The product does give a decent amount of curl to your lashes which can be achieved by rolling the wand head along the length of you eyelashes as you apply mascara and gently press them backwards towards, but not touching, your eyelids. You can use eyelash curler to make it more dramatic, or if like me, you have one eye with curlier eyelashes than the other, an eyelash curler is the best way to make them even.

I have noticed that after a few hours of application, that the mascara does not dry to become stiff over the eyelashes. While this gives my eyelashes a spread out natural look and retains the eyelashes' movement and flexibility it also mean that they will lose their curl faster than if they were stiffened.

The product also flakes off and I get bits of fall out on the top of my cheeks that I need to keep wiping away. That might explain why there appears to be less product on my eyelashes than what I am sure I applied in the morning.

Those first few shortcomings I mentioned are most certainly not exclusive to the Colossal Volume Express Mascara and can be easily overcome (post on this coming soon) hence I do not feel that they affected my general good opinion of this mascara in any significant way. The last two cannot really be amended other than by reapplying.

Having said that, this mascara does have one humungous, undeniable failing that has left me sorely disappointed with it. It is a matter that I am astonished to have never come upon any of the reviews that I had watched and read.

I know that this mascara is not waterproof. I tend not to go for waterproof mascara because I hate fighting with it in order to get it off. But all previous non-waterproof mascaras that I had owed, including the Maybelline one have been sufficiently resilient to little splashes of water, the little drizzles of rain or dampness from the eyes. This mascara however, appears to lose its integrity entirely and melts away on touching water, which in my opinion is very scary. If I lightly splash my face with water, something I tend to do, I get droplets with mascara dissolved in them staining my face and my sink. And as you very well know, my annual hay-fever started a few weeks ago accompanied by the occasional watery-eye. I made the mistake of wearing this mascara on one of those eye-watering days while out in town and trust me, the sight in the mirror was pitiful; I was just relieved that I had not bumped into anyone I knew on my way home. I cannot even walk in the rain with this mascara on, and the unpredictability of our British weather makes me a little nervous when I do apply it on a reasonably dry day.