It isn't often that I purchase a make-up item without a lot of research and thought but on this occasion I did. I was travelling and suddenly discovered that I had forgotten to pack my mascara. As I use a lot of natural products, the Lavera mascara I love and use daily was sadly at home, and I had to make a quick replacement purchase. I opted for the L'Oreal Million Lashes Mascara which was just over £11. I chose brown, but it is also available in black, black waterproof and extra black. This purchase was to prove to be my biggest mistake in make-up purchasing for some-time.

The packaging in my opinion is horrid. A gold container with an image depicting the mascara brush in use looks messy, and actually shows an insight into the product's failings. It also looks childish as if an infant has daubed the product in play. I wouldn't have chosen it normally as the packaging would have put me off, but I was in a hurry and the shop I was in had little choice.

Inside the case the brush is fairly chunky and as it pops out of the container excess product is designed to be removed. If only it did. I found that every time the brush was overfilled. On close inspection there were always areas where the product had clumped and required the excess to be removed. Not a good start!

On application this product is a disaster especially for ladies of my age (50+) who often have two problems. The first- slightly swollen eye lids especially in the morning, and of course less than perfect near sight making a good mascara imperative so that there is ease of application, and less change of spillage of flecks onto pre-applied foundation. Younger women need their mascaras to be able to cope with several coats for wide eyed and evening looks especially, and although they may not have the sight issues, or the excess skin above the eyes, they still need a product which is easy to apply for a day look and which will be quick to complete. I have to say regardless of age this product is totally disappointing.

It is like painting glue on your lashes, it clumps together and spills onto surrounding areas at the time of application and during wear. It is really difficult to apply to the lower lashes because the brush is too large and chunky and the product too gloopy.

Removing the product is fairly easy with wipes at the end of the day which I suppose is a bonus. However because of this it has no ability to stay on the eyes during unexpected emotional moments where the wearer may be watching a film and have a few tears. This happened to me the other day and I had panda eyes in seconds, which doesn't happen with other mascaras which often perform well during impromptu moments of emotional expression.

L'Oreal make a lot of claims for this product. Indeed they say "Don't just volumize; millionize your lashes for a maxed-up fanned-out effect. These claims were not substantiated by any experience I have had in using the product. I found my lashes clumped together with no lengthening effect at all, and as flecks dropped from them on application the process drove me mad, as I was for ever using wipes to touch up areas of my face where the product had landed. I think it is expensive for what it promises and achieves, and it delivers far short of anything acceptable in my opinion.

The L'Oreal website really does claim so much for this product including that it will make each lash look three times thicker. It also claims that the mechanism inside the wand removes excess product before use, but it doesn't do this effectively and I think this is the main reason for the clumping.

As I hate wasting products I have been persevering with this prior to discarding the remnants. However now the hay fever season is upon us I have decided today that it has to go. It can't cope with watering eyes which I now have, and it is just a nuisance having to fiddle about in the morning wiping off excess product from the surrounding skin. I always apply make-up after inserting my contact lenses so I can see what I am doing, but even with them in the large chunky overfilled brush is impossible to cote the bottom lashes successfully. It is a total waste of money and a product I would never recommend to anyone at all.

From the packaging, performance and durability of this mascara it's a disaster from beginning to end.

This review is also published on Ciao under my user name Violet1278.