This Natural Black Tea Mascara Actually Works
It’s my opinion that when it comes to certain things, like beauty and modern medicine, chemicals aren’t the worst idea.
Where would our hungover asses be without the lab-coated geniuses who brought us Advil, for example? And where would our fave reality stars be in life if it wasn’t for the wonders of Botox and chemical peels?
That’s why I’ve always been skeptical of the all-natural beauty brands that popped up over the past few years. I just can’t imagine that rubbing a glorified sweet potato on my face is gonna make my pores appear any smaller. Some things just require science.
But I somehow came into possession of a tube of all-natural, preservative-free mascara from 100% Pure. It’s tinted with black tea instead of chemicals and dyes. I can’t remember where it came from — either some sort of beauty box or one of my coworkers, no doubt. But I ignored its existence for months.
Then, I read this story on Racked all about how filthy broads like me hang onto our makeup for waaaay too long. And as I thought dejectedly about the Marc Jacobs mascara sample I’ve been using on and off for over a year, I realized it was time for me to open a fresh tube of mascara. Clearly my eyes start burning at 4 p.m. every day for a (gross yet preventable) reason.
That’s when I remembered the black tea mascara. The next morning, I took it out of its cute cardboard tube and opened it for the first time. It smelled like a cup of fruity-flavored black tea. Intriguing. The bristles looked fluffy and thick, much more like a $27 designer mascara than the kind you’d find at CVS. This actually started to seem promising.
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Then I tried it on, and it actually looked better than my standby Marc Jacobs stuff. Plus, by the end of the day, it stayed put. The only issue I found was that there was a bit more fallout in the area around my lashes than usual, but that was really easy to wipe away.
After doing some research, I found that this mascara is actually dyed and scented with actual tea and marajuca oil, which explains the smell. It comes in other colors, too: blackberry, which is purply and good for green or hazel eyes; blueberry, which is navy and good for brown and green eyes; and dark chocolate, a brown that goes with all eye colors.
So now I’ve been wearing it for a few days and I really don’t foresee going back. I’m also kind of a hypochondriac and the fact that I’m not putting chemicals near my delicate eye area anymore is a bonus.
In fact, now that I know natural makeup actually works, I’m probably going to try even more of it. Not that I’ll give up chemicals forever, though — you can pry my retinol from my cold, dead but still plump and youthful-looking fingers.
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