natjtan Welcome back to another edition of Beauty Finds! This edition features Tarte Cosmetics SEA Surfer Curl Volumizing Mascara.
Skip a paragraph for the review: I have a few requirements when it comes to beauty products: cruelty free, natural, clean, vegan better. I do my best to avoid nasty ingredients such as SLSs, parabens, PEGs, silicones, etc. Petrochemicals are the sneakiest with so many derivatives and aliases. I also avoid palm oil and it’s derivatives as I prefer orangutans. Coconut oil marketed as the good oil I’m also cutting down on as it can be just a damaging crop as palm oil. If I do get products containing palm or coconut oil I try to get organic or sustainably sourced. With make up it’s a little harder so I go for cruelty free brands. I prefer products with less plastic and thankfully more brands are aware consumers don’t want unnecessary plastic (or governments are telling them less plastic). My skin type’s oily sensitive, acne prone and now wrinkles. I know nothing stops those lines, but if I can delay them then….
I think this is a replacement mascara for Tarte Cosmetics Lifted Sweatproof Mascara. I loved that mascara as was disappointed when this discontinued it. It didn’t budge working out, running, swimming (it just clumped together and dried with lashes separated!). It was more of a dark brown than black. I was willing to pay the shipping costs for it! I started to notice something was up when they started selling at 2 for 1 then email when back in stock. It vanished from the site to be replaced with:
SEA Surfer Curl Volumizing Mascara
What it is: An effortless, lash-lifting lifestyle mascara that delivers sweatproof, weightless volume to clean up your lash game.
Highlighted Ingredients:
– Algae Extract: Soothes irritated skin with anti-aging antioxidants.
– Vitamin E: Natural preservative that also acts as an emollient and antioxidant.
Ingredient Callouts: This product is vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free, and comes in recyclable packaging.
What Else You Need to Know: This vegan mascara delivers natural and nurturing volume while conditioning lashes. The tapered bristle brush coats each lash from root to tip to deliver wave of curl. The sweatproof, flake-free, and smudge-proof formula is also formulated with plant waxes, algae, and vitamin E to lift and condition lashes.
Description from sephora.com
It’s listed on both serphora.com and sephora.es on their Clean Beauty range which was a selling point. Initially I wasn’t going to try it out as it’s expensive around €25 depending on which site and country looking at. However I was on holiday pre covid in the USA, surrounded by brands and products I can’t get back home, so this girl tired it out!
It’s marketed as smudge proof, sweat proof and flake free. It for sure isn’t waterproof as it says it not. Snorkelling lashes didn’t last long taking off my mask. It has some smudge proof abilities, but it isn’t long lasting. Working out it stayed on, doesn’t flake, but just doesn’t last. I did repurchase when it was available in Sephora España to save on shipping costs but to be honest in regards of what a mascara is meant to do: ‘darken and thicken the lashes’, it did nothing.
I don’t have the fullest lashes, but I do have lashes! With the right mascara I can get some length going on. This while it worked the base of the my lashes, it did nothing the upper lashes, barely visible. It was like all I had on was eyeliner and an unfinished eye. The promotional before and after lashes photos, they mush have on about 5-6 coats of it. So in terms of volumising it does nothing (for me). If I wore it one its own without eyeliner it did open up my eyes with the upper lashes visible. However I like eyeliner and feel it doesn’t work with eyeliner. Thankfully the reviewers on sephora.com don’t hold back and share similar views too. It’s split if it’s good or not.
I also have some issues with the ingredients. They say it’s clean, Sephora says any product in their Clean at Sephora range doesn’t contain acrylates, yet it clearly does in the ingredients along with polyvinyl alcohol. However Tarte Cosmetics keep their promise it’s made without ‘parabens, mineral oil, phthalates, triclosan, sodium lauryl suflate and gluten’ and is vegan.
Ingredients: water/aqua/eau, glyceryl stearate, copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax/cera carnauba/cire de carnauba, ricinus communis (castor) seed oil, vp/hexadecene copolymer, acrylates copolymer, cetearyl alcohol, polyvinyl alcohol, glycerin, microcrystalline wax/cera microcristallina/cire microcrystalline, ceteth-10 phosphate, dicetyl phosphate, phenoxyethanol, sodium dehydroacetate, potassium sorbate, benzoic acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium citrate, tocopheryl acetate, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, dehydroacetic acid, ethylhexylglycerin, sargassum pacificum thallus extract, gardenia taitensis flower extract, tocopherol, iron oxides (ci 77499)””
Would I repurchase? No, but I did. More out of FOMO when it came to Sephora Spain. That tube is now in my bag as a touch up if needed mascara. If you need a natural looking mascara it’s great. If you want something extra, skip it.