Primark Ps… Amplified & HDFanatic Mascara – Review
Mascara is a staple in most people’s makeup bag. We’re supposed to change them every three months, so we go through a fair few of them a year. With some cult classics costing over £20, it’s always great when you find a fantastic, affordable alternative.
I’ve tried a fair few mascaras, some expensive, some cheap. In this blog post I’m testing out two super inexpensive new Mascaras from Primark. Both under £2.50, can they really compete with the best on the market?
Ps… HDFanatic Mascara – £2.50
The most expensive of the two mascaras, this appears to be part of their Christmas makeup collection. It claims to give ultra defined, extreme black lashes.
Ingredients:
The ingredients don’t appear to contain any animal derived ingredients, a quick check on Double Check Vegan says it “maybe” Vegan. Having seen Primark label some of their beauty products Vegan; I hope it’s only a matter of time before everything is. All Primark Ps… products are Leaping Bunny certified.
Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Paraffin, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Glyceryl Stearate, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax, Palmitic Acid, Cetearylalcohol, Stearic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium Sorbate, Dimethicone, Polyester-4, Allantoin, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol, CI 77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 77266 (Nano) (Black 2)
Brush:
The brush on this mascara is plastic and supposed to be curved. Honestly it looks like it’s just slightly bent over at the base 🤷♀️.
I found the brush to be fairly tricky to use, and it did smudge onto my upper eyelid.
Testing:
Onto the product in action. The picture above shows my lashes after two coats. While I felt it darkened my lashes – giving the extreme black look it promised, the lifting effect was nonexistent. I didn’t feel it defined my lashes, it actually had the opposite effect, going clumpy on my lower lashes.
Overall, I would call this a fairly run of the mill mascara. Decent enough and better than some I’ve paid over £10 for. Definitely for everyday wear when you’re not after full on volume and want something more natural (like I was on this particular day).
6/10
Ps… Amplified Mascara – £1.00
Yep, you read that right, £1! I honestly didn’t know what to expect being probably the cheapest mascara I’ve ever seen. I really didn’t need another mascara in my drawer but at the same time – what if this is my favourite mascara ever? So yeah, I bought it 😬
Ingredients:
This is were things get a little more complicated. This blog post started life as two posts until I started to write down the ingredients for both mascaras – they are exactly the same!
While this doesn’t mean that they are 100% the same (ratios of ingredients could be slightly different), this does sort of suggest that they are very similar to each other.
Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Paraffin, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Glyceryl Stearate, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax, Palmitic Acid, Cetearylalcohol, Stearic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium Sorbate, Dimethicone, Polyester-4, Allantoin, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol, CI 77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 77266 (Nano) (Black 2)
Brush:
This brush is a lot more traditional than the last, essentially your basic, bog standard mascara brush. It’s not too large and doesn’t hold too much product, it was much easier to use than the previous one.
Testing:
This is more like what I was expecting. Volume, definition, a decent amount of curl. I would gladly use this every day. It’s ultra black and gives a better curl than some super expensive mascaras I’ve tried.
It didn’t flake at all throughout the day and stayed curled and defined until I removed it.
9/10
The Verdict:
Primark mascara is good. I don’t hear it raved about enough on the internet, but the fact that you can go into store and pick up a good quality product for £1/£2.50 blows my mind!
Both of these are good value for money and while I don’t find the HDFanatic one as good as Amplified, if you like a plastic wand mascara – it is more than worth a try. Amplified just won it for me, with its brush, formula (although they both could be the same!), performance, and most importantly – its price!
My other favourite from Primark is their Fake It Mascara, which you can find my review of here.
Sophie x
This post has been re-uploaded and edited from its original posting on the 16th December 2019.