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I always on the lookout for mascara that doesn’t fall down my face.
Smudged mascara is not charming; like laddered tights and very dirty hair, it can serve to make us look a little unhinged. Out of control.
Which may well be the case (*howls*), but why advertise it? Now, Avon is not a brand to which I would normally rush, but hop online, have a look and prepare to have your prejudices blown away. I particularly like its Mark line, which has a bold, slightly American supermarket cheekiness to it.
The Mark Big & Extreme mascara is a super-muscular, unashamedly stiff and heavy-handed (yet non-cloggy) weapon, frankly. This stuff is not pretending to be subtle — in fact it is presented as an alternative to false lashes. I find that, if you have quite long lashes to begin with, weedier mascaras can just tangle them into depressing clumps. But this stuff gives them phenomenal impact without the cheap, artificial, camel-lash situation that stick-ons can often deliver.
Crucially, it doesn’t flake down the face. At all. Once on, you’re locked and loaded for the day and, what with being waterproof, it doesn’t give up in the face of tears, drunkenness, rain or over-tired droopiness. It just... is. And for its constancy I applaud it. I want a mascara I can use and abuse and lose and replace without feeling punished. Like lipglosses and concealers, mascara travels with me from handbag to handbag and it falls out of them in Ubers or nestles in dark locker corners at the gym. And I mind losing an £8 mascara far, far less than one for, say, £22. That’s what it comes down to.
Avon Mark Big & Extreme mascara, £8.50 avon.uk.com
