Essence Color Flash Volume mascara in #01 and #04 review

Feeling like experimenting with some colour? Summer is the time to do so. 

If you are unsure if some crazy shades deserve a permanent seat in your make-up drawer, try something inexpensive, and perhaps later, when you like yourself like that, you can explore limited edition summer collections by high-end brands. 

Essence Colour Flash mascara #01

Essence Colour Flash mascaras are perfect tools to experiment with colour. 

They're super cheap.

They come in bright, fun packaging, which reflects the shade of the mascara inside.

The colours are vibrant, the wands are traditional natural bristles spoolies that do their jobs pretty well.

I've got shades #01, which is a bright green shade that looks sort of teal on the lashes and #4, which is a turquoise shade.

It says on the packaging that this mascara can be used on hair as well.

Now, while I do recommend this mascara as a sample, just to try if you like the shade or not, I must say that qualitywise they're crap.

While they distribute a decent amount of bright, noticeable, flashy colour, they don't wear well at all. They're supposed to be a 'volume mascara', but even with a couple of coats I didn't notice any spectacular volume. But I must admit that the lashes are clump-free, nicely combed out and even curled.

The main problem is that the mascara is totally unwaterproof. And I'm not talking about beach or swimming pool situations. I'm not talking weddings or emotional films. Not even summer showers. I'm talking watery eyes, a tear that forms in your eyes when you laugh or yawn. A single drop of water dissolves this mascara and makes it melt to your undereye. It also happens to stain the skin, so it's almost impossible to remove without heavy duty oil-based removers, which you hardly ever carry with you in your make-up bag. And even at night, after I've done all proper cleansing, I end up going to bed with a smudged feal liner on my bottom lashline.

And don't even dare apply these mascaras on your bottom lashline. 

These mascaras feel as if their ingredients were chalk, water and pigment, without any binding agent. 

I'm sure that if you used this on your hair and were caught in the rain, the mascara would permanently stain your clothing.

Essence Colour Flash mascara #04