The new generation of mascaras combines high-spec wands with high-tech formulas. They won’t just transform your lashes, but life as you know it...

Words: Sarah-Jane Corfield-Smith

After 15 years of searching, testing close to 100 products, a gruesome accident involving a scratched retina and spending enough money to make a City boy blush, I have finally found The One.

Finding a mascara that wakes up my tired eyes at 7am, stays smudge-free all day and gives me a subtle smoulder come nightfall has quite literally changed my life. You think I’m exaggerating? I’m not alone in the search for fuller, longer, supernaturally glossy lashes. Mascara’s global market value has now hit a staggering £4.5billion, proving how far we’re prepared to go for fuller, clump-free lashes that won’t flake all over our faces.

While we are fastidiously loyal to our favourite moisturiser or fragrance, the latest figures from market researchers Mintel show 47% of us will drop our mascara for a new one faster than we can say, “I want what she’s having” because we’re so hell-bent on creating perfect lashes. It’s no surprise that brands want to change our fickle ways and produce a mascara we can enjoy a happy long-term relationship with.

Cosmetic companies have invested record sums in developing the best way to enhance our lashes and now the fruits of their labour are finally hitting the beauty halls. Formulas, of course, are important, but these new mascaras rely on trademarked bristle formulations on top of ergonomically designed wands that feel like an extension of your hand and sweeping pigments so intense, they send shock waves through the lashes. Leading the charge is Chanel, launching its first volumising mascara this week with a brush so sophisticated it’s been patented.

It’s not often we can say this, but we believe you’ll find The One right here...

Six of the best new mascaras