Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara

I haven't bought a tubing mascara since before starting this blog. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was that Blinc mascara that was all the rage in 2005 or so. I'm not a fan, and dealing with Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara reminded me why. The regular Clinique High Impact is one of my favorite mascaras of all time. It's a reliable staple that delivers a full and healthy lash look that never looks Kardashianly abnormal. So I was open to give its sibling, the High Impact Curling mascara a chance. After all, getting a good curl for my long but very straight lashes is an ever present goal.

The curved brush of Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara is pretty nice. It separates the lashes as it coats them, contributing to the pulled-together look of the High Impact family. The consistency is good so the product spreads easily and stays on the lashes without accidents. As the Clinique marketing blurb promises, one coat is more or less enough (I can't vouch for it if you have really short or sparse lashes) and the finish looks natural (meaning not overly glossy and not powdery/dusty).

My issue is less with this specific Clinique mascara and more with tubing mascaras in general. These products form a set tube over each lash (which is why they're great if you're prone to clumping, not to mention hold a curl so brilliantly) and don't smudge or move at all until you remove them with warm water.  It's the removal process that suck. The tubes disintegrate into small flakes that always find their way into my eyes. It's also hard to get all these particles in one go, so there's quite a bit of debris that still comes off after a good wash, tempting me to rub and tug until my eye area is clean (and then I still find more as I remove the rest of  my makeup. The result is that the cleansing process takes three times longer and I end up with raw skin around my eyes.

Bottom Line: I can see the point but it's not for me.

Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara ($16) is available at the counters, Sephora, Ulta, and clinique.com.

Photo of Grace Coddington by Jeanloup Sieff for British Vogue, September 1966 .