little beauty confession:  i hate mascara.  ever since benefit discontinued an old eggplant-hued mascara i adored, i have boycotted mascara in all its forms, and have instead resorted to a lash tint from neutrogena (which is quite lovely).  i honestly tried to get on board with at least 10 other formulas, and never found one i loved.  i could never keep it from being goopy and gluing my lashes together, and i either have to put up with a waterproof formula that i can never remove or a non-waterproof formula that does bad things for the already-impressive under-eye circles i’m constantly trying to avoid.  

so, how excited was i when benefit let me know they were debuting bad girl plum?!  well, as excited as a girl can get about mascara.  i know i’ve tried benefit’s original bad gal mascara at some point in the past, but i honestly don’t remember loving it as much as i do this time around.  i’m being completely serious when i say this is the absolute first time i’ve used a mascara that didn’t require me to then take a toothpick (or other similarly sharp instrument) to my lashes.  sharp object + eye area, before my morning caffeine?  no, thanks.

but the supersized brush on this product is fantastic – nary a clump to be found.  the formula isn’t rubbing off, but it washed off nicely.  and the plum color is a fantastic, soft shade that just sort of works, without anyone ever being able to say “hey, you’re wearing purple mascara!”.  

my only caution: if you do rub your eyes during the day, the result isn’t that sexy, smoldering smudged look…but more like “i’ve been weeping profusely for 3 hours”, due to the red pigments.  i don’t recommend it.

grab a supersized tube at benefit now.  i know i’ll be stockpiling like crazy, just in case…