Waterproof makeup tested: brows, mascara & foundation

Alton Towers’ waterpark ‘Splash Landings’ is a pretty crazy experience. There are water canons, dropping buckets, pull ropes, water wheels – basically, if you have any thoughts about visiting and keeping your face dry, forget it. You are going to get very, very wet. Wherever you go – even just walking around the pool edge – there’s always some child behind a water gun waiting to shoot you or pull a rope and land a bucket of water on your head. It’s a lot of fun, but not very makeup friendly.

So I get that some women would just say, go without. But I’m not good at going without makeup. I wear foundation, blush, mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow and brows most days. I can cut that down but I like to have mascara and brows as a minimum, with a dab of foundation. I overplucked my brows when I was a lot younger so they’re pretty sparse and that makes me self conscious.

I hate the feeling when regular make up runs in my already super-sensitive eyes but despite trying quite a lot of products, I’ve never quite nailed a good waterproof combo so today, I decided to trial out some new products. Two claim to be waterproof: Maybelline Sensational ‘Full Fan Effect’ in Black (which my 6 year old son picked out for me), and Maybelline ‘Tattoo Brow’ (Pomade) in Dark Brown. My other product is Maybelline’s Super Stay 30 hour Active Wear foundation in 10 – Ivory. This doesn’t claim to be water proof – rather it is ‘water resistant’.

Application

Waterproof foundation

Foundation: I didn’t like the shade much – it seemed quite pink for ‘ivory’ (we still don’t have testers in stores in the UK because of Covid so it’s always a leap of faith at the moment). This was also my least favourite to apply! Having whacked it all over with a sponge, my daughter laughed at me and told me it looked ‘different’ and cakey. I felt like I’d just skim plastered my face. So I removed it and mixed a little with my NYX Born to Glow foundation in Alabaster (the lighter of two shades that I usually mix). I applied it very sparingly, a bit like concealer – mostly under my eyes, around my nose, mouth and chin, and the odd dab elsewhere – and this went a lot better. I like how it looked but I think it was more NYX to be honest.

Waterproof mascara

Mascara: This mascara goes on really well. It’s not thick or clumpy like my old yellow tube of Maybelline waterproof. It separates out your lashes, adding a lot of length and definition.

Waterproof eyebrows

Brows: Tattoo brow comes in a little tub with a two-ended brush – a spoolie on one end and an angled brush on the other. Although it’s a sort of gel-like substance, it’s pigment heavy so I quickly realised that gentle was the best approach. It took me quite a while to get neat even brows (I’m used to using a pencil) and I only used the brush, but I was happy with the end result. It was easier to get individual hair strokes than with my current waterproof pencil (which is by Sephora in ‘Soft Charcoal’). Also, with the Tattoo Brow product, I could tell already from making the odd mistake that this stuff had staying power. The Dark Brown shade was a good colour for me – not too much warmth.

I also used a little of the Tattoo Brow on the corner of my eyes like eyeliner because, why not.

Staying power

These three products were really put through their paces. I had small children shooting water canons at me from every direction, my son splashing my face gleefully at every opportunity, and one small boy cackling as he emptied a bucket of water on my head. I swam through foundations, scurried through sheets of water, got a few swift kicks from passing paddling children and generally got drenched. There was no mercy.

The mascara didn’t budge in the slightest – not even a single black speck under my eyes. In fact, removing this later on (having only micellar water and cotton wool pads) was tricky! I was impressed that none of my lashes broke, either.

The brows were almost perfect, even after 3 hours of water torture and that included a fair few flailing arms in my face. A little of the ‘eyeliner’ remained but nothing streaked or ran.

The foundation didn’t fare quite as well. The coverage under my eyes wasn’t great, although it hadn’t worn away completely. A huge bonus is that it did not leave me with any lines or streaky patches as foundations usually do in the water – and to be fair, what I used was a mix of waterproof and non-waterproof.

Verdict

The mascara and tattoo brow products are excellent. I’ll definitely be using these again.

I struggled a bit with the consistency and shade of the foundation but mixed with my own, enough stayed in place for my liking. I’ve also since noticed that there are a lot more shades than my local shop had, including two lighter ‘ivories’ so I’m very tempted to try again with a different shade.

If you get the mascara, make sure it has the ‘waterproof’ label (with blue lettering) as the ‘full fan effect’ line is available as a non-waterproof option too.

If you get the tattoo brow product, there are quite a few in this line and it was the ‘pomade’ (pot) that I tried.

Click here for Maybelline Sensational ‘Full Fan Effect’ in Black (Waterproof)

Click here for Maybelline Tattoo Brow Pomade

Click here for Maybelline Superstay Active Wear Foundation

 

Leave a comment