High Street Mascara Is Superior — & Rimmel’s Thrill Seeker Is So Good

A belief I firmly stand by is that high-street mascara is superior to premium brands. While I’ll happily invest in a luxury concealer that matches my skin tone perfectly or a designer fragrance I’ll never tire of, a decade in beauty has taught me that some drugstore mascaras perform just as well — if not better — than their high-end counterparts.

Take last year’s Refinery29 Beauty Innovator Awards — a roundup of the most impressive products — as an example: I awarded the top makeup spot to a cheap mascara. But it might be knocked off its perch because I think I’ve found one that works just as hard to beef up lashes and lasts until you decide to remove it at the end of the day. Enter: Rimmel’s Thrill Seeker Extreme Black Volumising Mascara, £12.99.

Rimmel has always nailed eye makeup, but Thrill Seeker — the latest addition to its mascara dynasty — caught my attention for two reasons: First, the brush, which is bigger and thicker than most high street offerings (and isn’t too dissimilar to YSL’s Lash Clash, at twice the price); second, the TikTok hype, with everyone from makeup artists to beauty enthusiasts singing its praises. 

The brush certainly sets it apart from other mascaras in my makeup bag. It boasts long bristles rather than short plastic teeth, allowing you to wedge the wand right into the roots of the lashes. This creates a sort of tightlining effect — it was as though I’d applied a black eyeliner into my upper waterline, giving my eye makeup a more dramatic, smoky result. 

The best thing about Thrill Seeker is that it’s not too wet. In my experience, mascara works best to separate and lengthen lashes when it’s a few days old and just slightly drier than when it was first opened. As a result, the formula clung to my lashes and made light work of thickening them up. It took a couple of coats to achieve this wide-eyed effect, and I always use a lash curler beforehand for optimal results. That said, I’m convinced it has a curling effect on its own. Usually, my lashes drop slightly throughout the day, but with this, they stay perkier for much longer. 

Another great thing about this mascara is that it boasts ingredients typically found in skin and hair care products, so I use it with the confidence that it’s doing good to my lashes. The star ingredient is panthenol (aka vitamin B5), which encourages hair to hold on to moisture. What does that mean for lashes? Not that they’ll stay wet or start to smudge. Instead, it prevents that brittle feeling that some mascaras can leave behind, and it can even protect fragile lashes. Besides panthenol, this contains a handful of waxes to keep lashes flexible, and I love the fluffy, fanned-out effect it lends. 

The real test was putting this mascara through its paces during a sweaty cardio workout — and it didn’t budge. There wasn’t a single flake on my cheeks, nor did it leave inky smudges under my eyes. I thought it might be hard to remove at the end of the day, but it melts away with just a swipe of micellar water on a cotton pad. I’ve since dissolved it easily using a simple cream cleanser in the shower. 

If you’re in the market for a new mascara and don’t want to spend a small fortune, I can highly recommend Thrill Seeker — and it’s currently on sale at Boots for £10.39. I just know I’ll use it right down to the very last drop.