I finally got my hands on the thing – it was sold out everywhere for almost a month. So, here it goes, with love, for the two viewers who asked me to do the review on the Maximalist Mascara from H&M :)
the wand has a huge classic bristle brush, that I found quite difficult to manoeuvre. the slightest gesture would get mascara on my forehead. ok, I’m exaggerating: on my upper lid. I couldn’t do my favourite “roll the mascara on the base of the lashes to get more volume” move, in fear of ripping a retina or something. so you have to take it very easy with this one, and take your time coating the lashes and it’s not comfortable to try to brush through them. the brush, despite its size, allows the product to coat them quite evenly and with separation, which is a good thing.
the formula is creamy, not too fluid – I like that. It’s not extremely black, or blackest black, or inky black… it’s just black. it gives quite a bit of volume to the lashes, but it doesn’t clump them together, which is quite nice. the finish can be dense and fluttery, but nothing too in-your-face. “intense volume and thickness, maximising your lashes in one coat” are the claims… I wouldn’t go that far. you have to work several coats before you start seeing any actual results on your lashes… and, as I’ve previously stated, working this mascara is quite a chore.
the deal-breaker, though, unfortunately, is that once the mascara sets, it takes only a couple of hours before it starts to flake relentlessly on to my under-eye area… it can happen with other mascaras, of course, especially if you touch your eyes frequently, but it never happened this fast. also, I used it on my lower lashes and it breaks down quite quickly into that infamous racoon-eye effect. you can actually see that happen in the video, and I had been wearing the mascara for about 3 hours…
all in all, it’s a meh product, in my humble opinion… H&M beauty has great products where the 10€/8£ would be much better spent.
the freevolous 