Sunday 16 May 2010

Heroine Make Mascara & Eyeliners

Mandom Singapore sent me some of their Heroine Make products for review here on the blog. As some of you may know, Heroine Make recently became available in the Watsons stores in Singapore where you can find them in the so-called "kawaii corner" (kawaii means cute or adorable in Japanese). I'm reviewing the Long & Curl Mascara, Smooth Liquid Eyeliner and Impact Liquid Eyeliner in this post.

The Long & Curl Mascara (S$21.90) is the most established bestselling item in the Heroine Make line-up. It was awarded the #1 mascara in 2009 by Cosme.net in its annual Best Cosme awards. (Cosme.net is the largest Japanese beauty product review website.) It is a waterproof fibre-based mascara with a curved brush to help lift the lashes.

It just so happened that I had a Heroine Make fan (known as 'uchiwa' in Japanese) on my desk which I had received in Japan back in 2007. This was part of a campaign to commemorate the Long & Curl Mascara surpassing 2 million in sales.

Anyway, here's the production description and ingredients list.


The Smooth Liquid Eyeliner (S$18.90) has a very slim (0.1mm) elastic brush. To dispense the liquid eyeliner, just shake the eyeliner in an up/down motion a couple of times. This unusual method turned out to be quite nifty and much more user-friendly compared to the push button or twist/click mechanisms that are typical of other liquid eyeliners. With push button and twist/click mechanisms, very often you get a large amount of fluid suddenly oozing out whereas with the Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner, the flow is very well controlled into the brush tip and you don't get any excess liquid dripping out all over the place. The pic below shows the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner on the left and the Impact Liquid Eyeliner on the right.

Product description and ingredients list for the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner.


The Impact Liquid Eyeliner (S$18.90) is a waterproof and smudge-proof jet black liquid liner with an elastic fine brush. The brush is not as tapered as that of the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner.


In the pic below, the two eyeliners are swatched as follows:
Top row - Impact Liquid Eyeliner layered a few times
2nd row - Impact Liquid Eyeliner layered just once
3rd row - Smooth Liquid Eyeliner layered just once
Bottom row - Smooth Liquid Eyeliner layered a few times

True to its name, the Impact Liquid Eyeliner is much more pigmented compared to the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner. The Smooth Liquid Eyeliner is more suitable for creating a slim fine line and the cat's eye upward flick at the outer corners of the eyelids. The Impact Liquid Eyeliner dries down to a flatter matte black compared to the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner, as shown in the pic below. I find that the flat matte black of the Impact Liquid Eyeliner to be a bit harsh, so I would probably go over it with some shimmery eyeshadow or metallic pencil eyeliner to soften the finish.

The pic below was taken after I finished applying my eyeshadow (Lunasol Skin Modelling Eyes EX02 Beige Cool palette) and before mascara and eyeliner.

The pic below was taken after applying the Long & Curl Mascara and Smooth Liquid Eyeliner. The Long & Curl Mascara does a good job of adding length and definition and holding the curl. I also liked the jet black finish which has no grey or dull ashy tones. Nevertheless, I would not recommend it for ladies with sensitive eyes because of the risk of fibres dropping into the eye area. If you have ever experienced having a fibre trapped under your eyelid, you would know it can be quite irritating especially if you can't even see the fibre in order to get it out. I encountered this problem briefly with the Long & Curl mascara but the stray fibre bit must have gotten out after a few minutes as my eyes felt fine for the rest of the day. The mascara did not smudge over the ten hours that I wore it but at one point, I discovered another stray fibre on my cheek.

Another view of my naked lashes before curling and applying mascara.

I liked the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner for the fine elegant lines that it can create, especially at the outer corners. Liquid eyeliners do take much more practice to perfect than pencil or cream/gel eyeliners so if you're a novice at liquid eyeliners, do be patient and keep practicising until you get the hang of it. After the liner dried, it stay put without any smudging or transfer to my lower eyelid for more than 10 hours. At the end of the day, there was only a bit of fading that was not visible unless I looked really close in the mirror.

