Elysambre Long Lash Natural Mascara Review

Image borrowed from http://www.lovelula.com/

Rating: 3.5/5, available from Lovelula for £12.99 (+ p&p) - as of posting it is on offer for 1 week and is selling for £9.74 (+ p&p, and mascara packaging).

"Elysambre is a gentle yet specialised, all natural, mineral based refillable make-up range. Elysambre pledges to offer an innovative, original skin-care make-up line that combines natural ingredients and up-to-date technologies and to respect the quality, the environment, human relations and animals while bringing total comfort and full satisfaction." (Official Elysambre blurb from Lovelula).

Sounds pretty special, right? The refillable make-up idea is brilliant, why don't more brands do this? It's a bit tricky when you're trying to sort the lid out (my Elysambre lipgloss still doesn't have a properly attached lid - review later, promise!) but it was pretty simple.

Application is not as messy as my Honeybee cosmetics mascara, but it's not as long lasting either. It also needs a lot of layering, and while I don't mind spending an extra few minutes getting ready in the morning, I do worry about poking myself in the eye because I'm applying mascara in a rush. In life there are plenty of things that should be savoured; spending time with your nearest and dearest, taking the first bite out of a piece of cake, sitting in the sunshine, dancing along to music in the copy room....but mascara application should not be one of those things, in fact it should be one of the many, teeny components that make up a lovely day.

I tried minimum application and the effect was as if I wasn't wearing mascara, so much so that Sarah - my desk buddy - complimented me for not wearing make-up to work. It was appreciated, sometimes I don't and in that moment I forgot that I had applied mascara. But then I realised that I most definitely had. Blurg.

So, then I tried heavy application which worked. This mascara is nice but it's a labour of love. I bought it in plum in the hopes of recreating the effects of my old Guerlain mascara, and it does so long as you have plenty of application and tweaking time.

The flaking is not consistent, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't - this probably has more to do with my application skills or the amount of times that I've rubbed my eyes than the mascara itself.

Have you used any of the Elysambre range? What did you think?
Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Acacia Senegal Gum, Stearic Acid, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Carnauba Cera (Copernicia Cerifera Wax), Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate, Candelilla Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera Wax), Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Glyceryl Stearate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Sodium Hydroxide, Tocopheryl Acetate, Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Hydroxymethyl Glycinate, Citric Acid, Parfum (Fragrance). May contain: CI 77510 (Ferric ferrocyanide), CI 77491 (Red iron oxide), CI 77492 (Yellow iron oxide), CI 77499 (Black iron oxide), CI 77007 (Ultramarine), CI 75470 (Carmine).
* Synthetic products