Don’t really know how this happened exactly but somewhere along the way L’Onglex seemed to fall in love with volumising mascaras.

Why exactly this was, how this developed, and when exactly we started making eyes at lash thickening products we can’t tell you. As is always the case for those with an addiction to the slap, one is never satisfied and we knew we wouldn’t be happy til we’d tried everything we could get our greedy hands on.

Having really thought about it, the desire to lash up probably came as a result of our eyes exploding when we tried out those glue on lash thingies at a salon who shall remain nameless.

Obviously, being the sort we are, the thought of having luridly long, outrageously luscious lashes was too good not to be true. But once the things were glued on and we’d had to suffer the ignominy of having to crawl back to a salon indifferent to our plight and beg for the things to be unglued from our peepers we became a little more discerning about what we would be sticking on our eyes in future.

So, before we bore you with our sob stories we can at the very least reveal the fruits of our labour. No, we haven’t tried everything that’s out there but we can say hand on heart that we’ve been through enough to now know a good un’ from a bad un’.

Here, for your consideration, are a selection of the best volumising mascaras that we’ve managed to find over the last year – read it, and don’t weep !

Lesson 1 – Chanel Inimitable Intense is best for length….

Those of you with a desire for some length, some volume and a certain elegance of application will love this one. Ok, it’s not the fattest lash you’ll ever flutter but it doesn’t cake or crack and the formula is really thin which helps with building the stuff in layers.

As a mascara for daywear this is light enough for lengthening and can be beefed up for something a bit less subtle should you need it. Although they probably won’t thank us for saying this, €28 isn’t particularly purse friendly but as it’s pretty adaptable Inimitable Intense makes our list.

Lesson 2 –  Rimmel’s The Max Volume Flash is best value….

A keratin enriched formula, a larger than life wand and soup-thick lashes in less than two sweeps … it can only be Rimmel Max Volume ! At about €8 a pop this is about the best we’ve worn in this price range. In fact, it was one of the best we wore full stop.

Having been on the L’Onglex make-up table for ages we also found that a rather nice effect of using this was that over time we found our formerly flimsy fluttering went from a state of ‘bad’ to a state of …. ‘much better’. Later we discovered that as the formula for Max Volume contains added collagen our lashes fattened up with prolonged use and you can’t say fairer than that !

Lesson 3 – Model Co Fiber Lash is more than a gimmick …

As mentioned in other posts on these pages L’Onglex’s biggest beauty gripe has to be our panda eyes. After this comes the fact that even at best our lashes could only be described as .. well .. ‘barely there’.

Being in need of a little substance to cure our raging case of lash envy when we first laid eyes on Model Co Fiber Lash we ended up doing a bit of a double take – would it work … how does it work ?

Simply, this is a two part mascara which comes blacker than black and is applied and then layered over with hundreds of teeny tiny lash filaments which add density and volume to the liquid on the lash.

The end result is bulky, sultry and a completely gorgeous fake. On the downside, it costs €35, but if you really struggle to get something noticeable in the lash department you may as well bite the bullet on the cost rather than go through three or four of something less effective. Despite the fact that the whole getting-it-on business sounds quite complex, application isn’t too difficult once you’ve got the hang of it.

Lesson 4 – Maybeline’s The Falsies is anything but ….

Whoever devised the formula for The Falsies deserves to be bestowed some kind of beauty sainthood. No matter how many coats you apply it just builds and the fact is unless you’re really working the whole starry eyed goth look you probably only need a sweep and a half.

Ok – if your lashes are really short it’s probably not the best but if your lashes are long enough to get them around the spoon shaped brush we think this is perfect. As soon as we’d worked out that you have to let the first coat dry a little to keep things neat we were quickly of the opinion that this is the best volumising mascara we’ve ever had ….. we think !