Hi! I'm back with another beauty box from Influenster, this one the Rimmel London VoxBox in partial promotion of the #NeverGoNaked campaign. Per usual with everything I review from Influenster, I received this box free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own and are based on my personal experience with the product. Let's get started!
What is it? Rimmel Volume Colourist Mascara
How much does it cost? $7--$9
Where can I buy it? Anywhere Rimmel London products are sold (Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Target)
What makes this product different? It is said to gradually tint the lashes, making them darker with a minimum 2-week usage duration
I've never used a lash tint before. I've heard of tinting the lashes and brows before, but I never gave it too much thought. Since I already have dark lashes, I've never considered using a tint. So with no prior experience to go from, I was all for checking out the product. Here's what the product itself looks like, and a close-up of the wand.
--Great for days with light makeup
--Works well with other mascaras without diminishing the tint abilities
--Does slightly tint the lashes with consistent usage
One of my least favorite things about mascara, especially with the amount that I use, is that it can be a real pain in the neck to remove. The majority of my makeup removal routine is taking off mascara. This is fairly easy to remove, regardless of the amount that you pack on the eyes (although I've noticed I can't really put on a lot--I can brush the lash 100 times and still not have on a ton of product) and that is by far one of the things I love most about it.
If you're not as heavy on mascara as I am, this is a good one to check out. It is the only mascara I'll wear if I want to keep it light on makeup for the day and I will say that you can see the mascara much better and it looks much darker when you're only wearing the Colourist on the eyes.
Because I like my lashes to double as spider legs for the eyeballs LOL (OAN, has anyone seen the promo pic for the new season of American Horror Story? If you have then you'll know why I said that and if you haven't, go look it up!), I usually wear more than one mascara. When I combine the Volume Colourist with other mascaras, it doesn't diminish the ability to tint the lashes. I applied the Colourist first then whatever other product I was using, and I still noticed that my bare lashes were a bit darker afterward.
Finally, the reason why I was selected to receive this mascara was to test out its primary function, which is to slightly tint the lashes. The model for the product had blonde lashes, so while it gave me a good general idea of how much it can darken the lashes, I already have darker lashes so I wasn't sure how much it would show up on me. If you have lighter lashes, I think this product would show up very nicely.
What I didn't like:
--A lot of transfer--Smudges like crazy after a few hours
--Doesn't pack a punch
--The wand didn't really catch the smaller lashes
There is quite a bit of transfer with this mascara. Maybe the formula is a bit watery, but it's very difficult, even when I scrape the excess mascara off the wand, to keep the product from getting on my eye. The good thing is that it's not a bunch of big blobs all over the place, so clean-up is really easy. Not really a con, just an irritating inconvenience.
A definite con of this mascara though is that it smudges like nobody's business after a few hours. I'm a mascara junkie all day long, so if I would consider myself an expert on any makeup product, it would be mascara. I haven't used many mascaras that smudge this badly. When I layer it with other products I think it helps lock the Volume Colourist in, but when I wear it alone it smears itself underneath my eyes by the end of the day. It looks especially bad on days that I'm only wearing mascara. You'll definitely need to do a couple of mirror checks throughout the day with this.
If you're expecting volume or lengthening properties in addition to the lash tint, you won't be getting them here. This is great for light makeup days but if you like volume and length, you'll need to wear something else in addition to the Volume Colourist. I think this is supposed to be a volumizer and I read in a couple of other reviews that users noticed a bit more volume to their lashes, but I have naturally curled lashes so maybe this benefit was lost on me.
Finally, the wand is a regular mascara wand but I think it would have worked a little better (and prevented the issue of so much product transfer) if the wand bristles were a bit smaller. I have a hard time catching the smaller lashes, especially without getting product on my skin, so I think if the wand had finer or smaller bristles, I wouldn't have so many issues. I have a couple of old mascara wands, so I might test this out.
So did it work?
The most important part of this review is whether or not the product actually worked, right? Here's a picture of my lashes right before I started using the Volume Colourist, and another after a 2-week duration. I used the mascara for most of the 2-week period, but I didn't use it every day. I wanted to see if the tinting benefits would work if I used it on a regular, but not daily, basis. As you can see from the picture, my lashes in the bottom photo are a bit darker, but it's not a significant difference.
Overall:
Overall, the Rimmel London Volume Colourist is a decent mascara for those who want a gradual, low-maintenance lash tint. I like that after consistent usage, removing the makeup at the end of the day doesn't remove the tint on the lashes. It's easy to apply, easy to remove, is suitable for sensitive skintones, doesn't damage the lashes and isn't a permanent tint. I would recommend this for light makeup users, those who just want to tint their lashes and don't need the product for anything else, and those with lighter lashes because the tint works better. If you have lighter lashes or fairer skin, this product might have a bit more impact. For those with dark lashes already, the difference in your lashes isn't quite as significant. At least it wasn't for me. It's a decent product and it works well, but I can't say I'm super impressed with it. I like it, but I don't love it yet. Have you tried the Volume Colorist mascara? What did you think? I hope you enjoyed this review and I'll see you soon!
P.S.--If you were to play a drinking game with the amount of times I said 'mascara' in this post (and this finished result is after I took a few of them out!) you'd have alcohol poisoning by now. haha!
