Brown mascara sounds good for you.
It's not as harsh as Black mascara and will fit with your hair color more.
Covergirl, Maybelline, L'oreal, and Max Factor sell fantastic mascaras for a cheap price. Maybelline's mascara is a little more watery, so I would be careful about that, and L'oreal's mascara is more dry.
I really reccommend Max Factor's Lash Perfection Volume Couture, it's just great, I love it.
Not sure how it flakes though, seeing as I wear primer underneath it. It comes in a good range of colors too.
If you're worried about flakes, try L'oreal's Double Extend Beauty Tubes, my ultimate favorite mascara. It's "waterproof" so it doesn't flake or smudge, but it comes off easily with warm (and I mean pretty warm) water, so no scrubbing with makeup remover and all that. Be careful if you apply it though, it can get messy and put it on fast.
The bad thing is that I don't think they come in a brown color, so it might look harsh since that mascara really gives you a false-eyelash effect.
Covergirl's best mascara IMO is Volume Exact . . . but I'm not sure how bad it flakes or not.
Covergirl's mascaras are good though, so I'd give it a shot. Lash Blast was good too, and I know that has a brown, but it flaked on me. You could always get waterproof on that, but it is KILLER to get off.
Maybelline has this new mascara called Lash Stilletto, and I liked it. Gorgeous lengthening and seperation, and didn't smudge or flake all day. I don't think it comes in a real brown though. :/
All I know is stay away from their Sky High Curves, that thing smudged and flaked like no tomorrow.
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Hope this helps! Good luck