Falling Short: Kjaer Weis Mascara in Black

I rarely fall for a high-end mascara; and then, more rarely still, I deem it falling short of my expectations. But recently, I was pretty excited to spot the Kjaer Weis Mascara in Black ($38 for a whole tube/ 0.19 oz, $24 for refill) at a sample sale, and without too much deliberation, I snatched it up... only to find myself rather annoyed with it.

Some key points from the press release: the Kjaer Weis Mascara is certified organic, refillable (and thus, more hygienic and sustainable), and it's supposed to be longwearing and durable (not sure what they mean by durable... the insert/refill has a shelf life of 3 months). The ingredients featured include cupuacu butter, beeswax, castor oil to nourish and protect lashes, lavender water and rose oil; the product is formulated without synthetic polymers, propylene glycol, parabens and polyethylene.

First off... this tube is tiny. I don't have big hands by any means, and you can see how small it looks in my hand - or compared to a sample size Clinique mascara below (the Clinique sample tube is actually fatter than the full size Kjaer Weis). I actually really like this simple, small silver tube - very easy to fit in any size make-up bag, and very elegant to pull out for a quick application on the go. My only gripe is quite OCD in nature - the cap doesn't perfectly align with the tube when fully tightened, which you can see below; and you wouldn't want to leave your tube only half-closed, would you?

The mascara wand is made of plastic/rubber and is very small and slim, with short, dispersed bristles that resemble a comb rather than a brush. The product has a subtle rose scent and the tube stopper wipes off the excess product efficiently, but leaves a glob on the very tip of the brush that has to be wiped off manually, as with most mascaras.

 I usually much prefer plastic/rubber brushes because they tend to give a more separated, lengthened effect; with this mascara however, I feel like the bristles are too sparse to really define my rather full lashline (you can see my bare lashes in the top photo of this Jack Sparrow-inspired comparison). With one coat, the brush does a decent job of subtly enhancing the lashes, giving them mostly length but little volume (middle). So, to amp up the volume, I go for a second coat (bottom)... wrong! Second coat results in spidery, sparse, stiff, clumpy lashes - the wand fails to separate individual hairs while the formula makes them stick together and deposits clumps left, right and center. Combing through with a clean spoolie doesn't help much - it removes large globs of product randomly, leaving your lashes half-bare, half-covered in random clumps. Just... clumpy clumps!

But, you know, you could stop at one subtle coat if natural-looking lashes is what you're after (I'm not. Gimme volume!). I could live with the realization that it's just not a mascara for me personally. Where I begin to be rather annoyed, though, is the fact that this mascara absolutely does not last at all - a couple hours in and my husband zeroes in on my cheeks to ask what the black flakes are doing there. It doesn't smudge, it doesn't transfer; it just flakes, and when I remove it with my cleansing oil, it comes off in big clumps as well. It's rather unpleasant if one of those gets stuck in your eye... Not fun at all.

But again - it could be the one I scored at the sale is just old. Or it dried out right away, because of the faulty packaging. However, at this point, I don't really care - I'm just glad I didn't shell out $38 for it... otherwise I would be really, really annoyed. Have you bought any expensive make-up products recently that fell short of your expectations? Any mascara formulations I should cross out from my shopping list?

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