Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! Mascara Review

Hey everyone,
The claim according to Sephora.com: "Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! 4-in-1 Mascara is what we call a push-up bra for your lashes—a 4-in-1 (lengthening, curling, volumizing, and conditioning) dermatologist- and clinically-proven to increase the appearance of lash volume by 424% after applying giving dramatic, thick and sexy lashes".  After reading that amazing description, seeing that this mascara is paraben and sulfate free, and hearing some wicked reviews for it, i knew I had to try this mascara.  


Starting with the packaging, i really like the purple and the simple design on the sample packaging.  It's really simple and convenient.  I'm not a big fan of the packaging of the full size mascara though.  It's kind of like a fake snake skin packaging, which looks glamorous, yes, but it's just such a bulky tube. 

On to the brush,   it's definitely a regular looking mascara wand as opposed to mascaras with curved brushes or plastic bristles, and I really like it. 

Tarte Lights! Camera! Lashes! mascara on my top and bottom lashes.

Onto the quality of the mascara itself!  Firstly, this mascara has a normal formulation, it isn't too wet or too dry, so I feel like it will work on most lashes because of that.  When I apply this it definitely gives me a lot of nice volume and length.  I don't believe this mascara has any fibres in it, but I have medium sized lashes and I do get a decent amount of length with this.  (Since i love lengthy lashes though, i like to pair this with a lengthening mascara for that fake lash look).  This separates and thickens my lashes without making them clumpy, and adds a lot of volume.  I did see the tiniest bit of flaking, as you can see in the picture above, but it wasn't enough for me to really complain.  Another really great thing about this mascara is that it is so easy to remove, which is great at night when i really don't want to have to wrestle my mascara off my lashes.

As for conditioning qualities, I haven't noticed any difference in my lashes and i've been using this for months, so I don't believe that claim to be very true.  Next, the 424% lash volume increase is just a marketing claim.  It gives great volume, but i've used other mascaras that deliver better.  Another thing that I noticed about this mascara that I didn't like very much was its ability to hold a curl.  I noticed that after only an hour after applying it my lashes lost most of its curl and even lost some volume.  

Over all, I think it's a great concept and I love that it is a 'green' mascara, but a lot of the claims that are made regarding this mascara are overly exaggerated, and I think that I could get these (and better) results with a drugstore mascara.  Therefore I don't believe it is worth the $19 US splurge. 

What's your go-to mascara?