It's one of the things we all spend so much time trying and buying because mascara has so many different things it can do - lengthen, volumise, curl, do songs and dances, for example - that it can be a mammoth task trying to find one in your price range that does the job you want it to do.
Oh, and then there's the wand.
Another huge point of contention for a lot of us is the type of brush that's included with the product, because no matter how good the gunk is, it'll live and die by the yokey you apply it with. And we've seen some increasingly nutty ones recently: No7 debuted a truncated pyramidal brush for Extreme Length, Maybelline's the Falsies boasts a 'spoon shaped' wand and Clinique's High Lengths product features a banana-shaped green applicator.
But no matter how inventive mascara makers get, all wands fall into two camps: bog brush or hedgehog. Ye'wha now? Let me explain - a bog brush-style wand is yer regular normal fibres-attached-to-the-wand style brush that you tend to find on basic mascaras like Gosh Show Me Volume or Mac Zoom Lash.
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Hedgehogs, on the other hand, are the new gen of spiky, plastic applicators that are contorted into all forms of pinnacles and troughs, moulded into curved shapes, with added tines, combs and all manner of lash-enhancing doohickeys.
Out of preference, I'm a hedgehog gal all the way: the splashback of a big fat bog brush applicator annoys me and I like the precision of moulded wands. Yep, they can hurt if you jab 'em into the eyelid too sharply, but the results are better, I've found.
But lets not leave it all up to me: this is an issue worthy of POLLS and SERIOUS debate! Register your preference below, and tell us in a comment all about your wand-related desires.
[polldaddy poll="3028648"]
