion). This resulted in a pretty unseparated, borderline clumpy, first application due to all the product on the brush. That did get better once the mascara started to dry out though, and after a while it wasn't clumpy anymore. Another thing that bothered me about the mascara was that when you pulled it out of the tube, there was a ton of product left on the tip of the brush. This got messy at times. In general, I don't feel like the mascara brush really gripped my lashes, either.
Ignore my brows, please. This photo doesn't look all that bad, but keep in mind that this was taken after I used the mascara for the last time before throwing away the tube. It did get some good volume, but I've used better, cheaper mascaras that do the same thing (Covergirl Lashblast Fusion, Maybelline Full n Soft, etc). The tube of mascara itself really didn't last me a long time at all. I can use the Trish McEvoy mascara, or other drugstore mascaras for that matter, for three or four months before they're dried out/used up and ready to toss. This lasted me only about two months, if not less.
The real problems, however, lie in the wearing power, which is unfortunate for something that claims to be so long lasting that all the club-goers choose it. I found that at the end of the day it would smudge under the eyes, no matter how much I powdered there, and it would also flake off. Not cool. It also isn't the blackest mascara I've ever used (the Trish McEvoy ones are). It was also a real pain in the ass to remove, resulting in lost lashes. Thanks.
All in all, if this could possibly reflect Chanel mascara quality, you're better off giving those a pass, too. This stuff just wasn't for me, and it was way too expensive for a drugstore brand.
If you're going to splash out on a mascara, try the Trish McEvoy tubular ones.
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