L'Oreal Paradise Extatic Mascara

Lash Paradise, the US version of this mascara, is surrounded by a massive hype, but as far as I can see on social media, Paradise Extatic is on its way to a similar success. The tube of the European version isn't nearly as beautiful to me as the US pink one, which is either unintentionally or intentionally similar to Too Faced mascara, the latter is also often mentioned as a dupe. I guess they decided to follow the rose gold trend and at least to me kind of failed, since it just looks rosy brown due to a matte effect (a completely rose gold metal look mascara - now that would be something). I bought mine the moment it reached Boots International, so I opted not to wait for it to reach our drugstores, since I assumed my wait would be a long one. It's now already sold in Slovenia, but it's more expensive than what I paid, I think the price is 14 € or somewhere in the ballpark. I've had mine for about two months now, I got it at the end of July, so it's been thoroughly tested, in fact it's already almost dry and I probably won't even get to use it much anymore.

Lash Extatic is a great mascara, it's definitely one of the best I've tried in general. It adds length, enough volume and because the formula is creamy, it defines my lashes as well. The brush contributes to that too and it's very easy to create fanned out lashes with a nice amount of volume. Paradise is a classic all-in-one mascara to me and it delivers, plus it's a top performer from the moment you open it, so there no wait for it to either thicken or dry up a bit. However, I had precisely such mascaras before and they weren't as hyped up. Beyu Lash Queen Volume, Max Factor Voluptious False Lash, Lancome Hypnose, Essence I <3 Extreme Volume waterproof and Essence Volume Stylist all perform the same or better on my lashes. In terms of how it works with my lashes that refuse to stay curled (note on the with/without picture how straight they are) - if I use it without a lash curler, it manages to lift lashes about half way. It's pretty good in that respect, but it not as good in terms of holding them there and they do drop in time. I haven't had any smudging from it despite the fact I was wearing it in the summer, which at least here was quite hot and it also doesn't flake, though there might be a tiny fleck or two at the end of the day.

Comparison of with and without mascara on my lashes. I did some curling, but this mascara isn't capable of holding the curled lashes in place as good as waterproof mascaras, so they already dropped a bit.

Mascara on both eyes:

The brush is very standard for mascaras, just a regular wand with no specific shape. It gets messy on the tip a lot due to creamy formula and then the neck gets mess too, so I'm not a fan of that because I feel I'm losing formula.

And now we get to the minus and to me it's a pretty big minus considering this is not the cheapest drugstore mascara. Two months in it's dry. I can still get some of it, but by now it's not building up on the lashes anymore, it's more just tinting them and giving them definition. Compared to Essence's Volume Stylist, it's dry and I got L'Oreal's a week or so later (I used both interchangeably in these two months). I find that part disappointing and it's probably going to be a reason why I won't repurchase it. I'm used to having a mascara for 6 months and just about every other one was functioning for that time period.

So worth the hype or not? If you have naturally nice lashes like me, not really because you'll get the same or better effect with an Essence, Max Factor of a Beyu mascara, but if you still haven't found the one, maybe it's worth a try. A lot of people rave about and it is a good mascara, just it's not all that for me. The fact it got dry so fast doesn't make me happy, especially since even online it wasn't that cheap. I also wish our version was pink as well, it would be much prettier.

I bought mine on Boots for £9.99

Have a great day!