Revlon 3D Extreme Mascara

Revlon's commercials for their new 3D Extreme Mascara promise that your lashes will become "25X fuller, 70% curvier and 80% visibly longer lashes." Given the large numbers associated with these claims, I had to check it out for myself!

If you've read back through my posts, you'll notice that I'm a bit of a mascara addict. For years I was not loyal to a single mascara, trying a new one with each tube trying to find the formula that would be my "holy grail." What is a holy grail mascara? It would meet these criteria:
1. I want to look *almost* like I have on false eyelashes, but not quite. I want it all, length, fullness and I want my mascara to help my lashes hold the curl I put there.
2. I want my mascara to be easy to remove. I only wear waterproof mascara when I'm either swimming or going to a wedding. The rest of the time, I want to be able to remove my mascara easily with eye makeup remover in 1-2 swipes, I should not be waking up with smudges under my eyes still.
3. The mascara should not be flaky. At 4 pm I shouldn't look like I have big black mascara swipes in my circles, I have enough issues with darkness there.
4. It should be easy to apply (ie- not require many steps).
5. It should be cheap and from the drugstore. I replace my mascara every 1-2 months (I'm a bit of a germ freak) and I don't want to spend $25 on a new tube, and I don't have time for a run to Sephora just for a new mascara.
6. It shouldn't be clumpy. Poor Tammy Faye is dead, but I don't need to look like her!

Having said all of that, I have been reluctant to try a new mascara, primarily because I have already been using an amazing mascara that is very nearly my perfect Holy Grail Mascara, L'Oreal Volume Shocking Mascara. The only thing that makes it not quite perfect is the 2 step bit, though I have that down to a science now (I'm on about my 6th tube or so), so it isn't a big deal. My eyelashes (which are not long) look thick, long and absolutely perfect all day long with this mascara!

Having said all of that, I'll finally tell you about this mascara!

3D Extreme is easy to apply. Revlon makes a big deal about the brush in their ad, and you can see a pic of it here from their website. Look at the picture I took above, can you tell that the brush looks like this? (All my pics enlarge if you click on them, so check out the bigger pic.) . . . . . . I didn't think so. Once the wand is pulled out of the tube, it is fairly caked with mascara. I have tried applying with and without wiping off the wand first, and truthfully I saw no difference between the two. The application is not at all clumpy, and I don't need to comb through with my lash comb at all.

With this mascara my lashes do look longer and thicker, but I'm not sure that the mascara lives up to it's big hype. 25x fuller? Ummm... No. 80% longer? Nope. And certainly not at all curvier. Although I do spend quite a bit of time curling my lashes each morning, by the time lunch rolls around, they are straight again. This is all quite disappointing after my trusty L'Oreal! The mascara is a little bit flaky as well. If I touch my eyes at all, I get raccoon eyes quickly. This is not good! However, if left alone no flakes are seen. I don't know about you, but I sometimes have problems not touching my face, so I usually end up with a bit of a mascara shadow.

Perhaps the most disappointing feature of this mascara is the removal. I have about 6 different eye makeup removers at home, including L'Oreal, Almay (gel and pads), Cover Girl, Revlon and Lancome. I have tried all of these to remove this mascara each night, without any great success. I have now resorted to using the Gel Almay twice and cleaning up with an Almay pad, and I often wake up to mascara on my pillow still. And, this isn't even with the waterproof version!

All in all, I would say that the results with this mascara are average. However, the difficulty with removal makes it slightly less than average. Save your money and buy something else.
Revlon 3d Extreme Mascara