Review & Swatches: Benefit Roller Lash Mascara

Benefit Roller Lash Mascara is Benefit Cosmetics' latest release! I was able to get a sample of it through a Sephora order before its official release date, which is today. The main claims and aspects of this mascara is about their "Hook 'n' Roll" wand that will hook onto each lash to visibly lift and curl the lashes. The Roller Lash Mascara contains 0.30 ounces of product and retails for $24.

When I do include packaging and applicator pictures, I tend to put them at the end of the posts. Since Benefit kept emphasizing the brush, I wanted to focus on that first. 

The packaging is similar to the full size, but of course it's smaller and the handle is simpler. The brush is exactly the same as the full size though.

There is a curve in the brush with the shorter brushes on the (relative) top. The curve on the bottom has slightly longer. The bristles are plastic and so it helps with defining the lashes. 

When turned another way, you can see that the brush is flatter. In terms of mascara applicators, I'm a huge fan of the Roller Lash mascara wand. Plastic bristles work best on my lashes to define them and the shortness of the bristles help me thicken the roots as well. The curve of the wand is also perfect and fits my eye shape pretty well.

Top left - bare lashes
Top right - bare and curled
Bottom left - one coat top and bottom
Bottom right - two coats top and bottom

Now onto the formula!

I had such high hopes for this mascara because I thought it would at least keep the curl. I wasn't banking on the claim that it would curl my lashes at all, but it should at least hold it. As you can see, it really didn't hold the curl. They do go up a bit more than my uncurled lashes, but a lot of other non-waterproof mascaras give me the same effect.

Bare / One coat / Two coats

For me, I didn't see too much clumping and so that's a plus from me. You can see that my lashes do thicken up with the more coats I have on it. 

Side note. My camera worked so well taking macro shots of the bottom view of my lashes but when I tried to take some waterproof "base coat" + layer of Roller Lash photos, it would not focus on anything at all. Why camera, why. 

Bare and uncurled / Left eye curled but both bare / One coat top and bottom on each eye / Two coats on the left and one coat on the right

For a non-waterproof mascara, I didn't see any smearing, smudging, or flaking and I have watery eyes. 

On my lazier and/or simpler days, I can see myself using this to beef up my lashes. It flares out my lashes nicely and doesn't feel hard or "crunchy" on my lashes. With that being said, Maybelline Sensational has a very similar wand and the non-waterproof version gave me the exact same results as this mascara. 

A lot of people con about They're Real Mascara is that it's hard to remove. I didn't have that problem with They're Real and I also don't have a problem with removal for Roller Lash. I have used my cleansing oil from The Body Shop and cleansing water from Simple together and separately and the mascara would come off without any trouble. 

Final thoughts: Meh. This mascara (like most high end and non-waterproof formulas) isn't for me. It uncurled my lashes and my #1 requirement for mascaras is to hold the curl. I've seen swatches of this mascara on naturally curly and less stubborn lashes and it looks great on them, but I did not get that effect at all. When I did layer it onto a waterproof mascara as a base, it does look great but not great enough to pay $24 for the full size. I will use up the deluxe sample I got on my lazier makeup days, but it's not impressive enough on my naturally straight lashes. For those who have better lashes, I do recommend checking it out though because the wand is perfect and the formula is volumizing without being clumpy.

Reminder - If you haven't seen my post about it yet, there's a giveaway going on for two Life's Entropy lipsticks! It ends on March 5 and the link is here!