Essence I <3 Extreme crazy volume mascara

Review time! I tend to stick to my Maybelline mascaras religiously but when I was gifted this Essence mascara in the Beautygloss party goodie bag, I decided to try it out. I was curious whether this cheap mascara could beat my 5x more expensive Maybelline favorite.

A bit of information about the mascara:

I Love Extreme Mascara’s “crazy” sister – with even more volume! The deep-black, creamy texture covers each individual lash with color and the extra-large plastic brush provides sensational volume.

So the question is: does this mascara provide sensational volume? Before we do that, let’s have a look at the packaging first.

The mascara comes in a simple mascara tube and has a big straight brush with plastic bristles. The tip of the brush has longer bristles, much like Benefit’s They’re Real mascara for easy access to the lashes in the corner. Unfortunately, the first problem I have with this mascara is that the brush is loaded with product when you first take it out of the tube. Here’s what I mean:

As you can see, there is way too much product on the brush and so I wiped it on the edge of the opening. The result is a lot better, but the problems do not end there. At first the texture was okay as well, but within only 2 weeks of opening, this mascara became thick and gloopy. Combined with the amount of product on the brush, it became more and more difficult to wipe off the excess product.

But what is the effect on my lashes. Here’s a view straight ahead, when I look up and when I look down. The first picture is without any product on, the middle picture is after first applying the mascara and the most right picture is after using a clean mascara wand to brush through.

I like the end result of this mascara. However, it does take some effort to get that result. Apart from wiping product off the brush, after first application this mascara makes for a nice spidery effect with lashes sticking together. Not pretty. So I used a clean mascara wand to brush through: again, another extra step. And needless to say, the spider leg effect only got worse as the mascara’s texture quickly became gloopy.

All in all, I started off liking this mascara, but ended up throwing it away after 1 month of using it as the texture had become too thick to work with. On top of that, this mascara required me to take 2 extra steps in my mascara application process, which I do not experience with my Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara, which also last me the maximum life span of a mascara: 3 months. This may be a cheap mascara, but if I am required to spend more time on my mascara than necessary, plus buying a new mascara every month instead of every 3 months then I think it’s worth shelling out the extra money and stick to my more expensive option. Sorry, Essence, I really wanted to like this mascara!

What is your experience with Essence mascaras?