I have a pile of mascaras to test at the moment (awful hard job; someone's gotta do it etc) and one of them is Smashbox's new Hyperlash Mascara, €24. I was fairly bleh about trying it, having been whelmed by Lash DNA, but this is pretty good. It scores points for the brush, firstly. I like plastic hedgehog-style wands over bog-brush affairs, finding them much easier to control and I like the way they deposit the mascara-gunk evenly on lashes with no back-splashing onto lids. So that was a good start.
The second good thing about this is that it's really nicely jet black, and one coat is enough to make a big difference to the appearance of lashes, something that not every mascara can manage. The marketing spiel is that it's "a high intensity 4-in-one mascara that lifts, lengthens, volumises and defines with absolutely no tradeoff."
So, does it do those four things?
Advertised
I'd say yes to the latter three attributes - immediately you notice black, fatter lashes - but didn't notice much in the way of lifting. Ah, you know, I didn't expect to either. I think it takes a particular type of polymer to properly grab and uplift lashes and even then it only works on some people. Eyelash curlers, gals. These are your friends pre-mascara if you want lift from the root.
Downsides? It's quite wet, so avoid touching the eye area for a few minutes, and I did notice a bit of flaking after a few hours but nothing major.
All in all, I think I'd give this a 7/10. It's for you if you want quick definition and a bit of drama, making it a good pick for night. It's not for you if you're expecting super-duper curly lashes, because in my experience it won't deliver on that particular promise.
