What's In Your Mascara

The inventor of mascara, Eugene Rimmel, continues to be immortalized for his 19th-century discovery. “Rimmel” is the word for mascara in many languages including Dutch, Persian, Portuguese, and Turkish. The man who popularized mascara, T. L. Williams, created his 1913 invention, a mixture of coal dust and Vaseline, for his sister Maybel. When the product became a hit, he named his company Maybelline to honor his two inspirations.

Mascara Ingredients

Mascara typically includes a carbon black or iron oxide pigment to darken lashes, a polymer to form a film that coats lashes, a preservative, and thickening waxes or oils like lanolin, mineral oil, paraffin, petrolatum, castor oil, carnauba wax, and candelilla wax.

There are two basic choices: Anhydrous formulas with no water, or emulsions of water and oil. Anhydrous options tend to be waterproof and less likely to smudge or flake, but can be difficult to remove. Emulsions are easier on lashes, but may flake or smudge.

Back in the 1930s, lash darkeners contained scary ingredients such as turpentine, lead-containing kohl, and aniline, a hair-dye ingredient, all of which left more than one woman blind. Now regulations strictly limit the ingredients to those that are safe to apply in the eye area, but you should still be on the lookout for thimerosal, a preservative that can cause conjunctivitis and eyelid dermatitis (a rash).

Waterproof Mascara

To find out if your tube will flake or run, check how much water it contains. The lower it is on the ingredients list, the less likely you'll get smeared. But experts suggest limiting your use of waterproof, smudgeproof formulas with little to no water. The extra effort to remove these products can damage lashes, causing them to break or fall out.

Maybelline's Great Lash

In 1971, Lilly Pulitzer, a then up-and-coming designer known for her vibrant fabrics, inspired Maybelline Great Lash's iconic pink and green tube -- perhaps the most recognizable mascara around the globe. One Great Lash tube is sold every 1.9 seconds in the United States -- and once every 1.1 seconds worldwide.