Review: Maybelline The Colossal Volum Express Waterproof Mascara

Girls, today is a big day.  I bought a new mascara.  I know.  I'm still in shock.  If you don't know my history with mascara, it's a little traumatic.  Mascara and I have had some rough times.  It started with Diorshow and Benefit Bad Gal Lash in high school.  Instant raccoon face.  Tried Great Lash and a Boots mascara and Lancome Hypnose, and I've never loved any of them.  I have contacts and dry eyes, so I use lots of eye drops, and I've never found a non-waterproof mascara that can deal with that, so I always do waterproof.  The only mascara I've loved is Max Factor's Volume Couture Waterproof, and it's been discontinued in the U.S.  So I had to go on a search for a new mascara.  


My requirements: no raccoon face.  I have such a fear of having raccoon face all day and no one telling me.  I want a little length, a little volume, and something that's easy to layer.  I've been scouring Makeupalley for something that could work for me, and today I just gave up, went to CVS, and grabbed this:


Maybelline The Colossal Volum Express Waterproof Mascara in Glam Black, about $8 at CVS.  Why do they spell volume wrong?  Ugh.  I honestly grabbed it because the packaging was entertaining.  It's very festive.  So here's the mascara itself.

And here's the brush.  The brush scared me.  It's a gigantic, Diorshow/Bad Gal Lash-sized brush, which is great for getting all of your lashes, but kind of hard to control.  I applied this in two coats, waiting about five minutes between them.  The first coat was very easy to apply, and you can get a lot of lashes from just one coat, which I love.  The second coat clumped a bit--nothing unfixable, but a little annoying.  The one thing that really bothered me about application is that I had to hold a credit card behind my lashes not to get mascara all over my brow bone. 

As for what it does for my lashes, it gives me more length and volume than the Max Factor, it's a bit darker, and it doesn't make my lashes feel crispy like the Max Factor did.  It's not flaking at all, it seems to have no problems with my eye drops/contacts, and while it's not quite a false lash effect, it's definitely got some drama to it.


Awkward Chic rating: A-.  My only cons here are the ridiculously large brush and the slight clumping, but overall I think this is a really fab mascara.