mascara mondays: benefit roller lash

The hype around the launch of Benefit’s new mascara, Roller Lash, was crazy. I could not go on any form of social media without being inundated with news about this mascara. And to be honest I kind of rolled my eyes. Benefit had two other mascaras prior to launching this: Bad Gal and They’re Real!  I found Bad Gal to be very average and not at all impressive or worth the price tag. They’re Real is an incredible mascara but it’s basically IMPOSSIBLE to remove without ripping out 30% of your eyelashes, so I rarely use it.

With this track record, I wasn’t all that jazzed about Roller Curl. But, as a mascara obsessive I finally broke down and figured I should investigate for myself and report my findings to you. And I’m so glad I did! Guys, this mascara is great.

The whole shtick with this is that it’s inspired by hair curlers and so curls and lifts your lashes. As y’all know, I’m a volume kind of girl. Curly, separated lashes are lovely – they’re just not my end-game and I absolutely wouldn’t sacrifice volume to achieve that.  So I had no doubt that this mascara would provide good lift as well as definition due to the plastic brush, but I didn’t have high hopes for volume.

I am happy to have been proven wrong! This is a great all-rounder mascara: it gives good separation and there’s definitely no clumpiness in sight, but it still gives great volume so that your lashes look really plush and full. It also builds on itself really well, so you can layer on those coats if you want really thick, full lashes (I’d say I do 3-4 coats – which is fairly normal for me). I can’t really say if it holds a curl particular well, as I always curl my eyelashes everyday regardless. I wouldn’t say this replaces an eyelash curler – I don’t think a mascara or any product can replicate the physical effects of curling your eyelashes with a curler.

The kitschy packaging is cute, as with all Benefit products. The brush is good – it’s a very thin, bristled plastic brush. Benefit claims it’s patent-pending! Are they taking their brush a bit too seriously here? Answer: yes – it is good, but I don’t think it’s revolutionary.  They also clearly learned their mistake from They’re Real being flipping impossible to remove, as they say right in their product description that it’s easy to remove. And it is!

Overall I think this is a really good mascara and I’m happy with it.  In terms of volume I still prefer Tarte’s Lights, Camera Lashes, but this is still quite good and I’m really enjoying using it.

• formula: 8/10
• brush: 8/10
• overall look: 8/10

What do you think of Roller Lash – do you like it? What’s your favourite mascara that I should try next?