Mascara tales

I was reading Glamour and they had an article on Best Beauty Buys where they had compiled a list of the best beauty products in the market based on reader opinions. They picked two products for each category - one 'specialty' product (think Dior, Clinique, aka expensive) and one 'drugstore' product (think Almay, Maybelline, aka affordable).
I totally got suckered in to the Best Mascara award which went to Lancome Definicils and Maybelline Great Lash respectively. I love mascara because you don't need much more in everyday make up except good mascara. And I love long thick lashes and I love mascara that makes your lashes exactly that - long and thick. My mascara staple is Maybelline XXL Volume + Length ($6) and I use it with dedication but it does get clumpy after a few uses and after using it for so long I can't even remember if makes any difference to the volume of my lashes or not. So I thought I'd try something new but I didn't want to waste $$ and get a dud. Hence, when I saw Glamour's love for Lancome, I said Voila!
Off I went to Sephora and made the purchase ($24). Seeing as it is about four times what I usually pay for mascara, I really wanted to see some dramatic results. And my verdict?!
The brush is very defined so it does not clump which is a plus and it separates each lash beautifully. However it does not make them as thick as I like so you have to be up close to admire the beauty of each lash. I haven't been using it that long so I don't know how long it will last but my regular mascara lasts a few weeks.

And now that I have converted my mascara money into Rupees I have realized I spent almost Rs. 1200. Lancome is great but I'm not convinced it's worth all that. I'm going back to XXL!

Do you have a favorite make up product?!