I need to start this off my saying I am a mascara addict! However I rarely pay full price for any of them. I wait until a new one is on special offer and then I buy it. As a result, I have tried many of the mascaras on offer at the moment, from Rimmel, to No 7 to Maybelline. I have not previously tried a collection 200 mascara but only because at the last count I had six mascaras, some of which hadn't been opened, in my make up bag and so I made a real effort to use them up.

That was until I saw this cute little number on special offer in Boots. How could a girl with shorter-than-average eye lashes walk past such a promising mascara, and at a promising price! A lot of my make up comes from Collection 2000 and so I had no hesitation in wending my way to the till with my purchase hot in hand.

No sooner had I opened the packaging than the love affair died. The advantages of this mascara started and finished with the special offer. The curved brush is just a pain - I struggled to get all my lashes covered without managing to get mascara all over my nose and my cheeks. The coverage is patchy and clumpy at best - if I didn't know better, I would have thought this was one of the older ones hidden in my bag and unused for months.

Once I had attempted to get as much mascara on my lashes as possible, I set out for the day, hoping that first appearances were deceiving and that everyone else was secretly admiring my curled lashes. Two hours later and I am checking my makeup in the mirror. Wait, what's that I see? A panda staring back at me? No, it was just me and my mascara under my eyes!!!! I had done nothing else different to my make up at all and yet somehow I had bigger panda eyes than Kung Fu panda! Distraught, I managed to get the worst off (it would appear it takes longer to remove once it has spread to your undereyes than it takes to come off the lashes in the first place)

I tried again on a different day but with the same results and I have now given up and left it to look pretty in my bag rather than on my lashes. Personally, I would rather spend a couple of quid more and get one from Rimmel.