Exclusive Preview: Cover Girl LashBlast Length - To The Extreme!

Long, luscious, full and flirty.

No matter what's haute on the runway, out-to-there lashes are always in fashion.

Cover Girl is launching a brand new mascara that your lashes are going to love! The new leader in mascara, thanks to #1 LashBlast, will have a lash-lengthening partner in a slim, yellow tube.

LashBlash Length promises 80% longer lashes that won't clump or flake thanks to an advanced nylon brush that delivers a smooth application and a nifty Elasta-Nylon formula for extreme drama and definition.

It doesn't hit stores until September but you have the opportunity to get it early. Click here. Quantities are limited, so act fast!

How In The World Does A Girl Get Her Hands On CG's "Queen Collection!?"

Riddle me this, lambs: The reason companies advertise something is presumably because they want consumers (i.e. you and me) to buy it, right? This is pretty much the kind of thing they cover in the first 10-minutes in Marketing 101.

But evidently the good folks at Cover Girl have some ulterior stealthy purpose in mind by teasing Queen Latifah's Cover Girl’s Queen Collection and then NOT MAKING IT AVAILABLE WHERE ANYONE CAN ACTUALLY BUY IT!!

Now, if you are one of the millions upon millions of "toasted almond" or "cappuccino" cuties, the frustration of shopping for makeup that doesn't make you look ashy or like one of the Twilight undead in a sea of "beige" and "ivory" is nothing new.

Many of us were mixing shades in Tupperware containers in our bathrooms (come on now, I know I wasn't the only one) long before companies like Prescriptives caught a clue that not everyone is the same one-shade-fits-all.

Fast-forward and today there are definitely more beauty products for woman of color at their local CVS, Walgreens, Duane Reade, whatev, but sometimes it requires the skills of a trained CIA agent to hunt down which stores have them in stock. Yes, yes, department stores offer a Benetton rainbow of shades but damn, sometimes a girl just wants a little beauty lift that doesn't require taking out a loan for a tube of lipstick.

Which brings me to the impetus for my rant. In a metropolitan area with a significant minority population -- not to mention one where the nation's first black president and his ultra stylish wife reside literally just down the road -- why did trips to FOUR separate stores turn up hide nor hair of the Queen collection? In fact, NONE of the deeper shades in the CG range were available. Zippo. Nada.

Honestly, in this day and age of 24/7 Sephora-ification, this kind of beauty scavenger hunt is just ridiculous. For an exclusive product launch, sure, but a mass market (supposedly, but not really as it turns out) line. . . . fuggedaboutit.

Apparently the collection is fit for a queen because Miss Dana Owens is the only one who can get her hands on it! Now, who do I see about getting reimbursed for gas after traipsing all over town in my fruitless search?

Maybelline Lash Stiletto: Lash Out Or Throw It Out?

It started so innocently--a look here, a lingering gaze there.

It was wrong and I knew it. I was happy with the one I had. God, we'd been together for ages.

But the thrill! The adventure of the unknown!

I was weak and gave in to temptation . . . to try a new mascara.

Straight brushes. Angles brushes. Curved brushes. Lengthening. Curling. Volumizing. I've tried them all. Whatever the package was selling, I was buying.

In high school I used L'Oreal Voluminous mascara almost exclusively. Then in college I dabbled with Maybelline Great Lash, Lancome Definicils, and others.

After a very brief fling with Revlon's 3D Extreme mascara and an ill-fated clumping incident with Mega Lash by Wet 'n' Wild, I'd finally found lasting results with Cover Girl's Lash Blast, you know, the one Drew Barrymore has been pimping. It lengthens, curls and volumizes like crazy and I was happy with my fabulously full and flirty lashes.

But then, the allure of of cute packaging seduced me to try Maybelline's Lash Stiletto. Shaped like a leg-lengthening dagger heel with that black-and-red combo recognized by fashionistas the world over, it promises to do the same for lashes.

Louboutins for your lashes? I was powerless to resist.


Unfortch, once the heady anticipation faded, it was clear that Maybelline's boasts were little more than sweet nothings, focus group tested and Photoshopped for consumer consumption.

While it did lengthen, the bristly brush was so rough it was like using a toothbrush and the mascara was annoyingly goopy, giving me clumped-together lashes that Tammy Faye Baker would have envied. Plus, it had a weird odor that didn't exactly invite you to use it anywhere near your eye.

Epic fail--two snaps up in a "suck" formation. Lash Stiletto is so getting binned. It's not even enough worth keeping just for a quick lash lift before dashing out to Whole Foods. Hey, Maybelline, maybe next thing less focus on the flashy packaging and more on making a fabulash product, m'kay?

So my old reliable Lash Blast isn't sassy or sexy but a momentary mascara lapse proved that it's what's inside that counts.