My Five Favorite Mascaras and Their Wands

Mascaras and their wands come in all different shapes and sizes and formulas, as varied as the mascara that they apply. Different styles of wands are meant for different jobs such as lengthening, volume-enhancing and layering mascara, just to name a few. These are a few of my favorites and how to use them.

Meet Mark, a division of Avon, makes a great little mascara called Mark Scandalash Hook Up Mascara. The Hook Up means that it can be attached to other Mark products, such as liquid eyeliner, cream eyeshadow, lip gloss, etc. It claims to "Lengthen, thicken, and define lashes without clumping." The wand itself is long and thin with short bristles, making it easy to coat a lot of lashes at once. Because the bristles are short, it's easy to get to the base of the lashes without getting mascara where you don't want it. The cost is $6.00 (plus applicable tax and shipping) and it comes in four colors: Blacklash, Brownout, Indiglow, and Winegloss. This mascara won a beauty award from seventeen magazine for the year 2009.

Rimmel created a very unique mascara wand to go with their Lash Maxxx Waterproof Mascara. The applicator is shaped like a tiny little comb. This mascara claims to multiply lashes three times with no clumping and that the precision wand captures every lash. This mascara takes a little practice to use, but with a little effort, you can coat every lash because the tiny, one sided wand can really get to those hard to reach lashes in the corners of your eye. This formula is a little on the wet side, so be careful not to apply it too heavily at first. This mascara only comes in black.

Maybelline really has the corner on the mascara market. Their mascaras are a lot of bang for your buck! I love the Define a Lash Washable Lengthening Mascara. "The zero clump mascara creates stunning length with clean definition." This has the most interesting wand I have seen. The wand is sort of hour glass shaped, with teeny little bristles. The wand itself is very flexible and soft, not stiff like most wands. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it really does define each lash without clumping. I love that the brush is flexible and doesn't put pressure on your lashes.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara. You can't miss it - it still comes in those old style pink and green tubes. I really love the Great Lash BIG mascara. The Big refers to the wand size. I really love these big wands as you can coat all your lashes quickly. It sounds silly, but the wand feels like a giant teddy bear for your eyes.

Lastly, the mascara I've been using the last couple of days is by Sephora. It's the tiny little tube that comes in the Insider Birthday Gift. It has a nice, big fluffy wand that's a little smaller that the Great Lash BIG wand. It coats all your lashes with a nice smooth formula, for a plumped effect that's not too over the top.

All the mascara's can be applied in similar ways. Snuggle the brush into the base of the lashes, gently pushing up to curl lashes, and hold for a few second. Slowly wiggle the wand upwards toward the end of the lashes, making sure to coat each lash. Repeat until all lashes are covered!