Tarte lights, camera, lashes™ 4-in-1 mascara Review

Tarte is the only beauty brand I follow on Instagram. Well, the only big one anyway. I’m not sure why. I don’t remember why I followed them, but after seeing post after post I decided to check their website, and I came across the most beautiful tube – it was holographic!! Inside housed mascara. Unfortunately I wasn’t willing to pay $38 dollars for it, so I settled for a kit and got a mini of it instead in the regular packaging.

For something called ‘Lights, Camera, Lashes’ I honestly thought the packaging would be more… extravagant? That’s why I was so drawn to the shiny holo one, but this is their regular packaging so it must work for them. The tube is a very dark purple, almost black. In gold writing is the name and brand. The tube is textured, I guess it’s supposed to look like reptile skin – I haven’t looked much into it. It also has an outer ‘shell’, I guess you’d call it, that does nothing but hinder the tube from sitting up straight. It’s almost like the tube was wrapped in plastic and then they applied heat causing the plastic to shrink, then just cut a few mm around the edge.

Thankfully this mascara is a normal twist tube and the wand comes out with that satisfying suction noise. The mascara is black, I’m not entirely sure they have other colors available. The brush is quite thick, I think it’s the thickest brush in their mascara range. It’s got lots of bristles which is right up my alley as I quite enjoy the thicker wands as I’m less likely to poke my eyes out, and that’s true for this brush as I’m yet to stab myself!

The formula is I think what I like most. It’s not overly wet, and it’s not Sahara desert dry. It’s the perfect in between, like it’s been dried out for you. And everyone knows mascaras work better a few months later when they’ve had time to ‘air’ out. This one, you don’t have to wait for. It’s perfect already. One coat takes less than 5 minutes to dry, which is excellent. I can usually get a second or third coat on very easily. One coat is enough to make your lashes there but I think two coats is always best.

This mascara claims to be a 4 in 1 – and I think that’s to add curl, volumize, condition and lengthen. I could be wrong, but that’s four things listed on their site so I guess that’s it. The amount of curl you get is basically what you get with any mascara – it doesn’t magically pull out an eyelash curler and set to work before you apply. It’s just normal, I guess. It does volumize, but again, what mascara doesn’t? My lashes do look a wee bit thicker, but not so thick that they stick to their neighbour and become 4 large prongs. It also adds a bit of length, but I think that’s down to the fact that it’s being lifted slightly upwards, as well as giving off the appearance of being thicker. And as for conditioning, well this I think it does well – my lashes do look to be in really good condition and they feel softer too.

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