This mascara's been available in the USA for ages now, but it only recently hit UK stores and is currently subject to all kinds of special offers and introductory deals. Maybelline have always been known for their mascaras, so I was eager to try this, which seems to take all the best bits of their other offerings and bring them all together in an all-singing, all-dancing monster of a mascara...
First up is the packaging, which is hard to miss. This is one huge tube of mascara, bright yellow with purple metallic writing. The good points; it won't be hard to miss this in your makeup bag. The bad; it looks cheap. But that's no surprise, it is cheap!
The recent slew of new innovations like plastic bristles, new-shaped brushes and oscillating heads have been dumped in favour of a good old-fashioned big, fat brush, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The bristles, though long, are all tiny, and grouped together to supposedly colour the lashes in one coat without clumping.
Does it work? Well, you only have to look at the photo above to see it definitely builds dramatic volume. I'm quite heavy-handed with mascara, but with this I find I have to hold back a bit. What you see above is only a couple of coats, and already it's clumpy towards the outer corners. This is a product that's created to be used sparingly, which makes me think a tube will last a long time (making it very good value for money).
Texture wise, I like that this is quite dry once it's on the lashes - I hate tacky mascara that smudges all the time. It removes easily with a cleansing wipe (another of my big mascara tests) and it doesn't appear all over my pillow the next morning.
As an all-round mascara, I may have found a new favourite. It lengthens, volumises and doesn't break the bank, and provided you don't go crazy with it, it doesn't clump. Overall, I give it a big thumbs up!