Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes mascara review

Sometimes you don't realise how good a product is until you've reached the end of it. This is exactly what happened with this mascara.

As is usual for me, if I hear great things about a product I will research it to death online, obsess about it for a few weeks/months, check it out multiple times in person and then eventually cave in and buy it, usually when I've decided I don't actually need it. And then once I've bought it I decide that I do need it.

I bought the Givenchy Phenomen'eyes mascara a year ago. What makes it different is the 'medieval torture ball' brush head which is supposed to deliver phenomenal (geddit?) lashes.

So why did I wait a year to talk about it? Because in the beginning I wasn't that sold. Somehow I found it faffy to use and it took longer to apply to my lashes than using a regular mascara wand would. The results were nice, and I couldn't deny it was a good mascara, I mean, my lashes looked long and fluttery afterwards, but the faffiness took the fun out for me and it got relegated to the bottom of the box.

Recently I've found it really tough to make my lashes look good. They seem to have gotten shorter and a little sparser and no mascara seemed to be able to make them look as luscious as I like them to be. I don't want either length or volume, I want both and with a lot of flutteriness to boot.

Naughtily I tend to keep my mascaras beyond the 3 month mark. You're supposed to chuck them after 3 months of opening to avoid eye infections, but I have to be honest.... I've never gotten an infection from using a mascara for an extended period of time. If they dry out and begin to flake on me I chuck them as they are then useless at that point, but if there is still product in the tube which continues to deliver then I'm not throwing it away. Maybe one day I'll learn my lesson the hard way, who knows.....

So, this little Givenchy number was lurking in my drawer and I pulled it out a few weeks bag. I was astonished by how much better my lashes looked with this on. Maybe I hadn't realised before, or maybe the formula had thickened a little with time and became better for my lash type, but now this mascara gives me everything I want in a mascara: length, volume, definition and flutter by the bucketload.

It's still not the quickest of mascaras to apply but seeing these results makes me want to use it more, it just makes all my other mascaras look mediocre, which I guess they are. What I do like about the unique wand is the fact that you have a lot of control over where you apply the product and this precision gives gorgeous lash separation.

After all this time it hasn't dried out and it's still going strong. I call that value for mone
Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes is about £22 in the UK, roughly 26 euros here in Brussels depending on the retailer.

Score: 9/10

A little update

Dearest beauty buffs, I thought I would update you on my situation just to explain the long boring silence on this blog recently...

The news is this:  Mr P and I are leaving Brussels and migrating like two juicy pigeons to London!

The mascaras and lipglosses wouldn't quite fit in the boot

It's a very exciting time but also jam-packed full of stress, removals boxes and endless fights about who's things are more important and require more bubble wrap. I'm happy to report that the bulk of my nail and make-up collection has been hand-delivered to London already, perhaps at the expense of Mr P's shoes, but hey, sacrifices have to be made.

So now you understand the recent lack of posts. I hope to be able to post a few titbits in the next two weeks or so before the move itself so bear with me :)

I started this blog from the perspective of living in Brussels but always with regular influences from the UK beauty market. Beauty shopping in Brussels could never match the sheer variety and competitive pricing of the UK, but there will definitely be things I will miss about this little city.... in fact that will probably be one of my next posts.

I hope I will be able to keep my 'voice' in the blogging stratosphere amongst the squillions of other UK beauty bloggers. I may still be a small fish, but I like to think I'm a strong swimmer ;)

Looking forward to seeing you all on the other side of the channel!