I’m partial to a bit of brown mascara for daytime makeup looks; often jet-black can look a little bold and stark, especially if I’m trying to keep things low-key. There’s nothing wrong with bold, of course, and if you want your lashes to properly stand out then black is unbeatable, but if you’re fair in skin or hair-tone or you’re going for au naturel then a brown mascara will give your lashes a bit of volume and definition without making them the main attraction.

(Again, I’m all for “striking” but when did eyelashes become such monstrous affairs? I saw some the other day that covered – at a quick reckoning – about 40% of the person’s face! Sorry to bang on like an old fogey, but some look almost grotesque these days – like those giant millipedes that you see on wildlife documentaries. I love what false lashes can do – instant glamour and, on my semi-droopy lids, a brilliant eye-opening effect – but come on people! Lashes that reach higher than your eyebrows? So heavy that you can only see if you tilt your head back? That’s not makeup, that’s just “gluing objects to your face”. You may as well get out the foil stars and the dried pasta pieces, make a full primary school art piece.)

Anyway, brown mascara. Quite a lot of them out there are weak and wishy-washy and completely pointless – if I’m going to take the time to apply mascara then it needs to do something. The best ones I’ve found in all of my travels are the Chanel Le Volume de Chanel* and Guerlain Maxi Lash* but I think that Clarins Supra Volume* may now have to take first prize. It’s makes my lashes look brilliant – fatter, longer and darker – and stays in place all day.

Excuse weird crop on the photo – it’s so hard to take pictures of your own lashes! – but you can see how wonderfully volumising the Supra mascara is. It’s a nice waxy formula that gives instant oomph and it’s very easy to build up the layers – no clumping or blobbing. I even go back in for a final coat once I’ve done all of my makeup and clean-up and it gives a good little boost without flaking off what’s already underneath. Beautiful definition, but – as I said – a softer effect, because the brown shade just takes the edge off and makes it all a bit less punchy.

I’m on tube number three of the Clarins Supra Volume Mascara, which is something of a record – I try so many mascaras that I rarely come back to the same one time and time again. This seems to have become my makeup bag staple. You can find it at FeelUnique here* – it’s £21.50.