Do eyelashes come in size XL with Lancome Cils Booster XL?

Confession time!  My mom buys Lancome.  And Clinique, and other various department store makeup brands that I don't typically use.  Me being a curious person, sometimes I go into her bathroom and try her stuff out (I'm glad she doesn't read my blog regularly!  Although I'm pretty sure she wouldn't care too much, thankfully, lol!).  She was telling me awhile back how she bought Lancome's mascara primer and thought it was so-so; she was conned into buying it by the makeup artist working there but she thought she'd give it a try anyway.  I had to try it.  I love Lancome Definicils mascara (my mom's mascara of choice, which she gave me once when she thought she didn't like it, haha) so I was really hopefuly of the Cils Booster XL.  And hey, anything that has "XL" in the name makes me take a second look!
So how does it perform?

Lancome describes the Cils Booster XL as the following:

Give your lashes an XL boost. With just one sweep, this innovative mascara base glides on and evenly coats and smoothes your lashes to maximize the results of your favorite Lancôme mascara. The magic behind this mascara base is the conditioning formula—featuring micro-fibers and Vitamin E - to add extra length and thickness to your lashes for added visible performance to your mascara.

There's vitamins, micro-fibers, and magic in this mascara primer.  Sounds pretty amazing to me, haha.  But basically, it's supposed to lengthen and thicken your lashes with mascara on top.

The bristles on the wand are straight across, but the brush itself it large- I'd say about double in size comparing it to Lancome Definicils (which is a thin, straight brush).  The formula is white as you can ee from the pictures, and it makes your eyelashes white upon application.  This obviously goes away when you apply mascara!  

The micro-fibers in the formula help coat every lash, which is one of my favorite things about the formula.  I hate when mascaras feel like hey don't "catch" every lash, if that makes sense.  This grips onto your lashes and makes them look really long and thick.

You don't have to wait for it to dry to put on mascara, so I do one eye at a time- primer, then mascara right after (I tried letting it sit a few seconds originally, but it made my mascara clumpy.  Then I consulted a Lancome girl who told me to just apply mascara consecutively).  

You can see my pictures for a step-by-step:

1. is my eyelashes without primer or mascara

2. is one coat of Lancome Cils Booster XL

3. is one coat of Maybelline Volum' Express The Colossal mascara

4. is two coats of the same mascara

Now, comparing picture #4 to picture #1, my eyelashes without any product to using Cils Booster and mascara, it looks like it makes a huge difference.  And it does.  But I'm not really convinced it's worth the $22.00 price tag for an extra step in addition to mascara.

Here is a picture comparing my eyelashes with the Cils Booster & Maybelline The Colossal mascara (same mascara I used in the above comparison pictures), to my eyelashes wearing just the Maybelline The Colossal mascara without primer:

Left, same picture from above, 1 coat Cils Booster+2 coats mascara; Right, 2 coats Maybelline mascara

I know the angle is different so it might be a little hard to tell, but I don't see a huge difference in terms of length or thickness.  At least not enough to make it worth adding an extra step to your makeup routine.

For one more comparison, here is a picture with another mascara, L'Oreal Double Extend Illuminator; two coats:

This picture compared to the ones I showed with Cils Booster XL makes me think that it really doesn't do a whole lot.  The first time I tried Cils Booster I was convinced it was the best thing ever!  And then I used it a few more times, and started to see a very insignificant difference.

I should mention that I was blessed with decent lashes (well, at least after I use mascara, lol!), so I can't say how this will work for those of you with shorter, sparser eyelashes.  My mom has shorter lashes and she said she doesn't notice a huge difference, but she still likes to use it anyway (so that could mean she sees a little added length and definition).  I'm going to continue using this here and there to see if I experience any change, because I'm still not 100% convinced that it's a bad product.

Overall (finally!  This post seems like it's lasted forever!), I can't fully recommend this unless you like eyelash primers and find they typically work well for you.  In that case, I think it might work better for you than it did me.  I don't personally think it's worth $22.00, as I didn't experience much thickening and lengthening.  I would much rather spend an extra few dollars and just buy a good Lancome mascara! 

Thanks for reading, guys!  And happy father's day! :)