$100 for a mascara?

One day in the office, colleague was using this mascara her friend gave her. She was told it's from Korea and it costs one hundred freaking bucks. Now. What can make a mascara be worth so much?

I spent some time peering at all the Chinese characters on the box and checked out the website address printed there as well and figured that it's actually from China.

There are two tubes in the box. One says natural fibres and if you observe the wand, it looks furry - another colleague said it looks like someone rubbed the wand over a carpet. That's how fine and tiny the fibres are. In that aspect I can imagine that it will do a good job lengthening lashes without putting so much weight on it that it collapses.

The second tube says transplanting gel and it looks just like normal black mascara. The colleague tried it and while the extension effect was most excellent, it didn't look smooth. Individual lashes had that cakey, clumpy effect that makes them look like spider legs. I'm not sure whether it's due to application since I didn't try it myself.

According to the website, the natural fibres have a positive charge which make them adhere to the negatively-charged lashes closely. This is then secured by a bonding ingredient that also has lengthening properties.

The product claims to extend lashes by 300 percent and while I think it may be pretty close to fulfilling that promise, I'm not sure the overall effect is worth $100 when a good mascara can be as cheap as $11.

Still, the colleague said that while her friend got the one she was using for free, she had friends who enthusiastically bought it. It's amazing how much money women will spend on beautifying themselves. Ourselves.