How Maybelline Mascara Is Made | How Stuff Is Made

Imagine a world without great lashes.
We could never.
Flirty winks and mysterious glances,
the look of confidence and taking chances.
Countless flutters and endless sass,
here's the secret to making a great lash.
Darkening eyes and lashes first came
into fashion thousands of years ago.
But it wasn't until the Victorian era
that the practice began to gain widespread
popularity in the West when Queen Victoria's
perfumer combined coal dust and petroleum jelly
to darken lashes.
Which we wouldn't recommend.
In 1915, a young woman named Maybel Williams
applied a similar mixture to her lashes
and inspired her enterprising brother,
Thomas Lyle Williams,
to package and sell his own formula.
It came with a special brush to apply
the product to both lashes and brows.
It was a smash hit,
launching the cosmetic empire
Williams called Maybelline.
Named after his sister, of course.
Over the next few decades,
new and improved formulas were introduced
and application became easier than ever
with the introduction of bristled brushes.
But it wasn't until 1971 that Maybelline introduced
what would perhaps become
the most famous mascara of them all.
Great Lash Mascara by Maybelline.
That's right, Maybelline.
The secret to a good mascara is all in the mix.
And the ingredients have come a long way
since the days of coal dust and Vaseline.
First up: wax and stiffening agents are used
to keep the mascara from being too liquidy.
Next oil and pigment are added for color
and consistency.
Waterproof formulas include a
water rebuffing ingredient.
The ingredients are mixed, heated, and combined
until they end up as the dark paste we know and love.
It's the most famous mascara in the world for a reason
and part of that reason is rigorous quality control.
When the mascara liquid is all finished mixing,
it's tested again.
A device called a spectrometer splits light
into separate colors called a spectrum.
This allows the Maybelline scientists to see the
chemical composition of the mascara so that
the formula is perfect down to a molecular level.
When the great lash formula first hits shelves in 1971,
it was packaged in a pink tube with a green lid.
Over four decades later,
Great Lash continues to be packaged in the same
signature pink tubes and green lids.
Thousands of those little pink tubes are
loaded onto a machine.
Two-by-two, the tubes are placed upright
onto a conveyor belt.
Mascara is pumped into the tubes.
Clear plugs called wipers are added to the tubes
which will pull off excess product from the mascara
wands when applying.
This is to make sure your lashes
don't get too clumpy.
Nobody likes a clumpy lash.
Aside from the formula,
the wand was part of what revolutionized
the way we wear mascara.
The Great Lash wand is thin,
designed to reach all the way down
to the base of your lashes.
It's made of a synthetic fiber
that adds volume and thickness.
Before these pink packages can be shipped out,
another round of testing makes sure
they are absolutely perfect.
Thanks to Maybelline's solar panels,
this entire production process is run
with renewable energy
and is a no landfill site.
As hundreds of thousands of mascaras are
on their way to a new home,
they make a pit stop for labeling.
Photos are taken to make sure every label is
placed exactly correctly so that each bottle is—
you guessed it—
perfect.
One tube of Great Lash Mascara is sold every
two seconds.
That's over 40,000 tubes sold each day.
Translation:
more than 4.5 million lashes are coated,
thickened, and lengthened with this cult formula
each and every day.
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How Great Lash Mascara Is Made.
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How Maybelline Mascara Is Made | How Stuff Is Made | Refinery29

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