Having seen adverts for Max Factor’s False Lash Effect mascara everywhere lately I thought I ought to test it out. When I received mine a little closer inspection confused me – I found the incongruity between the product name (false lash effect) and description of ‘full lashes, natural look’ bizarre. How could a mascara simultaneously look natural and false? Is the cosmetic version of natural so patently unnatural that the best you could hope for is a supposedly ‘natural’ look from a mascara which mimics falsies? So many questions.
I looked online. The parting shot of the description blurb is ’100% impact. 100% you.’ Only it isn’t 100% you at all, is it? Nope. Not if it’s meant to look false.
Baffled, I assumed that they meant to imply that you could have beautifully full natural lashes, as if they weren’t your own. I looked around for a mascara which promised something similar with a degree of natural in their formulation, and found Eye of Horus. That’s Horus, with an H. Their spiel made a bit more sense to me: ‘designed to accentuate and enhance the natural beauty of your lashes.’ I also liked that all the Egyptian godessness aside, this brand thinks like me – they want to get the most from your lashes while conditioning them, and they seem to like natural ingredients.
Enough of the thinking behind these two and onto how they fared…
Here is my nude-lashed tester:
Here she is with the Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara on:
And here she is with Natural Mascara by Eye of Horus:
As you can see, the Max Factor mascara will really make your eyes pop, but the wand is quite fiddly, and you really need to take your time to apply it. The Eyes of Horus mascara is less high impact, but felt very conditioning and really made the most of eyelashes, without looking too false. Both worthy contenders, but my money will be going on the Horus. With an H.