I did try out the Impact Liquid Eyeliner as well but my first attempt was a bit of a disaster. I accidentally flicked droplets of the liner liquid all over my arm while taking the brush out of the pot! As the eyeliner is waterproof, I had to use a tissue soaked in a bit of cleansing oil to remove them. I was also unused to the brush and the finished look (below) was a bit messy. Like I said, liquid liners really take practice!

Mag of Makeupstash and Kimoko of Taciturnity Serenity have also reviewed the mascaras. Do check out their respective reviews!

Please note that this is not a paid review. I do not do paid reviews, and I also do not accept advertising on my blog.

12 comments:

. : * justine * : . said...

I looove this look. But of course I'm biased as I wear slightly winged liquid black liner every day, so sometimes I find it a bit strange when girls wear no eyeliner at all! Do you prefer this over the K-Palette? I like that there is no real dispensing system with K-Palette (I always use too much with the Majo Majo liquid liner). I'm using Dollywink right now but it's not as black as I'd prefer... I just refuse to use a new one until this one is well and done.

Haru said...

hey justine,
I actually haven't tried the K-Palette liner. I usually use pencil or gel/cream liner. And if I'm short of time (which is usually the case on week days), I usually forgo it and then put it on when I get to the office. Wish I had your discipline, I have so many things open as I review them for the blog and scarcely anything gets used up.

. : * justine * : . said...

I actually started out with gel/cream liner, then I moved to pencil, then liquid. Mind you when I was in gel/pencil phase I wore more than black or brown liner... so my creativity has shifted a bit. Haha. It took me a while to get fast at doing my eyeliner though! Now it only takes me a few seconds but it used to take me slow, slow minutes...

I'm glad you review things!! I obviously (rarely) do, so I am trying to get through as much of my stash as possible... so I can justify buying more! Lately I only seem to be buying LE items from collections (i.e. the Dior quints) rather than 'staples' such as eyeshadow singles, etc. I have so much!! I am almost in a lipstick phase as I had comparatively less of those, and as long as I am conscious about touching up I can get through them faster!

zhenling said...

hi haru,

thanks for the review on the mascara. can you please do a detailed review on maquillage stick foundation? i notice that your pores are significantly reduced!

Haru said...

Hi zhenling,
Sure! I will post a review next week after I've worn the foundation a few more times. I've worn it twice this week and it does help to cover up my pores although not completely (no foundation can do that!). For the smaller pores like on my forehead, it does cover them quite well. For a stick foundation, it also surprisingly does not feel heavy or greasy.

Hey justine, I think I just have too much of everything!

karen said...

hi haru, the eyeliner looks great on you! does the Smooth Liquid Eyeliner comes in brown shade as well? or do they only carry in black color?

Haru said...

hi Karen,
Thank you! Both the Smooth Liquid Liner and Impact Liquid Liner are available only in black (it's the same in Japan).

Anonymous said...

I like the Impact Liquid liner on you...maybe because it's slightly more obvious and dramatic? The former looks good but without the emphasis on the eyes thing which i feel looks great on you with the latter on.

milktea said...

You give me faith to finally try out liquid eyeliners! It's available in Sasa Malaysia. Not sure about Watson's. Was the removal of the Heroine mascara difficult?

Hannah said...

Haru, how does this mascara compare with MM's (the lengthening one, can't remember the name offhand)?

I'm using MM's and Heroine's Volume and Curl. I find I'm reaching out for Heroine more and more. I fInd MM's current generation mascara lengthening effect very disappointing compared to the previous generation.

Haru said...

hi Milktea,
The Heroine Make Long & Curl mascara is waterproof but it's not difficult to remove. I have been using Mandom's Cleansing Express Eye Makeup Remover which removes the mascara easily without any tugging.

hi Hannah,
Do you mean the MM Lash Expander Frame Plus? I have heard from quite a few people that it's not as good as previous versions although I have not tried it personally. I have the Lash Enamel Glamour Volume On which holds the curl well but does not really add that much volume.

Anonymous said...

I put off buying the eyeliner numerous times since there are no testers available. Now thanks to your review I decided to get smooth liquid eyeliner! :D
Rach