You know a mascara is good when your coworker exclaims in a meeting, “Your EYELASHES! What mascara are you wearing?” Or, when you are at Sephora, and the makeup artist compliments you on your eyelashes – not your eye makeup – she specifically says “I love your lashes!” (I think she thought they were falsies?) And by all accounts, I have dinky wimpy sparse eyelashes. This is the magic that is L’Oreal Bare Naturale Mascara:
But, before you proceed any further into this entry, I warn you: this wondrous miracle product is discontinued. I’m sorry, so very sorry to do this to you. If you don’t want to suffer heartache and mental anguish, please turn back now…
I bought this mascara on a whim because it was on clearance sale. I should have known better than to try something new when it was clear that it was being discontinued, but I didn’t heed my internal alarm bells. The official name of this product is Bare Naturale Luminous Lengthening Mascara. Its claims are:
Not sure about having luminous lashes (whaaat? It’s so odd to keep calling out “luminous” as a mascara claim – it’s even part of the mascara’s name – and the words “luminous”, “luminously”, and “luminosity” all appear on the packaging*) BUT it does deliver on amazing length, and surprisingly, it also packs a punch in volume even though it’s not listed as a claim. The wand features a regular brush bristle:
It doesn’t clump, flake or smudge, but removes easily with eye makeup remover. The results garnered the aforementioned lash praise by coworker and Sephora associate alike. It’s near perfection in a tube!
Pros:
• Lengthening
• Volumizing
• Does not flake
• Does not smudge
• Holds curl
• Removes easily with eye makeup remover
Cons:
• Small amount of product per tube (only 4.8ml compared to typical 8-10ml)
• No longer readily available!
Stash worthiness: 10/10
As soon I realized how much I love this, I went searching for back-ups. I found online sellers with unopened packages for cheap (less than half the original retail price of $11.50 each):
The loss of this mascara is up there for me as when Max Factor 2000 Calorie got pulled from North America (yes, I know I can order online from European sources – in fact, when I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, I bought a couple of tubes of MF 2000 Calorie mascaras [oh the lengths we beauty junkies go to for our fix!] – but it’s expensive with the currency conversion.) However, I’m going to stop buying more back-ups of the L’Oreal – since this was discontinued in 2012, the stock is just getting too old. Once I use up the last of my back-up stash, that’ll be it.
In terms of finding a replacement, the closest mascara to achieve similar results is CoverGirl LashBlast Volume (orange tube) but where it’s more volumizing, it’s less lengthening compared to the L’Oreal. Within L’Oreal’s own lineup, I’ve tried a few but found no successor; I’ve tried: Telescopic (no volume), Voluminous (smudges), and Miss Manga (clumpy). Now the million dollar question: have you tried the L’Oreal Bare Naturale mascara, and if so, do you have any recommendations for a replacement?
* Side note: I do wonder if this mascara was marketed poorly and misnamed. When I first saw the name “Bare Naturale” I expected a mascara that would give me some definition, maybe a bit of length, not this KAPOW! lash effect. If they had called it Magical Maximum Miracle Mascara™, maybe it wouldn’t have been discontinued?
stash matters 
I hate when the pull the good stuff! Why?!
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Just to mess with us, I swear! 😕
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I am so sad that they discontinued this wonderful product. It was the only mascara that truly gave no clumping and my lashes looked fuller longer and best effect…they looked natural. With every use always got some result and I cannot find anything close to give same results
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What a shame, this mascara sounds like the perfect one for me!!!
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I’m sorry to tease you with it!
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You’re totally right. Why would they call a mascara “Bare Naturale”? Makes little sense. Hope you find a worthy successor soon 🙂
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I’ve been looking for a successor, I got hooked on this and have tried lots of cheap ones an expensive ones but nothing like this product, been buying online, but getting harder to find, an now I got my mom hooked poor thing… did u find a replacement?
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No, I haven’t found a replacement! However, I am currently using another L’Oreal mascara, the Voluminous Butterfly Mascara, which I quite like. The effect is slightly more dramatic and the lashes aren’t as soft, but it does add both length and volume. Check it out if you’re in the market. The hunt for an exact replacement for the Bare Naturale is still on… good luck to you!
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A little tid-bit of BiG significance that I didn’t read here in any of the Comment posts:
The “Bare” in “Bare Naturale” refers to the formula or ingredients of the mascara.
