Makeup: Rimmel Lash Accelerator

I'm a sucker for a good mascara. In fact, I'm a sucker for any mascara that promises something better than the last one that I bought, and let's face it, one of those comes out every month. It's little wonder that UK consumers buy the most mascara: the market is saturated with products promising longer, thicker lashes that give the falsie look without the hassle. Count me in!

Unlike most beauty products that promise a huge improvement on what nature gave us, these mascaras actually deliver on their pledges instantly, so why the heck are cosmetics companies still filming their commercials with lash inserts and enhancing the images in post production?! Enter Rimmel's Lash Accelerator: it promises lashes 117% longer than when you started, and enhances lash growth in the bargain. I know that Rimmel have made their spokesmodel, Zooey Deschanel, look like a cartoon version of herself in the campaign, but I love their mascaras, so I bought one anyway.

My main objective in writing this post is to make my own mini plea to the companies that churn out mascaras with the kind of frequency that most of us buy milk: your consumers are intelligent and interested in what they're buying. They do research, they read reviews, and they take their money to the company with the best product. Mascara purchasing has almost become a lottery and with the highly edited adverts, we're relying on stats, rather than images: yes, you tell us that your trials have shown that the majority of your testers agreed on a whatever-percentage increase in the length of their lashes, but do you treat us to a normal, non-edited photograph of the product in action? Nope. I understand the need to maybe make lashes darker to ensure that the camera picks it up, but you can't tell me that there's no way to recreate the moment when you apply mascara to bare lashes and say 'WOW!' at the transformation! You are doing yourselves a disservice!

The images below are a little crap as my camera's not cooperating at the moment, but you get the idea. Here's me without mascara (excuse the tired face!)...

Below, you can see mascara on my right eye (the left of the photo) and none on the left (the right of the photo). Not the clearest photo, but look at the length of the outer lashes: big difference, no?

Can't get rid of the big gap above, annoyingly! Below is mascara'd eyes...

...and then a close up. In short, I'm delighted with the results!

Another big gap - I have to work out the formatting when I edit photos :)
So, if you're reading this, mascara makers, look at the above comparisons and have faith that your products can actually sell themselves. Save the digital mastery for the movies!
What do you think of mascara adverts? Does it annoy you that companies can't just present their products at face value, or post-production or not, will you continue to buy them, however much the ads are edited?


  1. As you read on my blog, Zooey Deschanel + lash inserts + digital wizardry = totally put me off this mascara and I opted for another brand.
    It's a shame really, because i've read a few rave reviews of the mascara itself.
    I wholeheartedly agree with your blog post - treating the consumer like an idiot is not going to do you any favours.
    Such a shame, because i'm secretly dying to try this mascara!
    x x x

  2. I really admire everyone who's not bought this mascara on principle, as the ad campaign is utterly ridiculous!

    Like you say: it's such a shame that we're subjected to images that have been manipulated to such an extent that the model is barely recognisable, when what lies inside is actually a fantastic product. I know I'm contributing to the 'problem' by buying it, but hopefully with enough pressure from their market, companies like Rimmel will start to showcase their products based on quality, and not how much they pay for retouching.

    Looking back at Britney Spears releasing the unretouched images from her last Candies campaign, I also think these companies have an obigation to promote a slightly more realistic view of beauty, and hiring a model and then completely changing her face makes me wonder why they bother hiring someone so well known!


  3. I have been tweeting about this very thing, in the last couple of weeks. I am so sick of seeing the words..enhanced in post production or filmed with lash inserts for an even line. If we don't have that then so what. I have found a mascara I am impressed with and will be blogging about it next week - can't wait to take the photos....

  4. Looking forward to seeing which mascara it is :)

    There was an interesting article about 'real' beauty in the Sunday Times style magazine yesterday and I really think that is what this all boils down to. Beauty products can still present a glamorous, close-to-perfect image, but we do need to see something real every now and again! Models who looks like they have three sets of false lashes that are perfectly even and separated don't sell mascara to me (I tend to ignore) and judging by the reaction to the Rimmel campaign, it looks like it's put a lot of people off, which is a real shame.

  5. Totally agree with you. I've worked in the cosmetic industry and I know that each mascara is basically a re-hashing of another one. The problem with 'lash inserts' and all that jazz is that a few of the big brands started doing it, so everyone else followed suit.

    Check out my article here on mascaras and their stupid claims: www.londonbeautyqueen.blogspot.com (search for The Fluttering Effect) xx

  6. Oooh, will have a look at your post, LBQ. It's such a shame that something like this is what gets everyone jumping on the bandwagon.

    Pretty much every mascara I've used over the past few months is of a good standard, but if I were to believe what I saw on the adverts, I'd have taken every single one back, saying, 'why don't my lashes look like that?!' But that little disclaimer stops all that, doesn't it...

    Naughty beauty companies! xx

  7. Did you see my post re Revlon's Grow Luscious Mascara? That is my favourite now and have pictured it with before and after pics x


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Theme presented by Feeric Studios.© 2013
Back to Top