Smudge Prevention

Most of us have at some point or another, experienced the dreaded mascara smudge. I am not talking about the smudging once in a while because you rubbed your eyes. 

No, I am talking about the times where nothing you do and no matter how careful you are, nothing seems to prevent your mascara from going walk about and smearing it's self under your eyes. 

So our natural thought is that it's something to do with the mascara we are using however that might not be the case. 

Here are a few things that could be causing your mascara to smear quicker than your window screen. 

1) Your eye cream / moisturiser

It could be that your moisturiser is too rich for daytime use. Why? Well the heavy moisture content and oils in the product warm up on the skin and when your lashes coated with your favourite mascara touch it, the oils in the cream begin to breakdown the mascara immediately and causes the mascara to smear. 

You might be better to use a more lightweight moisturiser for when your wearing makeup and keep your heavier, more rich moisturisers and eye creams for night. 

One other thing is to remember to always leave enough time for your skin care products to absorb properly before you apply your makeup. 

2) Eye shadow base

So this works on a similar premise as above. If your smearing happens on your lids instead of your under eyes then this is likely caused by oils and moisture from your eye lids coming through and breaking down your mascara causing it to smear. The best way to avoid this is to apply an eye shadow base before you apply your eye makeup/mascara.

Eyeshadow bases/primers usually help to control oil on your eye lids, I often talk about using eyeshadow primers/bases on your nose if you struggle to get your foundation to stay put and it's for the same reason.

3) Waterproof doesn't mean Smudgeproof! 

via GIPHY

Ok so I mentioned that the cause of the mascara breaking down and smudging is actually oil, not water...

Oil is like a natural makeup remover, so although a mascara may say waterproof, which is great if you suffer with allergies, like a good cry at a film, get caught in the rain or like to go for a midday swim, it unfortunately still won't hold up against oils. 

However have no fear, there is such a thing as smudge proof mascara!

It's actually known in the makeup industry as Tubing Mascara, although most people don't know that name. I will explain why that is important in a moment. 

OK so although lots of mascaras claim to be smudge proof, they actually aren't truly smudge proof. The only type of mascara that is truly smudge proof are the tubing mascaras. Tubing Mascaras are called this because they are made with a special kind of polymer that wraps around the lash in a tube shape (although not visible to the average naked eye) 

Those polymer ingredients stand up to oils preventing the smudging. 

However, there is a downside to the truly smudge proof mascaras and that is that they are not waterproof, so although they won't smudge and smear they will run like Forest Gump if you happen to get a bit teary eyed or caught in a thunder storm. 

So really it's for you to decide what is the most important for you. 

The other downside is that they can crumble, this means those little tubes can sometimes come loose from the lash and will fall on to your under eye area. The good thing is that you can usually dust them of with a little powder brush and pretend it never happened, unlike smudging. 

Although these are tubing mascaras they often do not reference the tubing part anywhere in their advertising or names, (I guess the brands don't feel it's an appealing enough name for them) so here are two tubing mascaras I know of to help narrow your search. 

1) No7 Stay Perfect Mascara 

2) L'Oreal Double Extended Beauty Tubes - (personally I prefer this one) 

However I know that for some people when you have found the perfect mascara "apart from the smudging" It's hard to let that go, so If you don't want to switch mascara then read on for the other option. 

4) Apply Setting powder

Applying setting powder to the under eyes can help by absorbing some of those oils from the skin preventing it reaching your mascara. This isn't a fail safe as depending on how much oil and moisture your skin produces you may need to top up with a dap a tiny amount from time to time during the day to stay on top of it. Overall it should help with the oil control. 

However I am aware that using setting powder isn't for everyone as some people don't like the way a powdered under eye looks on their skin. If this is you then I highly recommend you revert back to the step above and switch to a tubing mascara instead. 

I hope this has helped and given you some insight to what might be causing your smudging. 

If you have any questions that you would like me to do a video or blog post about you can email me anytime at robyn@coabe.email with the subject line "Blog Request" and I will get to it ASAP. 

Well that's all from me today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of smudgeless mascara and sweet dreams. 

Much Love & Speak Soon