It goes without saying that most mascaras released by Maybelline New York are always reliable in quality. They usually deliver great result, have excellent staying power and relatively easy to remove. Usually, when I’m hooked with a particular mascara from this brand, something new comes along and I would be tempted to ditch my half-empty tube and buy it. Does it happen to you too?
For the past few months, I was pretty loyal to my Maybelline Volum’ Express Cat Eyes mascara. I’m not the only one. Hanzky professed her love to this mascara, even called it her best beauty find of 2009, and the girls in our forum can’t stop raving about it either.
But last month, Maybelline launched a new mascara called Magnum Volum’ Express. It promises 9 x thicker lashes, 100% waterproof with no clumps. I couldn’t help but comparing it against my HG mascara, so here it goes.
The brush
Cat eyes, have comb-like brush with sparsely arranged tooth which make it easy to separate the lashes. I almost never got any clumps with this mascara.
Magnum, on the other hand, has a huge brush with a slight curve, the inner curve has short bristles, while the outer part of the curve has longer ones. The size of this brush is a bit challenging to work with. You have to be careful otherwise you can make a mess on your lids. I usually deposit the mascara with the inner part of the curve, from the base of my lashes all the way up, and then swipe my lashes once more with the outer part of the curve to separate lashes and remove clumps.
Left: Magnum Right: Cat Eyes
The Formula
Cat Eyes, I don’t know what it is about the formula of this mascara, it seems very light and thin when I pull out the wand from the tube, but I always marvel at the result. With only one coat, my lashes instantly look longer and curled up. It manages to hold the curl for the whole day with no signs of smudging or flaking at all. At the end of the day, I can simply remove it with Maybelline makeup remover which we’ve been raving about for the longest time.
Magnum, the formula is thicker than Cat Eyes, which makes it even more challenging to work with. But with one swipe, I can see that this mascara really does make my lashes appear fuller and thicker. But I needed two coats to reach the result I wanted. As I said earlier, before I got the hang of using the wand, it created some lumps but after I experimented with it and found the best way of applying this mascara, the result is much better. Just like Cat Eyes, removing Magnum isn’t a problem at all.
The Verdict
Even though I like the fullness and thickness that Magnum mascara gives my lashes, I think I prefer Cat Eyes still. Why? Because my lashes are quite long but pointing downwards and Cat Eyes give them the curl I need that lasts the whole day. When I go out at night and need my eyes to look more dramatic, I use Magnum, but for everyday use, I think Cat Eyes is still the one I will reach for. But I’m also interested to see what happens if I combine both mascaras. Let’s save it for the next article! 😀
So what do you think of these mascaras? Have you tried them? Which one do you like better?
Note: You can easily find both of these products in all Maybelline New York counters all over the country. Prices differ slightly in each store (usually those sold in Hypermarkets like Carrefour or Giant are cheaper) but if I’m not mistaken, they each costs somewhere between IDR 70 – 90K.
