the flutter wars, phase 2 - Yves St Laurent Faux Cils

This was a suggestion by the lovely H at PerfumeShrine, she of the glorious fragrance history. I took her on her word, gritted my teeth, and shelled out for:

YSL Faux Cils

It went a little like this:

*Dip, swoosh*

"Well, oh my, look at that. Doesn't that look lovel--OH blast its all over my eyebrows. Hang on."

*Swirls qtip in a bit of rosehip oil; scrubs*

Thinking: Eyebrows? How did I manage that? Did they really get that long?

"Okay, now let's look at that aga-- oh, oops, I took a little off my lashes there. Let me just do another coat."

*Dip, swoosh*

"Wow, that really looks grea--OH blast it's all under my eye. Let's start over."

*Carefully cleanses face and removes traces of mascara. Dries off. Waits a few minutes. Has some chamomile tea.*

"All right, let's do this again. Slowly this time."

*Dip, sllloooow pass.*

"Yes, that still looks really lovely."

*Touches inner lash gently yet experimentally with pinky.*

"Yep, it's all over. All right, lesson learned. No touchy, no blinky, no pose-y."


It's a wet formula, at first. A VERY wet formula. But once you give it a minute, it dries and you're left with really stunning lashes with no ball at the end, lovely definition, great sweep. The feel goes from overly wet to slightly crisp, but after half an hour the crispness is barely noticeable so I only subtracted a little bit for feel.

Endurance, though, was a problem. It's not half as bad as the DuWop was, but for the price I expected it to last a good long time. I tried experimenting with more coats to increase the endurance, but I'm such a clutz I couldn't keep the stuff off my face if I gave it more than one and a half coats. That also reduces the flutter factor by a miniscule amount; I can't flutter to full effect until the stuff dries. The mascara lasts through a work day, though, and considering the dramatic lashes it creates, it's a kicker of a date look.

YSL Faux Cils gets:

Endurance - 6
Look - 10
Feel - 7
Flutter Factor - 9

This makes Faux Cils the first mascara to get more than 30! Next up - Maybelline Define-A-Lash!