Almay Intense I-color Volumizing Mascara

This mascara was one of the many free items I received from the Almay Picnic event I attended back in July. And like most of those other items this one doesn’t wow but, at the same time, isn’t a bad product.

I like my lashes to be long, lush and clearly defined. What I hate are spider lashes, when the hairs clump together to create pointy sections of lashes. However, the internet tells me that for some people, spider lashes are desirable. Those people should buy this mascara.

According to Almay, this product is all about two qualities: providing volume and taking “your unique eye color to new limits.” The four supposedly “expertly coordinated shades with eye-brightening crystals create multi-dimensional amplification.” I believe this means that this product is suppose to make my irises pop but I didn’t notice a difference.

I have used other “colour enhancing” mascaras that also claim to use “crystals” but unlike those items, this one isn’t sparkly or extra shiny or even visibly coloured. While my mascara was called "Sapphire," it was pretty much black with a bluish tinge that I couldn't even see on my lashes. In fact, the colour this mascara delivers is pretty ordinary

What’s not ordinary is the amount of volume it delivers. Almay says that it can “double the volume” thanks to a “lash enhancing brush with volume-boosting grooves (that) finds and flaunts ever lash for big bold volume.” I’m not sure if this mascara actually doubled the width of my lashes but it visibly fattened them up and then groomed them together into ugly (in my opinion) spider lashes.

Now yes, I could (and did) comb them out. That action did generally break up the spider lashes but why should I have to do that extra step when there are plenty of other mascaras out there that deliver defined lashes and a good amount of volume (though maybe not as much as this mascara does)?

Almay also claims that this mascara “won’t smudge or flake.” I didn’t have issues with smudge but there was some flaking. There was also some clumping though I’ve found that to generally be the norm with any mascara that delivers a lot of volume.

Like most Almay products, this one is priced quite appropriately for what you’re getting, coming in at around $9. It also washes off fairly easily, which was a nice discovery.

Would I buy this product: No. This product doesn’t deliver the type of lashes I like.

Should you buy this product: Do you like spider lashes? Then yes! Otherwise, skip it.