00:00Imagine a world without great lashes.
00:05We could never.
00:07Flirty winks and mysterious glances.
00:10The look of confidence and taking chances.
00:13Countless flutters and endless sass.
00:16Here's the secret to making a great lash.
00:21Darkening eyes and lashes first came into fashion thousands of years ago.
00:25But it wasn't until the Victorian era that the practice began to gain widespread
00:29popularity in the West when Queen Victoria's perfumer combined coal dust and petroleum
00:35jelly to darken lashes, which we wouldn't recommend.
00:40In 1915, a young woman named Maybel Williams applied a similar mixture to her lashes and
00:46inspired her enterprising brother Thomas Lyle Williams to package and sell his own formula.
00:52It came with a special brush to apply the product to both lashes and brows.
00:57It was a smash hit, launching the cosmetic empire Williams called Maybeline, named after
01:04his sister, of course.
01:08Over the next few decades, new and improved formulas were introduced and application became
01:13easier than ever with the introduction of bristled brushes.
01:16But it wasn't until 1971 that Maybeline introduced what would perhaps become the most famous mascara
01:24of them all.
01:25Great Lash Mascara by Maybeline.
01:27That's right, Maybeline.
01:32The secret to a good mascara is all in the mix.
01:37And the ingredients have come a long way since the days of coal dust and Vaseline.
01:42First up, wax and stiffening agents are used to keep the mascara from being too liquidy.
01:48Next, oil and pigment are added for color and consistency.
01:54Waterproof formulas include a water rebuffing ingredient.
01:58The ingredients are mixed, heated and combined until they end up as the dark paste we know and love.
02:12It's the most famous mascara in the world for a reason.
02:15And part of that reason is rigorous quality control.
02:18When the mascara liquid is all finished mixing, it's tested again.
02:22A device called a spectrometer splits light into separate colors called a spectrum.
02:28This allows the Maybeline scientists to see the chemical composition of the mascara
02:33so that the formula is perfect down to a molecular level.
02:39When the Great Lash formula first hit shelves in 1971, it was packaged in a pink tube with a green
02:45lid.
02:51Over four decades later, Great Lash continues to be packaged in the same signature pink tubes and green lids.
02:58Thousands of those little pink tubes are loaded onto a machine.
03:01Two by two, the tubes are placed upright onto a conveyor belt.
03:07Mascara is pumped into the tubes.
03:17Clear plugs called wipers are added to the tubes, which will pull off excess product from the mascara wands when
03:23applying.
03:24This is to make sure your lashes don't get too clumpy.
03:27Nobody likes a clumpy lash.
03:30Aside from the formula, the wand was part of what revolutionized the way we wear mascara.
03:37The Great Lash wand is thin, designed to reach all the way down to the base of your lashes.
03:42It's made of a synthetic fiber that adds volume and thickness.
03:46Before these pink packages can be shipped out, another round of testing makes sure they are absolutely perfect.
03:54Thanks to Maybelline's solar panels, this entire production process is run with renewable energy and is a no landfill site.
04:04As hundreds of thousands of mascaras are on their way to a new home, they make a pit stop for
04:11labeling.
04:19Photos are taken to make sure every label is placed exactly correctly so that each bottle is, you guessed it,
04:26perfect.
04:37One tube of Great Lash mascara is sold every two seconds.
04:42That's over 40,000 tubes sold each day.
04:48Translation, more than 4.5 million lashes are coated, thickened and lengthened with this cult formula each and every day.
05:05Today's video will be spent on a long time.
