mascara

Mascara is a cosmetic product used to enhance the eyes. As a women's make-up element, it is used to highlight, thicken, color, lengthen, curve or define the eyelashes, and it is usually applied with the help of a thin brush.

There are three types of mascara – liquid, cake or cream, of which the liquid form is by far the most commonly used worldwide. Depending on its purpose, mascara can contain various ingredients, although all brands share several types of components, such as oils, wakes, preservatives, thickeners and pigments.

The most common mascaras use a black pigment to highlight the eyelashes and complement other make-up elements, such as eye shadow and eye liners. While different types of mascara-like substances to highlight the eyes and lashes have been documented since ancient Egypt, the modern mascara only appeared during the 20th century, when Hollywood celebrities like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis and Jean Harlow enabled it to become a beauty staple for modern women.


Mascara wearing actresses not only showed you how to make your eyes look bigger, but were also promoting a cosmetic that could glamorize your entire appearance. By the latter half of the 20th century, mascara popularity was soaring.

As make-up products are now regulated by the FDA, all ingredients used in mascara production must be non-toxic. The main pigment used to give mascara its dark tint is carbon black, which is produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products combined with an amount of vegetable oil.

Brown and blue mascaras use other types of pigments, such as iron oxides and ultramarine blue. Natural emollients, like castor oil, eucalyptus oil, lanolin or linseed oil are usually added to make mascara easy to spread evenly on the eyelashes.

Paraffin, beeswax or carnauba wax may be added to the mascara as a pigment base. In addition, some mascaras are waterproof and contain a water resistant substance like dodecane, which is a non-toxic liquid alkane hydrocarbon. Special types of mascaras that elongate or add volume to the lashes may also contain nylon microfibers that adhere to the lash to alter its appearance.

Modern mascara can be produced by two main methods, termed anhydrous and emulsion. In the anhydrous method, the wax, oils and pigments are combined, heated and mixed until a homogenous, semi-solid compound is obtained. In the emulsion process, a mixture of water and thickeners is homogenized first, while the emulsifiers and waxes are combined separately.

Pigments are then added to both mixtures. The final step is to combine the two resulting substances with the help a powerful, high speed agitator, since water, waxes and emulsifiers have a natural tendency to repulse each other.

You'll find bloggers talking about mascara at sites like styleforstyles.com and blog.bellusacademy.edu.

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