I stumbled across this mascara by chance, I was frantically searching for a volume mascara in brown in Boots. My usual Bourjois range let me down, ALL of their mascara's were in black, along with every other brand it seemed, and the first brown mascara I came across was this one, Maybelline's Define-A-Lash. I remember when this mascara came out a few years ago, with one of their fierce advertising campaigns they seem to do when they release a new macara (which seems to be every few months!), each one always promising to give you the most gorgeous lashes, ever. You may remember the campaign behind the mascara which came in a bright green tube, this is the same except this one is the Define-A-Lash VOLUME mascara, and comes in a pink tube rather than green.

One of the main reasons I bought this was because it had £3 off, making it only £5.82. The full price is £7.82 which I find a bit excessive for a Maybelline mascara, mainly because I find them to be quite average compared to other brands, often preferring to go for Bourjois mascara's which are good quality and value for money. However as I mentioned before I was looking for a mascara in a brown shade, this is because I have very long eye lashes which unfortunately lack volume. I prefer to wear a brown shade of mascara for going to work as it's more subtle than a black mascara which makes my long eye lashes look a bit over the top for the office, often having people asking me if I'm wearing fake eye lashes for work!

The packaging for this mascara is pretty much standard as far as mascara's go, one difference here is the brush. When you pull the brush out of the tube it goes through the 'built in clump remover' basically a small, soft opening in the tube which removes thick clumps of mascara from the brush. However I found the stick on which the brush sits to be alarmingly thin in quality, and quite bendy, and it sometimes feel as ifc it's going to snap. It hasn't yet, but I would have expected better quality in this area, considering you have to really pull the brush out of the tube, through this 'clump remover.'

So I have a clump free brush, how good is the mascara on my lashes? Well this brush has small, hard bristles which whilst good at avoiding clumps, doesn't help with building up volume. This mascara makes my eyelashes look more like spider legs than any other and I can't see how they dare even add 'Volume' into this product's name! The packaging states 'no clumps, separation, voluptous volume' and whilst I can agree with the first two, unfortunately I lacked to see any 'voluptous volume' on my lashes just long, clump free and seperated lashes.

I also like the shade which isn't too dark on my lashes, but I have to be careful not to apply too much mascara at all when I use this, as too much really makes my eye lashes look silly. A problem I have is I often compare mascara's to my favourite mascara, Benefit's Bad Gal mascara which is the best for my eye lashes, creating wonderful volume. So far I've found only Bourjois can come at a fraction of the price, and this one by Maybelline is near the bottom of my list!

The mascara lasts all day and doesn't smear or 'stiffen' my lashes. At the end of the day it is easy to remove with a good eye make-up remover and you don't have to spend ages scrubbing away at your eyes to remove this one.

Advantages:
* A good clump-free mascara.
* Seperates out each lash to give a more sleek finish.
* Doesn't smear, but easy to remove at the end of the day.
* Pretty pink packaging.

Disadvantages:
* Doesn't provide volume as promised.
* Poor quality brush, feels as though it will snap.
* Vastly overpriced for the quality you receive, don't pay full price for this one!


Overall if you are looking for good volume I would give this one a certain miss. If you are however looking for a clump free mascara, then this one if for you, but I would probably opt for the 'Define-A-Lash' original in the bright green tube, rather than this 'volume' version.