The Great Mascara Hunt: Bourjois Talons Aiguilles

mascara review by cavewoman
graphic by Katie @ Scentzilla

It's May Mascara Madness time!

I must preface my first mascara review with a huge rave for the hunting-and-gathering ability of our own Annie. Set her loose in a TJMaxx, and before I've even scoped out one rack of handbags, she's running to me with an armful of goodies to put in our shopping cart. The last visit to our local Maxx was no exception. Annie found a sweet box from Bourjois, which contained a 3-D lipgloss, a pair of fishnet knee-highs by Betsey Johnson, and a black mascara called Talons Aiguilles. The price for this set was $7.99, who could resist! Not us!

The Talons Aiguilles is a "lengthening and curving mascara." Since I have short, straight lashes, you can imagine how eager I was to give this mascara a try. I first curled my lashes (usually I don't even bother, since they might stay curled just long enough for me to apply one coat of mascara) and started to apply the Talons. As I was coating my lashes, I wondered about the name Talons, like eagle claws, and thought it was a weird name for a mascara, but Bourjois does have good mascaras and I kept on stroking on the product. It takes me about five minutes to apply just about any mascara. No wonder I rarely bother to use it. Too much work, too little payoff.
But wait! Do I see lashes? Yes! Talons was actually lifting my lashes and lengthening too! Granted, it was taking a long time to achieve the look, but there was little gooping and clumping, and stroking through again with the brush helped to even out the application. I did not need a lash comb. With Talons, I did not wait for each coat to dry to begin applying another coat. My lashes were sooty black (pretty!) and lengthened (wow!) and curled upward (amazing!) and I was pleased with the results. Off I went on a day of errand running.
At the end of the day, I put on my reading glasses to examine the mascara on my lashes. Absolutely no flaking whatsoever, no clumping, still a bit curled, but they were actually lengthened enough that they were pushing up against my eyeglass lenses! Now I was even more impressed with Talons.
Removal of Talons was easy with my Almay Non-Oily Eye Makeup Remover Pads. These are the only eyemakeup remover product I ever use. Two pads per eye completely removed the Talons.
Talons by Bourjois is a superb mascara, it does help to hold a curl on even the straightest eyelashes, it lengthens without cluming if you work quickly, and it stays put until you remove it. It does take time to get the effect, but almost every mascara I have ever used takes lots of time for me to build visible lashes. I'm used to having to take extra time to get a good application.

I tip my Philip Treacy hat to our Annie for discovering this bargain at our TJMaxx!
Product rating, 8.

*If anyone would like to participate in mascara madness please contact me at annieytown@yahoo.com

Bloggers participating in May Mascara Month:
http://www.beautifulmakeupsearch.com/blog2/
http://beautyaddict.blogspot.com/
http://blend10.blogspot.com/
http://thedailyobsession.wordpress.com/
http://beautydiary.blogspot.com/
http://www.ladybuglife.blogspot.com/
http://monkeyposh.blogspot.com/
http://thenonblonde.blogspot.com/
http://scentzilla.com/
http://after-so-much-thinking.blogspot.com/
http://victoriasown.blogspot.com/

Disclosure: This product was purchased by the reviewer, Cavewoman