Shook by the Shock? YSL The Shock Mascara Review

Shook by the Shock? YSL The Shock Mascara Review

YSL is one of those brands which I always want to try more from, but I get to the counter. Stare at the beautiful gold packaging with big magpie eyes and run away from it feeling a bit overwhelmed by choice. For a brand at YSL’s price point I don’t want to make mistakes with what I’m buying. One thing I do know I like from YSL is their Faux Cils mascara. and after revisiting that in November and December I was really keen to try out another mascara from the brand. During the January sales I was invited by my local shopping centre Queensgate to go on a beauty shopping spree for the best deals, and The Shock mascara was one I immediately snapped up.

The Shock mascara feels a step away from YSL’s usual gold plated effect packaging. It’s plastic and doesn’t feel quite as luxe. It’s nice quality, heavy plastic and the price is that little bit cheaper thanks to it not being a metal tube. This retails at £22, which is marginally cheaper than their usual £25.50 price tag. It’s still definitely up there in price, but the high end mascara lover in me is always looking for the next best thing.

The packaging of this is simple, it reminds me quality wise of the Tarte Tartist mascara. With plain glossy black tube and a champagne pink chrome lettering and handle on the wand with an embossed YSL logo adoring the top.

Cracking the tube lid open I was happily surprised (because I really didn’t know anything about this mascara, other than what the packaging looked like) that the wand is an hourglass shape. Most of my favourite mascaras have his shape wand, I find they pick up product well, lift the lashes and tend to be the best wand shape for volumising. I do tend to prefer hair bristles over rubber wands so I was interested to see how this performs.

The bristles are  a mixture of lengths which means that the wand picks up mascara easily, almost a little too easily as I find myself wiping some of the excess. As a result the effect of this mascara is interesting, the wand on first layer is separating, lengthening and a little volumising, the mascara creates and holds a curl well and is really black and pigmented. With a second coat of mascara it starts to create more volume and goes to that semi-clumpy look.

The Shock Mascara Applied

There’s a double-edged sword to this mascara. It’s not listed as waterproof, but having worn it teary eyed to a funeral yesterday I can say that this holds up without any streaking at all. By the end of the day this hasn’t flaked or smudged at all once, however when you get to the point of removing it, it’s also bloody difficult, wipes are useless, micellar waters barely touch it and cleansing balms are even a struggle.


Overall I really like the effect of this mascara and think it’s really pretty. I kind of like that clumpier lash look sometimes so it’s nice to have one mascara that can do both, whether or not I will buy it again hinges a lot on how long it ends up lasting, but so far – I’m impressed… but not quite Shocked. You can find this on the Boots’ website here if you would like to give it a try.

Have you tried this mascara from YSL?  It seems to be one that’s less talked about than others in the range

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Helpless Whilst Drying

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27 Comments

  1. January 30, 2018 / 7:41 am

    Looks great on your lashes ;-). I’ve never tried this one.

  2. January 30, 2018 / 8:03 am

    Lashes look great Rach! I’ve never tried a YSL mascara but would probably steer away from this one based on packaging alone as it doesn’t look as luxe as you’d expect. Great to know it actually works well though 🙂 xxx

    • January 30, 2018 / 11:55 am

      Yes I think for the price and YSL you definitely expect something more luxe feeling, but equally it’s nice it’s a bit different to everything else they do. I do think you’d like it though, it reminds me of Tartist!

  3. January 30, 2018 / 9:28 am

    Now you mention it this does look a little like the Tarte Tarteist mascara! Don’t think I’ve tried an hourglass shaped wand before, but they do sound like they work well on the lashes. Fingers crossed this lasts well for you and you find a fuss free way to remove it!

    • January 30, 2018 / 11:54 am

      I find hourglass wands similar to a curve shape, they’re good at lifting but better than a curve for adding more volume! Even the oily bi-phase mini I got with this mascara isn’t great for removing it – it’s very stubborn and wants to stay on the lashes… a blessing in disguise!

  4. January 30, 2018 / 9:38 am

    Oooo, this looks great – I love a chunkier looking lash. How strange that they didnt use their usual gold packaging on this! 😊 x

    • January 30, 2018 / 11:53 am

      It is, it really stands out on their stand (in a bit of a bad way!) because it doesn’t feel like it fits in… not that the packaging isn’t nice. Even if they’d swapped the champagne pink to gold it would have felt more on brand! I love a chunky lash too!

  5. January 30, 2018 / 11:24 am

    This is one of my favourites for sure.

    I bought after I saw the recommendation from Rachloves on YouTube. Used a full tube and it was awesome but for some reason my second tube is leaving something to be desired

    • January 30, 2018 / 11:52 am

      I’ve had that with other mascaras before where I’ve felt like when I’ve rebought it it’s performed entirely differently!

  6. lipstickdenimandcoffee
    January 30, 2018 / 7:24 pm

    I hate mascaras I have to fight to get off but this looks pretty !

  7. January 30, 2018 / 10:09 pm

    I like YSL mascaras but I’ve not tried this one. The packaging is a little on the cheaper side so I prefer the gold tube. That said it lookd good on your lashes. If it’s hard to remove then I’ll be leaving it. One of Benefits mascaras was a pain to remove so I hated it x

    • February 16, 2018 / 2:36 pm

      Effects wise it reminds me of Tarteist, its a good all-rounder but it’s harder to remove and is a bit more expensive.

  8. January 31, 2018 / 12:51 am

    I can’t justify high end mascaras! And this formula sounds like a beast. My eyes just don’t get on with waterproof formulas – they hurt! It’s so hard to describe but throughout the day, the fumes from the mascara makes my eyes really tired and feels sting-y. That’s why I don’t wear waterproof mascaras. Not to mention how many lashes I would lose trying to remove them!

    • January 31, 2018 / 10:35 am

      We don’t get a large selection of waterproof mascaras here, I don’t ever buy waterproof ones there’s so many that don’t flake or budge on me, this one isn’t actually waterproof but is as stubborn as one like it is!

  9. January 31, 2018 / 6:07 pm

    I’ve heard so many good things about this mascara! The shape of the wand is nice. It makes your lashes look great, but I feel like you’ve worn mascaras that make your lashes look more voluminous.

    • January 31, 2018 / 6:37 pm

      I agree, this was just the one coat application – I can get a more voluminous clumpy lash with two. I think there’s other things I’ve tried which are better on the volume.

  10. January 31, 2018 / 6:35 pm

    It looks great on your lashes but the packing is a bit disappointing for me 🙁

  11. February 3, 2018 / 12:58 pm

    Don’t think I’ve ever tried any YSL mascara. I don’t mind slight clumps, it fattens the lashes which is nice too. It’s good that you’ve spotted that this mascara is “tear proof”. It is such a problem with many non-waterproof mascara.

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