The Grandiose Tour

This may sound like an overstatement but, after only having Lancôme's Grandiôse Mascara in my possession for a couple of hours, what came to mind was what a makeup game-changer this product is. The design of the brush is so clever it actually makes mascara application so easy, thorough and fun and the density of the colour leaves you with the most striking lashes you could imagine.

Since then, this mascara has felt like the coolest makeup toy I've ever used. Having been lucky enough to attend Lancôme's Grandiôse event in Brown Thomas, a member of Lancôme's elite team, Marc Sinclair, not only showed us how to use this product to its best advantage but the best way of applying any mascara and how black is the only shade up you should use up to a certain age.

There are two extremely impressive elements to this mascara that have left me in a flutter but the ergonomically designed wand really is its selling point for me. As you can see in the photos, it has a swan-like neck that basically allows you to apply your mascara evenly on every single lash you have without any real effort or mess. The brush is designed to match this with neatness so it really turns your lashes into these voluminous winged creatures that are so striking. Please now pop those falsies in the bin.

The second wonder of this product - and Marc Sinclair's favourite aspect of the mascara - is the density of the colour. The shade is the most pigmented, blackest of blacks. Penelope Cruz is the face of the campaign and in the poster you can see her lashes almost have a life of their own but what Sinclair showed us is that look is actually easily achievable with Grandiôse. (Disclaimer: I am not saying this will make you look like Penelope Cruz but you may perhaps achieve eyelash twin status at the very least?)

A tip from the makeup artist when applying this or any mascara is to apply to your lashes in stages; work from the outside in in three steps on both sides for the most striking effect. 

You can probably tell from all this gushing that I love this product. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and it really is so like a toy for makeup lovers. The shape of even the bottle is beautiful and, as another journalist at the event pointed out to me, the shape of the wand and bottle is made as such that you can actually get every last drop of mascara from the container which is pretty rare with a standard bottle. 

I always much prefer any cosmetic product I use to have something nourishing in it so I'm not damaging my skin, hair, nails or lashes so I was very happy to see that the mascara contains native rose cells which Lancôme tell us work "to leave lashes suppler, softer, and more resistant, for a denser and thicker lash fringe".

This mascara one hundred percent won me over purely for the applicator brush design which I could really see taking off since it's solved some basic problems of mascara application and really gives you the fullest lashes with the most control over how you apply them. The density of the colour is such a winner too and you really end up with lashes that look pretty spectacular leaving false lashes completely redundant in my opinion.

Lancôme has great sales representatives who are so helpful so, since this mascara comes in at €30, it's worth asking for a demonstration to see if it does all it promises. I think even the most cynical person would be pleasantly impressed!

Lancôme's Grandiôse mascara has been made available exclusively to Brown Thomas nationwide from July 15th and following that it's available from Lancôme counters nationwide from July 30th.