Weekend Beauty: Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes Mascara

This week I found myself at Sephora, idly contemplating whether I should cheat on my mascara, Chanel Inimitable, with something new, because while it works wonders on my rather non-spectacular, not very long, not very thick eyelashes, we've been going steady for almost too years, and I am a little bored with it... or should I be loyal and reasonable and just stick with what's been so good for me. Reader, I cheated on it. Stumbling upon Givenchy counter and having a vague recollection of reading good things about their new mascara, I bought Phenomen'Eyes. Without trying it on or even opening it first. Because that is how I shop. So imagine my surprise, when, upon unscrewing the tube at home the next morning, instead of the usual brush, I found this: ...something that looks like Rosemary's baby's bottle cleaner. Surely, this "high-tech, patented round sphere at the tip of the precision wand that reaches every lash and adapts to all eye shapes" will poke my eye out, thought I and proceeded to apply anyway. Apparently Givenchy's promise that you don't need a steady hand to use this mascara is true, as my eye survived intact and I made no mess on my upper or lower lids, whilst succesfully covering lashes from tips to the very roots. It is also true that the mascara curls lashes. I loved the fact that it applied very thick but separated lashes at the same time; the result was fairly dramatic: long (-ish, anyway, they would only stretch this far), thick, curled eyelashes. What's more - no panda eye problem (which was one flaw of my otherwise spectacular last mascara fling - Guerlain Le 2); the color stayed intact all day, and it was a very warm day. What's more- and very important for lazy moi- it washed off easily. Add to that the persistent and not unplesant suspicion that the formula contains snips, snails, puppy dog's tails and tannis root...Sorry, Inimitable. I am not sure we have split up for good, I do seem to always come back to you after playing around with other mascaras, but for now, it's all about Phenomen'Eyes. Available at Sephora, in black and brown, $28.00.