I have used the same brand of mascara for 15 years now, good old Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof in Very Black. It’s reliable, it doesn’t give you Panda eyes and it is relatively cheap. Keep in mind that the price of ONE tube here in New Zealand is $18.99! Bush arrived last month and brought with her the spoils of the Great American Make-up Aisle. One of my gifts was some Maybelline XXL Extensions mascara. This is the fancy double-ended guy, one end is some white goo that you put on first and the other end is the black mascara. Seeing as how I left the house today and forgot to put ANY mascara on, I thought I might as well go for gold and put on TWO different mascaras so we can judge whether the gimmicky XXL really does deliver.
Despite the fact that is does take twice as long to apply, the XXL is indeed MUCH superior to old faithful. The white goo separates your lashes before the black mascara application and definately increases the lash length. If you can get past the bung-eye look of the two pics below you can see that the lashes in the right-hand pic appear much more full and long than those in the left.
I sacrificed the symmetry of my eyelashes for these pictures people so I hope you appreciate this!