Mascara that does not age like a fine wine: Review of Rimmel Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

I got this Rimmel Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara in the Birchbox Mass Appeal box recently, which I would have recommended since it was such a good deal, but it sold out right away. (You can look at it here, if you want to for some reason.) I doubt I would have bought the mascara on its own, mainly because of don't really think of Rimmel for mascara - or anything else, really. It's not a brand that gets my attention very often. I'm not sure if I've ever used one of their mascaras before.

This mascara is an interesting one, although (spoiler) I wouldn't buy it again. Mascara reviews are tricky, because there doesn't seem to be a lot of consensus about which mascaras are good and which are bad. Mascara is pretty polarizing. For instance, I've read a lot of recommendations for Maybelline Great Lash (from real people, not just fashion magazines), but it is a huge fucking blah for me. And I absolutely love Covergirl LashBlast, but other people have told me it does nothing for them. So I think it depends on what your lashes are like and what results you're looking for. I'll give you my specs so you can decide if you will be likely to agree or disagree with my assessment of this stuff.

I have short, sparse, blonde lashes. In other words, they're invisible and they need a lot of fucking help. Accordingly, I like my mascara to provide both volume and length. I don't like clumps. I know some people are into drama at any cost and so a little clumping is fine, but I think it looks and feels weird on me. I am not too concerned about the shade of the product: brown, fairly black, very black, whatever. I can't put up with flaking or smearing, though. Dealbreaker. Some mascaras I like are, as I said, Covergirl LashBlast (in all its variations - Clump Crusher reviewed here), e.l.f. 3-in-1 (reviewed here), and Urban Decay Perversion. I liked the effects of L'Oreal Butterfly, but it flaked like crazy (reviewed here).

The most interesting thing about this mascara is its weird, curvy brush. I was afraid it was going to be gimmicky and annoying to use, but it's actually fine. You don't even really have to twist it around much - any part of the curve tends to work on any part of the lashes. The convex part of the curve is extra helpful to get at shorter lashes in the corners of the eyes. It also doesn't flake or smear on me, though even this will vary from person to person it seems, depending on how the oils in your skin react with a particular formula.

Usually I start to like mascaras a week or two after I've started using them, when the product has become just a little drier. They tend to become less messy and to add volume more easily. But I've had the opposite experience with this stuff. At first it was great - smooth, even length + volume - but now, a couple weeks later, it's starting to get globby and clumpy. You can see a glob stuck to the end of the brush in the photo above, and it's often worse than that. To get it to look really good, I should be combing through my lashes after applying it, but that's more work than I am willing to do on a regular basis. You can see below photos of both of my eyes taken on the same day. The first one is okay, but on the second, there are lots of blobs stuck to the ends of my lashes. Not great. It's pretty inconsistent.

No mascara

Two coats of Rimmel Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara

Two coats of Rimmel Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara

I'm guessing it's the brush that makes the difference here. With a spiky brush, a thicker/drier formula might work better, but a fluffier brush like this is more likely to gather globs, so the formula needs to be thinner. Of course, not every fluffy brush has that problem. I've really liked the two mini tubes of Urban Decay Perversion that I've used, for instance, and its super fluffy brush didn't have this problem, even after using it for weeks.

Overall, I find this mascara just okay. It does the job, and I certainly have used worse, but I also know there are better ones out there. While I don't love this for myself, I think it might be worth trying if you like thick formulas for lots of volume. The goopiness might not be as evident if you have thicker or longer lashes than I do to begin with (and I think most people do).

What do you think of mascaras with weird brushes? I've liked some and hated others. This one looks particularly weird but was surprisingly easy to use.