Engineering Limitless Lash Altitude

I am Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High® Waterproof Mascara. I was a birthday gift. “Sally” uses me every day before she goes to school and before she goes out with her friends.

At first glance I look very simple in my sleek and iridescent pink tube, but I have a very interesting life and story. I started out as an idea, became a list of different ingredients, and was then mixed into the mascara that people love and use every day. When my job is done, I get reused or recycled and the cycle starts again.

People wanted long lashes. Maybelline NY needed a new mascara product that met the demand for long “sky high” lashes. After teaming up with L’Oréal they came up with me, the Sky High® Waterproof Mascara. Cosmetic companies already had mascaras that added volume to eyelashes. They wanted me to be a mascara that also lengthened eyelashes. They also wanted me to have a long-lasting effect that does not smudge or flake. They needed to come up with the right components and formula to create me.

The very first mascaras were made from natural ingredients like soot, petroleum jelly, and beeswax. Modern mascaras are synthetic and contain both natural ingredients and chemicals. A team of chemical engineers collaborated to formulate an ideal blend – one that had the right texture, performance, and color. They ensured that the ingredients they developed were precise and tailored to meet the required specifications. They created a new formula that does not clump and leaves your lashes lengthened and volumized.

My formula is like many other mascaras. It includes stiffening agents, oils, pigments, and a water rebuffing agent. Stiffening agents, like beeswax which comes from honeycombs, help make sure I am not too watery. Oils, like lanolin oil that comes from sheep wool and castor oil from the castor oil plant, are needed to thicken my formula. Pigments, like carbon black, are usually made from dark-colored powders and help darken lashes to make them more noticeable. Water rebuffing ingredients, like different waxes from petroleum, plants, and flowers, are used to make me waterproof. But what makes my formula special are bamboo extract and fibers from the bamboo plant. The bamboo extract and fibers elongate your eyelashes and add volume from the base of your lashes to the tips. That is what makes your lashes “sky high.”

After chemists and chemical engineers figured out my formula, mechanical engineers designed equipment to create me. They constructed mixers, filling machines, and packing machines. Mechanical filling machines are important to make sure the right amount of mascara fills the tube each time and mechanical engineers make those machines. They also worked together with materials engineers to make sure that my production would run smoothly and that I could be created at an efficient rate.

Materials and packaging engineers also came up with the best way to contain my formula, including the type of tube. They also created a wiper that pulls extra mascara from the wand when I am used. They made sure each part worked effortlessly with my special mascara formula. Materials engineers worked with mechanical engineers to create my special “Flex Tower” elastomer brush. The brush is the part of the wand that applies mascara to eyelashes. Its shape is very important. My “Flex Tower” brush was designed by teams of engineers “to bend, volumize, and extend every lash from root to tip.”

My production process requires quite a few steps and materials engineers make sure the process runs smoothly. Production starts with all the ingredients getting blended together in a mixing machine until they are fully combined. My formula is then created and tested for quality control. Once the quality has been assured, the formula gets pumped into a tube in just the right amounts. Installation of a wiper and a wand follows. Finally, everything gets tested once more, and then packaged up and I’m ready to be sold.

Once my job is done, rather than throwing me away, “Sally” reuses and recycles me. Before she reuses or recycles me, she thoroughly cleans my tube and wand. She cleans my wand by scrubbing it with soap and hot water. Cleaning my tube is a little harder. She must take off my stopper and let makeup remover or micellar water sit inside of my tube for around ten minutes to help remove the unusable mascara clinging to the inside of my tube. Then she rinses out the makeup remover or micellar water. She repeats this process until my tube is completely cleaned. Once my tube has been cleaned, she can recycle it. My wand is not recyclable, but it is reusable. She reuses my wand with its brush at the end to separate her eyelashes and to brush out her eyebrows.

I live a useful life. I started as an idea at Maybelline and came to life with the help of scientists and engineers who created my formula and packaging. Machines put me together, getting me ready to help “Sally” look and feel her best. My time as mascara is limited, but that’s not where my life ends. “Sally” will give me new purpose through reuse and recycling.

"Sally" uses me every day and it’s a delight. I am Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High® Waterproof Mascara, and this is my life.