THE ONE TRUE LASH LOVE

I'll preface this by saying I have THE MOST ridiculous lashes. They're short, uneven, patchy, and generally do very little to benefit my face. Same goes for my brows.. I have hair issues. So when people say they could never live without mascara and that its possibly the most vital component of the makeup arsenal, I'm all 'lolwut?' because nothing made my lashes look respectable. NOTHING. If anything, mascara only ever highlighted that the disaster zone.

Now, I've tried all manner of mascaras over the years, including the super popular offerings (including, but not limited to, Lancome Hypnose and Benefit's They're Real and BadGal - yeah, remember way back when BadGal was the big thing? Such nostalgia). All manner of products at every price point and NOTHING. EVER. WORKED. Clumpy ass lashes and brushes that either threatened to blind me or just left a black smudge all over my lids. Bleugh. I mostly chose my products based on reviews, because holy shit do I LOVE a review. Or several. No purchase of mine goes without lengthy study of all available reviews. And so this adoring love of a good review ended up drawing me to an unlikely contender - the Natural Collection mascaras.

For the unaware, Natural Collection is a Boots brand offering a basic selection of dirt cheap makeup and toiletries which have only ever outperformed my expectations. They also do a collection of body sprays which were the big thing to have back in my late middle school/early high school days - perfect for concealing that sweaty, pubescent stench post PE lessons. Mmmmm, delish. Back to the mascara game however - at the unmissable bargain cost of £1.99(!!!!!!!!), it would surely be stupid to not at least give this stuff a go. God damn, am I glad I did. These mascaras come in 5 different offerings - Lash Care, Lash Build, Lash Length, Lash Curl and Water Guard, and don't make any bold promises beyond the name. Infact, it's like they're not even trying. The packaging, as with the rest of the collection, is super plain and probably does itself very few favours. I imagine the simplicity helps to keep the price down, but it probably means it's often overlooked next to the flashier offerings of the makeup aisles. Poor little Natural Collection.

So, what does it do? Let's be honest, it's a mascara. There's not a huge number of things you can want a mascara to do, but for me I always struggle to avoid clumping. Alas, no such problem with Lash Length! As a bonus to the much desired separation, I find it to be nicely buildable, a good consistency (not too 'wet' is the only way I can think to describe it.. I hope somebody understands what I mean here), and it certainly delivers some length as the name would suggest. The only other mascara I've ever really had a soft spot for is Clinique's 'High Impact' offering, but at a cost of £16.50, it's just not good enough to tempt me away from this bargain babe yet.

Moral of the story? Don't dismiss the cheap brands. Natural Collection has some great little products all around the £1.99 mark, a price even my miserable bank account can cope with.