Great Lash Big Washable Mascara by Maybelline (Suzanne S.)

The product I report on is called Great Lash Big Washable Mascara by Maybelline-New York.

The product claims to have a "bigger brush for great big live-it up lashes!" This slogan is very upbeat and compelling to me. In these

times of economic crises, since I can't live big, at least my eye lashes can!

According to the ad on the Maybelline site, the product comes in black or brown, and is packaged in a long pink bottle with a light green cap, and with the word "Big" prominently featured on the bottle. The brush is interesting, too, in that its bristles are alternating green and pink fibers. The ad on the site features a green eye surrounded by pink (skin?), with eye lashes that stand out and clearly have been photoshopped to perfection. It's pretty clear that the green eye is supposed to resonate with the bottle cap, and the pink with the body of the bottle. The implication here is that if you have this mascara, then you have the beautiful, lush eye lashes that are featured in the photo.

The product is new and evidently not in many stores just yet. I couldn't actually find it in Walgreen's, CVS, and Duane Reade. websites. On my next trip to Target I will check if it is on the shelves. Other products in the series are easily found in all of these places. It was actually surprising to see just how many different types of mascaras are on the market. For such a simple product, there is so much choice!

My guess is that this product costs something between $5.29 and $7.00 for .43 oz. of mascara. My guess is based on the prices of other products in the Great Lash series, and other Maybelline mascaras.

I decided to report on this product because I've been thinking about the current beauty trend in eyelash cosmetics. It seems that accentuated eye lashes are "in". I wonder why and what this means culturally . Everything in American culture is "big," now eyelashes too. Maybe eyelashes have also been on my mind because of Brooke Shields' commercial for Latisse--a product that claims to make eyelashes grow. Can eye lashes grow? If so, at what pace? I never really gave this any thought. Maybe the interest in accentuating eyelashes is about a cultural preoccupation with time and with things keeping up with the blink-of-an-eye pace of our society? Get those lashes growing fast! Get Latisse!!

Great Lash Big mascara seems to be a product for women, and women who may have a particular strategy towards cosmetics buying. They see mascara as "basic" and would rather spend as little as possible on it while spending more on things like lipstick, eyeshadow, etc. I'm basing this theory on my observation that there a lot of different types of expensive mascaras that one could sink their money into if they wanted to. I wonder if many women have a real need for some of these products. I'm sure at some level somebody needs vibrating mascara, but I wonder who and why people buy this product. Did you know that mascara vibrates? Am I the last to know?! Maybelline's "New Pulse Perfection" is $11.99 and comes in "Very Black". The product's slogan is: "Now vibration does what no other hand can do". Is this product just about mascara? Anyway, I'm sure there's a market for it, but I'm thinking that less expensive, less whistles-and-bells mascara is just as popular (what do you think?).

Finally, I find it interesting that Maybelline's headquarters are located in NYC while its factories are based in Little Rock, Arkansas. I imagine that labor is cheaper in the South. I wonder who works in the factories (women? immigrants??), and if mascara that is consumed in the U.S. is mostly manufactured here or overseas. It turns out that mascara is a product that women use to make in their homes in the 1920s. Manufacturing it is now a highly scientific process. It think that's interesting too.