It’s...er, it’s okay. I am a mascara wh%re. I try them ALL. This is a natural-look mascara, which isn’t what I generally want. The numerous reviewers complaining that people shouldn’t downrate this for being natural-look would have a leg to stand on IF the package SAID this was natural-look. But it specifically says things like ‘root to tip volume’ and ‘full separated volume’. Heck, FULL is right in the name. It’s not unreasonable to expect a volumizing formula then!
Well, you’re not getting it.
There is NO volume, at all, unless you go at least three coats, by which point you are playing with clumps and spideriness. At two coats or less the claim of no clumping and lashes remaining ‘soft’ IS true.
The formula is a mousse, and made with beeswax; my lashes are quite pliable at two coats.
It’s not a super wet formula; the mousse texture is interesting and relatively workable.
However, at only one coat you will not be able to tell you have done anything. One coat: nothing. Three coats: blerrg! So it’s a two-coater, and for your two coats you get a mildly lengthening, averagely darkening but otherwise very low-key look. This is a good choice if you WANT no volume but a little length (not much). I always choose the ‘blackest black’ or ‘very black’ or ‘carbon black’ and Full Lash Bloom’s blackest offering is everyone else’s regular black. I shudder to think how gray the lighter blacks must be.
It’s good about not going panda, and yet it comes off easily at days’ end and I DO like THAT about it. I wish I could find a dramatic-look formula that doesn’t smudge yet removes quickly.
The brush, as others have noted, IS unusually hard and spiky. I almost never sympathize with brush complaints. Remember how everyone wept over how springy and wonky the Miss Manga brush is? I love that thing. If that brush is bending on you, you must be shoving it into your eye like a wild animal. I don’t think the Full Lash Bloom brush is QUITE as deadly as it’s been made out, but I DID notice it, so yeah, it probably is too much. It’s much more ‘solid’ than the average rubber spike brush, and they’re sharp; there’s not much give at all, so if you ARE prone to clumsy eye stabs, give this a wide berth. If you like to really get that sucker into the base of the lashes and wiggle it around, DON’T.
There are definitely days I’m fine with a VERY natural look, but usually I feel ‘it looks so subtle’ misses the point of mascara. If you work somewhere that frowns on thick lashes (???) then this is office-approved. But if you are not specifically seeking to look nearly like you do with bare lashes, give this a miss. I hate my bare lashes, so I probably won’t buy this again. I suppose I might try it with a different wand...
I like some of the other Blasts like Clump Crusher, the purple one (Volume, I think?). But the claim of ‘full’ and ‘volume’ for Full Lash Bloom is a TOTAL falsehood, so. Perhaps ‘Natural Lash Bloom’ would garner a better rating because people would be better prepared for what it actually is.
