One day in office, I was thinking to myself…we haven’t received a press release from Majolica Majorca in a while…is everything ok with the brand? Before we emailed the Majolica team, I had this sinking feeling that the brand was gone, and I was right; they informed us that Shiseido was pulling Majolica Majorca out of Singapore. It was another sad day for me following similar news about another favourite brand of mine — ettusais. The one item I must have from Majolica Majorca is the Lash Bone eyelash primer; it’s the best lash primer I’ve ever tried in my life. It holds the eyelash curl, adds on fibres that lengthen and fatten lashes, and makes any mascara applied after it work twice as good! But what to do… life must go on, and so now I’m on the hunt for a lash primer to replace that one. I spent a week reviewing all the ones we could find in Singapore:

Reviews by Adele Chan

1. Benefit They’re Real! Tinted Primer, $42

Rating:

The first thing that struck me when I applied this primer, was that the formula is brown. Brown! I don’t mind brown, but I wonder why they didn’t make it black — black would have made more sense (but then that would sort of turn it into an actual mascara too, right?). The wand is long and holds quite a lot of product on it, so sweeping on the primer was fast and easy — just a few swipes covered all lashes. The wand’s bristles are good too; they really latch on to lashes and deposit the product well. But… within 10 seconds of putting on this primer, my curled lashes fell flat (and they were super curled before application!). Oh well, looks like this primer defeated its purpose for me. Moving on.

2. Dior Diorshow Maximizer 3D Triple Volume-Plumping Lash Primer, $54

Rating:

I need to give this away; it completely does not work for me! To begin with, the brush is too fat for my thin, short lashes; and I accidentally painted my eyelid with the primer! I wouldn’t mind that so much, except that this primer formula is super white! Like liquid paper white! I believe this product was created without Asians or the horrid humidity of Singapore in mind. Once I swept the product on, my nicely curled lashes fell flat from the thick, heavy formula! I could actually see them dropping! So now I have white, flat lashes. I won’t use this again.

3. KATE TOKYO Lash Maximizer White, $20.50

Rating:

I love this brush; it’s long (fast to apply!), slightly curved (fits the shape of lashes well!) and the brush is fluffy (fun!). There are short black fibres that deposit on the lashes, making them a bit longer and fatter, but most importantly, LASHES DO NOT UNCURL! So far, this is best mascara primer I’ve tried since I started on my quest to replace the one I can’t get from Majolica anymore.

4. Shiseido Nourishing Mascara Base, $41

Rating:

This wand is thinner than the rest, which should make it pretty easy to sweep the product onto lashes, except that the product itself is… how do I say this… invisible. I couldn’t see it. But I know there’s something there, because there are hints of some mascara-like thing on my lashes after brushing it on. When I stare closely at the product on the brush, it looks like a clear balm. And it feels weird to apply balm to my lashes, but this Shiseido formula does not disappoint! It does not make my lashes droop at all. At all! Mascara goes on easily after this primer, though I’m not sure I see much of a difference in my lashes whether I use this primer or not. I suspect it fixes the curl, which like C is for cookie, is good enough for me. NOTE: This primer was the hardest to wash off, even with a good cleansing oil. I had to triple cleanse to remove all traces of my mascara because of this balmy formula!!! None of the rest of these primers gave me this problem.

5. NYX Big & Loud Lash Primer, $14

Rating:

Oh no… another primer that made my lashes uncurl almost immediately after application. There was also nothing particularly special or remarkable about the brush or product. Looks like the Japanese are still leading in this race to find my replacement lash primer…

6. IT Cosmetics Tightline™ 3-in-1 Black Primer – Eyeliner – Mascara, $42

Rating:

This final primer came to me with so much promise. It claims to be not just a primer, but a mascara and eyeliner as well. The brush is super thin and slightly bent (which I assume was on purpose and I didn’t bend it pulling it out of the tube); and applying the product was surprisingly easy. The little bristles grabbed on to lashes and deposited product evenly and precisely. So much promise… until my curl came drooping down…There’s no way to salvage this… I have to spend the day with horizontal lashes.

 

VERDICT:
And the winner is… KATE TOKYO LASH MAXIMIZER WHITE! I don’t need to hunt down my Majolica Lash Bone in Tokyo anymore! This one from Kate Tokyo adequately keeps my lashes curled, plumping and lengthening them with little fibres in the amazing formula.