The Great Mascara Hunt: Fresh Supernova Mascara

Review by Cavewoman

photo from Sephora and a picture of a supernova from wps.av.com
The supernova is called Supernova 1994D in the outskirts of the galaxy NGC 4526.
Graphic from Katie at Scentzilla


Pretty packaging always grabs my attention and turns my eye. I like girly things, cute things, unusual things, and when I saw the Fresh Supernova mascara box I did not hesitate. Off to the checkout at Sephora I went, plunking down the $25 without blinking an unmascara'd eye. Supernova! The name promised super lashes. The shiny black box, decorated with delicate white swirls and red and white stars, had me convinced that Supernova could perform lash miracles on my stubs. Inside the box, the black matte, rubbery-feeling tube was girly-cuteness to match the box. I'm pretty sure that much of that hefty pricetag went into the packaging of this mascara. The tube is just a delight to have and to hold.
But a cute package and a pretty container do not always mean a well-made product with good performance. So I brought home my new mascara and set out to see if I could have superlashes with Supernova. I liked the long, thick brush with no taper, and the bristles were spaced well enough to show that plenty of mascara was loaded onto the brush without having to work the brush inside the tube. Supernova was super easy to apply with no dotting or flaking, and I was able to achieve a nice lift on my straight lashes and decent length too. Nothing outrageous, no Liza effect, and very little volume or thickening, but a nice sooty darkening because Supernova is very black. I did not have to apply coat after coat to get beautifully separated and defined lashes, and I did not need my mascara comb because my lashes did not stick together even after a second coat. Later in the day I checked how the mascara was performing. No flakes! No clumps! No more 'lift' either, but I never expect my lashes to stay lifted, and they don't, whether or not I even bother to curl them. Most of the time I don't.

I am very pleased with Supernova. It is not perfect, because I got no thickening or volumizing with it, but it did lengthen a bit. There was no smearing, flaking, or clumping at the end of the day, and it was easily removed with my Almay Non-Oily Eyemakeup Remover Pads. And even though the packaging is adorable, I would not repurchase. I'm sure there are better mascaras out there (for less greenbacks,) maybe not so pretty on the outside, but that will build thick, long, lush fringe. I'm still in search of. I'll be reporting as I search.

Product Rating: Cuteness, a perfect 10.
Product Rating: Performance 7.

Disclosure: This product was purchased by the reviewer, Cavewoman