Review: Koji Dolly Wink Tsubasa Masuwaka Black Mascara (01 Long)

I just realized I've never reviewed my mascara before! I've actually always been using Dejavu Fiberwig Lash Knockout Extra Long Mascara and quite liked it until it dried out. I needed a replacement ASAP so I had to go to an Asian cosmetics store and buy it instead of ordering it online. But the store had no fiberwig so I decided to go with this!

Description (taken from sasa.com):

• KOJI Dolly Wink Long Mascara (Black) is the secret of big and sparkling eyes. 
• It helps create curled eyelashes. 
• It has a waterproof formula; it can maintain long lasting and will not smudge. 
• Containing curl stereotypes polymer, which can help your eyelashes extend upwards and provide you a curled eyelashes. Your eyelashes look long and three dimensional.
• Apply mascara from the root of the eyelashes. After the mascara has dried, use a eyelashes curler. Use with Volume Mascara to achieve the best result.

My impression:

First things first, I tend to want a more natural look on my eyelashes. So this review will be geared towards that. Since the only mascara that I've really used often is the Fiberwig Extra Long Mascara, I'll be making quite a few comparisons with it in this post. Maybe one day I'll get my hands on a Fiberwig again and be able to do a fair comparison.

Here's a zoomed in picture of the brush. The brush is straight, unlike Fiberwig's curved brush. After this, I realized I like straight more because it allows me to manoeuver the brush better to get to the lashes in the corner.

As you can see at the right side of this picture, there are also "fibers" that add length to your eyelashes. These fibers are not as long as fiberwig's, but personally I liked these better because I found them more natural and stick onto your lashes better. With fiberwig, if you apply it 5-6 times you can really get your lashes to look extremely long, to the point where (I think) it looked a bit unnatural for me. 

Here is the front view with mascara:

Here is the side view:

You can probably tell that my lashes are quite sparse. But I hate using volume mascara because it clumps my lashes up and makes it look so unnatural. I know the instructions say follow up with volume mascara but I haven't tried that yet, this is all the same mascara.

I like the fact that it doesn't clump up. I use a panasonic heated eyelash curler which can sometimes make my eyelashes look kind of fried or melt the mascara but I think this mascara handles the heated eyelash curler pretty well. I feel like this mascara does not add as much volume to my lashes (yes I know this is a long mascara but it still needs to add something to my lashes)! Even after 3-4 applications, my lashes still don't look that much darker or thicker than their usual width. I felt the Fiberwig Extra Long Mascara gave more volume to my lashes. Perhaps that's also the reason the Fiberwig had more clumping with the panasonic heated eyelash curler. And as I mentioned before, lashes do look longer due to the attaching fibers from the mascara but even after 4-5 applications you won't get the same dramatically long lash effect that Fiberwig can give you.

I've grown to like this mascara. I feel like it's easier to control with the straight brush and thus I make my lashes look more natural. It doesn't add as much volume as the Fiberwig Long Mascara but I can just add a few more applications to the base of my lashes to get it to the darkness that I want. But for those who want a more dramatic, long lash effect, you may want to go for the Fiberwig instead.

P.S For those who are interested, I'm wearing Freshlook Illuminate Contact Lens in Rich Brown :)

Summary:

Fibers are shorter than Fiberwig (but personally I like it because it looks more natural)
Less volume per lash added than Fiberwig
Less clumping than Fiberwig when using the heated eyelash curler
$15 in Japan but I bought it for $30! It's $18 at sasa.com

Quality: 4.5/5 for those who want a natural, long lashes look. Minus 0.5 because I'd like some volume as it's still a mascara at the end of the day

Value: 4/5 minus 1 because Fiberwig is only $16 and the differences I stated above aren't that extreme

Repurchase? I might buy a Fiberwig so I can do a fair comparison but for now yes, I would repurchase this