Colourpop BFF Volumizing Mascara | Review

Hello friends!

At the beginning of 2019, Colourpop finally released their first mascara!  There were multiple different colors, plus black, which is what I have today – “Black on Black”.  With this launch, you can now purchase a full face of Colourpop if you so desire.

Packaging: The packaging is a white tube with black font.  The cap has various doodles on it with hearts, stars, and “BFF” on it.  This is a part of a new Colourpop BFF range, which includes mascara and various forms of eyeliners currently.

Applicator: The wand is an hourglass shape, reminiscent of iconic Too Faced Better than Sex.  It is very large, close to the same size as my eye, which makes it difficult to apply; especially on the inner corner of my lashes.  The bristles are nylon, if that matters at all in your purchasing decision!

Formula: The formula seems to be a bit dry right off the bat, so if that’s what you prefer this is a good option.  There does seem to be a lot of product that comes out on the wand, and I found myself scraping the sides off to have a little less.  This is especially true of the tip, so be sure to clean off the end or you’ll get a massive clump of product on your inner lashes!

Application: I had a hard time applying this without getting it all over my eyes because I have small eyes and the wand is so large.  I had to clean off lots of spots where it had touched my eyelid.  When I tried to apply this slowly and carefully it was easier to not get it everywhere!

After having it open and using it again about a week later, I noticed that it definitely made my lashes look clumpy and I had to try to separate them after using a mascara brush.  When taking my time in applying this, it was easier to keep the clumps from forming until I went to add a second coat; after that it did end up clumping again.

When you do apply a second coat, be sure to do it fairly quickly!  After taking my comparison photos, I went back to add a second coat and do my other eye.  I noticed that my lashes were really crunchy feeling and building any product on them was difficult – they just ended up looking clumpier without adding much length.

I noticed that if I wiggled the wand back and forth on my lashes it made the clumping worse than if I just swiped it up.  If you’re like me and you don’t like that look, I would definitely not wiggle!

Below is a comparison between one coat and my bare lashes.  You can definitely see the spots where my lashes ended up sticking together, even after I brushed them out.

Initial Appearance: I noticed after applying the amount of mascara I had wanted that my lashes were blackened and looked curled, but were not particularly voluminous.  I will concede that it could be due to my application – I was careful to keep it somewhat natural so that could have been part of the reason why, but because it only seemed to clump with more product, I’m not sure I would consider this volumizing either way.

Wear: After around five or six hours, I started to notice something incredibly disappointing – I was getting a lot of smudging and flaking.  From there on, it just got worse.  My undereyes were smudged with mascara as well as the inner corners of my eyes, and I had small flakes on my cheeks.  However, I did notice that when I only wore this on my top lashes I didn’t have anywhere near the amount of smudging or flaking – just minimal spots after 8 hours of wear.

After around 4 hours the curl does start to fall out, but one thing to note is that I did not curl my lashes before or after applying mascara!  It’s not a step I personally do, but I think if you did it after applying you would have more success with the curl lasting.

Overall: I don’t think this is a bad mascara by any means, but I’m not sure it’s something I would repurchase.  After testing it out for a while, I think I’ve finally figured out the best use of this mascara for me personally!

If you’re looking to get a natural lash with some curl and length, this should work for you!  Since I obviously don’t want to waste the rest of this mascara, I’ll be using this as an every day mascara just on my top lashes to add a little something to my no-makeup makeup looks.  When I wore this with a full face of makeup, it was underwhelming and building it up made it clumpy; not ideal for my preferences.

I’m actually incredibly interested in trying this in other colors, since I can tell that the formula really isn’t bad and so long as I only use it on my top lashes I assume there won’t be any flaking. It’s definitely important to note that I’m not sure if the formula will react the same way with the different colors, so beware!

You can find this on the Colourpop website for $8, a relatively standard drugstore price!  Since mascara formulas tend to change as they age, I will be giving you all an update in July with any additional thoughts!

Have you tried the Colourpop mascara?