Ellis Faas Mascara Review

I'm very glad that I waited to write the review for the Ellis Faas Mascara. I received this as a gift with purchase, and it's a good thing I did, because I don't think I would have gotten over the bumpy start if I had paid retail. Initially, the whole shebang was very disappointing. I couldn't put the wand back without huge clumps of mascara building up at the top and interfering with the screw closure. And god forbid product is lost!!! So I would sit there, painstakingly trying to get all the product back into the container by removing the wand, inserting the wand back, removing, inserting, removing, inserting, removing, inserting . . . well, you get the idea. It would take me five minutes just to put mascara on in the morning. NOT COOL. That's when I FREAK OUT ALL OVER THAT BUSINESS. Anyway, a week or two later, the problem vanished. Good thing.

Now that I can look past the crazy product loss disaster, I realize the formula is rather nice. It's reminiscent of the cult classic DiorShow. It adds lots of volume to my lashes, while keeping them supple. No crunchy lashes here. And the lash separation is very nice and natural, there are little to no clumps. There's a slight amount of transfer to the under eye, so you have to make sure you don't get raccoon-y by checking a mirror once or twice throughout a twelve hour day, but really, the transfer isn't any more or less than I experience with virtually all non-waterproof formulas.

The mascara wand brush head is nothing special, but I'm also not a believer in all that fancy business, so I couldn't care less. Because when you think about it, any makeup artist worth their salt uses those throw away mascara brush jobs, so they must not make that big of a difference, you know what'm'sayin'? Also, the wand itself is very long, which is definitely the most unique aspect of the entire presentation. It took a little bit of getting used to, but I think the length might help with even application. Neat-o.

So really the verdict is: nice enough mascara when you get past that awkward beginning, but not really anything exciting. Ellis Faas Mascara runs for $34, which is a lot of bank for being so similar to the $24 DiorShow. So don't bother buying it. I won't be.

But, if you're interested, Ellis Faas mascara can be bought at ellisfass.com, and Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.