As soon as I heard about Urban Decay’s Mascara Resurrection, I was talking about it all the time. By the end of the day at work, my mascara tends to be dry and clumpy and I was really excited about a product that could, well, resurrect my mascara to it’s morning freshness.

I view this in the Apple Watch category of products: great concept, and hopefully will be improved in the future.

I picked it up as soon as it was released at Sephora and tried it out the next day after work. While I spent the time in the morning to separate my lashes, they had clumped a bit by the end of the day. So I was pretty game to try Mascara Resurrection.

It’s a good product, but I found a couple of issues that keeps it from being a fantastic product.

The Bad

First issue is the wand. For mascara or lash treatment products, a curved wand is usually a good thing. With Mascara Resurrection, the product tends to cling to either end of the curve and does not catch in the middle of the curve.

While the product is described as a liquid, it is more of a glycerine-y gel (glycerin is the third ingredient.) So instead of using the wand horizontally and catching the full lash fringe, I had to use the wand vertically, which isn’t terribly functional for the purpose, and the product ended up distributing in globs on my lashes instead of evenly.

When I tried it with straight disposable wand, it distributed evenly and did the job. So I hope Urban Decay includes a wand with a straight brush in the future to take advantage of the consistency of the formula.

My second issue really comes down to expectations. I guess I expected Mascara Resurrection to dissolve clumps with ease, but that is really the province of eye makeup remover, not a “freshen up” product. While clumps do dissolve with some brushing, they also get flakey if you aren’t thorough about removal. It didn’t refresh the mascara I had on, but rather provided a clean, silky base for me to reapply mascara without having to take my eye makeup completely off.

So those are my issues with Mascara Resurrection. If you go in armed with said facts, you’ll have more appreciation for what is a good product. Now that we’ve covered that, let’s move on to the good.

The Good

I like the fact that Mascara Resurrection allows me to brush out dried clumps and have a new base for mascara without disturbing my other eye makeup. If my eyeliner and concealer are still looking good, I’d rather just freshen up my lashes without starting over. Just make sure that you remove all the loosened mascara or else it will flake off onto your under eye.

It is also great to use to change the consistency of your mascara. I never have been particularly fond of high-gloss mascaras, but Mascara Resurrection provides the right balance of “sparkle in your eye” shine without looking wet. It also provides the right level of malleability to be able to safely recurl your lashes during the day, which is great.

We tend to only review products that really excite us on Style Chicks, so this might seem like a lot of negative for one of our reviews. The thing is, though, this product still excites me since Urban Decay tends to improve their packaging etc over time. So Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection is still a product I recommend – just make sure to get used to it before you bring it with you to a photo-op event, which as you know, is anywhere and everywhere these days.

Find Urban Decay Mascara Resurrection at UrbanDecay.com for $16.00.