I’m not going to beat around the bush here. I don’t like gimmicks and I don’t like this mascara. I really wanted to like this mascara. I really did. I wanted to fall head over heels in love with it and become inseparable and never let anything else touch my lashes. But, love doesn’t work that way. You can’t force yourself to love something and you can’t force it to love you back. It’s the hard truth. And the truth may hurt. But that’s life, folks. You live and you learn and you just move on. Slowly, but surely. And then, when you’re ready, you buy yourself a new mascara and you learn to love again.
At first glance, this Givenchy Noir Interdit mascara ($38CAD/$29USD) seemed super duper cool. First of all, the packaging is GORGEOUS. I’m not usually one who is taken aback by packaging but when I opened the box and pulled out this sleek rectangular tube, I was in awe. It just had such a chic vibe of luxury with it’s heavy weight and a stripe of ribbon down the front. And to really set it apart from other mascaras, it’s scent is a perfume I wouldn’t mind wearing. Yes, you heard correctly, this mascara smells glorious. Usually, mascaras don’t have a scent and if they do, they smell funky and chemically. But this one legit smells like a perfume. And before you ask, no, the scent didn’t irritate my eyes. It was totally fine!
The second thing to set this mascara apart from it’s competitors is the 90°brush. The wand hinges in the middle, allowing it to be bent down at a 90° angle. In my whole ten years of mascara experience, I’ve only ever once seen a mascara like this before- the Lancome Grandiose mascara (read review here) that has a curvy kink (that sounded sexual, sorry) in the middle of the wand. And unfortunately, both times with both mascaras, I found this weird gimmicky trait to be useless and unhelpful. The 90° angle didn’t change anything for me. It was the exact same as using a regular straight wand. However, this mascara isn’t allbad. The brush has super spiky bristles so you get a really nice amount of definition with this mascara. There are no clumps to be seen. The main benefit of this mascara is supposed to be extremelength. And while I definitely didn’t notice any amount of extremelength, this mascara is definitely more lengthening than volumizing. And usually, length is something I prefer, but ever since I started using the new Dior Pump n’ Volume mascara (read review here), I have discovered that I love the look of lush voluminous lashes. But if you’re more into length and definition, definitely give the Givenchy Noir Interdit mascara a try! And if you’ve already tried it out, let me know down below in the comments if you actually found the 90° angle to work in your favour! I’m totally curious to hear!