Bare Naturale is the ONLY mascara I’ve found that is free of the “known” eye irritant
chemicals used in 99.9% of Mascara brands. For a smaller part of the population these
chemicals cause a negative, bothersome reaction to the eyes such the eyes look like you
may have been crying. The irritations are red eyes, ITCHY eyes, watery eyes and or
a combination of same. Other reactions as well. Then there are those, sadly who
are out-right allergic to eyelash mascara OR they may believe they truly are, hmmmm?
Too bad they didn’t get to try Bare Naturale, I bet it would have worked fir them as well.
I was one of those people who was convinced “I guess I am allergic to mascara.”
I tried sooo many different brands beginning 40 plus years ago.
That is until I STRUCK GOLD!!! The GOLD being none other than…
Dun, da, da, dun, drum roll please! The one, the only L’OREAL BARE NATURALE!!!!
The store even had my preferred color, brown/black. I think it was actually called
brownish/black? I mean really, talk about doing a Happy Dance!! Woo-Hoo!! Finally!!!
I had found a mascara that DID NOT irritate, no red or itchy eyes that made my eyes
look awful wearing mascara. Oh no, no. No sales person at Sephora would dare say
“nice lashes.” They just might say (more appropriately) “I see your eyes are very red,
have you been crying?” or “have I got the perfect mascara for you” is more like it, a
good salesperson ought to be stating.
Someone said something to the effect of L’Oreals advertising/marketing wasn’t
presented in the way that would have benefited the product sales thus maybe it
would still be produced, still available today, not discontinued. Boy do we wish!
If only!! Let’s not forget “we” the Consumers do know best, for sure!
I remember reading the comment thinking this person is close as far as how this
mascara was NOT advertised properly and more appropriately versed to consumers…..
I had really thought the packaging stated the information “B.N. mascara is safe for
sensitive eyes, is non-irritating” etc., as far as I knew. Maybe I had seen more info
about B.N. in a magazine. I just don’t remember what it did state. It’s been too long
since I’ve had my hands on this ‘lovely’ package! Anyway one thing is certain, the name
** “Bare Naturale” DOES NOT mean “eyelashes look so natural, barely there.”
“Bare” really means to signify it is formulated with the BAREST of the eye irritant
chemicals known to cause eye irritation thereby avoiding or eliminating “any irritation” to the eyes.
This mascara, Bare Naturals is a Very Best Choice for anyone with a sensitivity to eyelash mascara.
However to all our great sadness L’Oreal decided to end production due to decreased sales along with of course no monetary profits this formulation is thereby discontinued, not manufactured, nor sold, nor available anymore. This still makes me sad.
I did find a pretty darn good replacement produced by Almay. I want to post the correct name.
I will look at my mascara and post it in another post.
We could always hold on to hope as well if we really do something about trying to get L’Oreal to bring it back. If we would ALL (get others too, friends family) write an email to L’Oreal explaining exactly why we think know their product failed, the biggest being marketed/advertised wrong, we never know maybe they will try launching it again after they understand correctly how us, their biggest fans and consumers of Bare Naturale relied upon this mascara for our various reasons. Mine being exactly as the product I thought was intended for, sensitive eyes.
Good Luck in your quest to find your new favorite. I just don’t feel so optimistic, Bare Naturale for me was THE ONLY MASCARA that I could successfully wear for an entire day and even fall asleep for the night, still wake with no irritation whatsoever. That says a lot!! I’m sure many of us fell exactly thus way…..
Let’s not forget the super nice application benefits as well. Goes on great in a light touch sweep of just 4 brush-up, brush-up, brush-up, brush-up-tweak those nice, long outer corner lashes for a super nice long end lash up-sweep. No clumps, bumps, no too many lashes sticking together in one of the brush-up’s. Boom, perfect lashes…1,2,3,4, Go.
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Hi Liz! Thanks so much for your detailed resposne! I’m so glad L’Oreal Bare Naturale worked for you and enabled you to wear mascara. I agree, this mascara doesn’t provide barely there lashes – I find the effect is so voluminous that people have asked if I was wearing falsies. The marketing for this mascara was completely wrong! I’m actually on my very last tube and then it’s gonzo! 😦 I’ll look into the Almay mascara line up to seee if I can find the one you’re referring to. I have tried some Almay mascaras – I like the One Coat one from them. 🙂
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This is/was my holy grail mascara… I loved every thing about it including being able to buy brown for “no makeup” days & super black.
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We truly need to start a petition to bring this back… there is NO replacement… I’ve tried a hundred mascaras & not one even comes close… even other loreal ones & high end ones…
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