It’s been a little while since I last reviewed a L’Oreal mascara. Well over two years, I’m fairly certain. So, I figured I would do a quick stroll through the drugstore and see what’s new. And wouldn’t you know it, L’Oreal has a new member to their best selling Telescopic range. Everyone, meet the Extensionist Mascara. With it’s shiny packaging and promise of extreme length, it was a shoo-in for me to try. I’ve spent the last few weeks using it and I have thoughts. Let’s get into it!
L’OREAL PARIS TELESCOPIC EXTENSIONIST MASCARA – $32.99 – chemistwarehouse.com.au
We’ll kick this off with the packaging. And the Extensionist is basically the polar opposite of L’Oreal’s last mascara launch, the Panorama Mascara. The Panorama packaging was gold chrome with embossed detail, the Extensionist is silver chrome with embossed detail. Otherwise, it’s a simple cylindrical tube style package. Lightweight, but not in a cheap way. The Extensionist mascara contains 9ml of product.
Let’s chat about the brush now. And the brush for the Extensionist mascara does appear to be one of the big selling points. It’s a molded brush head, boasting over 300 individual bristles that go all the way along the head. Interestingly, the bristles appear to be even in length. I would have assumed that some might be longer to help with separation. It is a little on the long side, but not super long. If I have one nitpick, I don’t like the tip as I find it collects excess product very easily.
The formula is also noteworthy this time around. This formula uses a combination of magnetic pigments and fibers to help create maximum length for the lashes. Now, normally, I’m not the biggest fan of fibers in my mascara as they have caused issues in the past. But I didn’t really have an issue with them. They seemed to be small enough to blend in well with the rest of the formula. What I did have an issue with was the texture. That’s the other thing. The Extensionist formula is very wet and liquidy. And it takes a long time to fully dry down. I can’t tell you how many times I ruined a makeup look because I’ve sneezed immediately after applying this mascara. So, that’s a point against this mascara already.
What did manage to win me back, however, is that this mascara did deliver on it’s claims of maximum length. I was immediately impressed the first time I tried this mascara on and it was very easy to build the formula up on the lashes. Having said that, I did find that I had to be careful. The wet nature of this formula did occasionally mean that some of my lashes wanted to join together. And no amount of wriggling the brush head could get them to separate. Something to keep an eye out for.
Another minor quibble that I had was that despite the fact that this was a legitimately good lengthening formula, it wasn’t a good curling or lifting formula. My lashes felt and looked kind of flat. And any lift I did get I suspected was going to get weighed down throughout the day. Finally, if you’re a volume girly, this mascara probably isn’t for you. It’s OK volume, but you’re certainly not going to get a super dramatic lash effect from this mascara.
I feel like this review so far has been me just dumping on this mascara. Good thing I do an all day wear test. Because this mascara destroyed all of my preconceived notions that I had about it. The Extensionist mascara wore all day without smudging, flaking, or transferring. And considering a) how wet this formula is, and b) the fiber factor, that blew me away! I did experience some drooping with the lashes. That was to be expected. But otherwise, this performed much, much better than I could have possibly imagined.
All in all, while I do have quibbles with the formula, the wear of the Extensionist Mascara is so good that I’m willing to overlook most of them. Ultimately, I do recommend it, but please, PLEASE do not pay full price for it. Buy it half off where and when you can. Have you tried the L’Oreal Extensionist Mascara? Let me know in the comments.
Cheers and love
Emily xo