~~Introduction~~

You've only to pick up a magazine to discover the latest must have looks which in recent times has a particular focus on having beautiful, big, full lashed eyes. Every cosmetic store these days parades a vast selection of eye shadows, eye creams, fake lashes and mascara.

The fact is that most of us just cannot be bothered to spend hours trying to stick on fake lashes that just won't do as they are told, so the alternative for most of us is to purchase a mascara that gives the appearance of longer, fuller lashes, with the impression of wider eyes that sparkle, a mascara that adds depth of colour and lasts without running or smudging. Cue Volume Million lashes....

~~Price and packaging~~

The Volume Million Lashes will set you back around £11 so a fairly pricey product coming from a normally quite wallet friendly L'Oreal but having said that, Boots and Superdrug usually have some brilliant offers on L'Oreal products and I found myself with a very tidy 3 for the price of 2.

The Volume Million Lashes certainly looks exciting if judged on its cleverly designed packaging, boastful in its curvaceous slim line shiny gold tube and very glamorous with its black strip and gold lettering - an appearance more akin to a Christian Dior product than what you'd expect from an affordable high street brand. I would say that it is a little larger than some of the other high street mascaras and therefore probably not a handbag item for everyone.

~~The product~~

L'Oreal's marketing tactic has been to plug this product as the answer to the increasing demand for longer, fuller looking lashes with the all important staying power. It's a fairly big claim in my opinion, as I have never found mascara that effectively creates this illusion without clumping or smudging. Two key features that have been used to market this product are the brush (which L'Oreal have named the 'Millionizer brush') and the excess wiper.

Much like any other mascara, you unscrew the lid it and becomes your handle, this is firmly attached to a long strip of plastic on the end of which sits the Millionizer brush which is notably thicker than most high street mascara brushes and may account for a wider than usual tube. The excess wiper sits around the rim of the container out of sight. L'Oreal say that the brush has been designed with a multitude of bristles for a fanned out effect, whilst the excess wiper removes excess mascara to avoid overload and clumping. The Product comes in 3 colours brown, black and extra black. I purchased the standard black.

~~ Overall Opinion~~


Applying the mascara is a simple enough task but in order to achieve maximum effect I discovered that it does require a bit of trial and error in terms of application. Simply brushing in an upward motion (like I would with most mascara) failed to distribute the mascara through the entire thickness of my lashes, but by rotating the brush as I motioned upwards the brush penetrated the full thickness with relative ease.

The excess wiper has been an invaluable key design feature in this product. The distribution of mascara is always even throughout the brush, and therefore brushed evenly through the lashes. The outsides of my lashes (closest to the ear) really do appear significantly longer and fuller with the application of this product.

Like with most mascara the true test lay with the inner lashes (those closest to the nose), no cosmetics company has to date totally perfected their brush to combat this area in my opinion. Although the brush is very effective for the outside, it doesn't quite fair as well on the in. It provides adequate coverage but doesn't fan as well as the outter lashes,still, it does never the less create the illusion of longer, fuller lashes as it promises in it's advertising. Once you have done both the outside and the inside, you may find yourself having to adjust the middle section of the lashes as it does tend to ruffle up slightly but because it doesn't clump, this is a straight forward enough task to fix. I should point out that whilst the brush isn't perfect it is still far superior to most of its competitors.

Once applied the appearance is very natural which is perfect unless you are hoping for a more dramatic look in which case this product does require some building up by allowing it to dry, then reapplying. I have found that by finding the right brush technique, the lashes curve nicely upwards toward the eyebrows and eliminate the need for an eyelash curler. The mascara dries well and sets in such a way that it provides a nice solid line above the lash that enables eyeliner to be applied effortlessly. The mascara also gets 10 out of 10 for staying power.

All in all this is a very good product, value for money and one that I would certainly purchase again.

~~Also on Ciao under the same user name~~