Our April issue is in mailboxes and on store racks now, which means you’ve had some face time with local makeup artist Suresh Seneviratne. I plan to travel back in time to the ’90s (why not? everyone else is doing it) and follow his advice about the navy mascara, but for now I’m working out the kinks in my collection of black mascara.

Kiehl’s has a new one, you see, and it’s pretty much ruling my makeup bag right now. You’ve probably seen it—every fashion mag with a beauty section has gushed over it in advance of its April release. Sort of like how they all gushed over DiorShow mascara a few months ago. I keep waiting for the Kiehl’s stuff - it goes by the name Marvelous Mineral Mascara - to disappoint me and get clumpy and weird, but it doesn’t.

I think the mineral aspect really does provide a deep, rich color, and it is my experience that Kiehl’s knows a couple of things about moisturizing, and they haven’t forgotten any of it with this new product. I’m no chemist but I bet it’s the jojoba, aloe vera, panthenol, and Vitamin E that are keeping my eyelashes from feeling dry and flaky.

Frankly, I got over the DiorShow stuff pretty quickly, and relegated it to the inside pocket of my work bag—for those days, and they are many, when it’s all I can do to get out of the house with my hair all going in one direction (more or less). Don’t believe the hype.

And then there is ye olde standby: the pink-and-green tube of Maybelline Great Lash. 7.86 out of every 10 make-up artists that I’ve poled in the last seven or eight years has eventually shrugged and suggested this drugstore fav, and although it gets clumpy in a New Jersey minute, (which is to say, not right away, but soon enough) it’s does give a girl a pretty great lash.

But what I’m wondering is: What else is out there?

I’d love to find a nice little boutique product … something small batch-y and natural. I’d like to think there’s a nice domestic one, but who am I to turn down something French.

Send me your tips, and in the meantime, I’ll cruise Essenza and Show Pony and the like, and check back later to let you know what I find.