What are the common mascara ingredients?

What are the common mascara ingredients?

It is said that eyes are the windows to your soul and so all of us should try and make our eyes look beautiful. The use of make up like eye shadow, mascara and eyeliner has been prevalent for a long time. The most used is the mascara that helps in making your eyelashes look darker, fuller, thicker and longer. But have you ever wondered what goes into making this cosmetic product?

The most common mascara ingredients are oil, water, wax and a pigment for color, like iron oxide. They also include vitamins for conditioning, like pro-vitamin B5 and certain kinds of chemicals may also be added.

The oils used in the making of mascaras are usually sesame, eucalyptus or mineral, but sometimes linseed oil, castor oil and lanolin are also added. The manufactures also use waxes like palm wax, beeswax, carnauba wax and paraffin to make sure that the color pigment stays stuck to the eyelashes even when they come in contact with moisture.

Some of the components used in making these cosmetics may also be allergenic to people and cause irritation. Ingredients like lacquer, polypropylene and ethyl acrylate are some of them. But even lanolin and paraffin can induce an allergic reaction to most. Many companies are trying to come up with natural substitutes for these chemicals for a safer cosmetic use.

The mascaras that we get in the market are generally made either with water or without water. In a process called anhydrous, no water is used and all the components are heated together till they form the right consistency. They are then checked for impurities and the right chemical composition, once cooled.

When water is used to make the mascara, it is mixed with thickeners to create a lotion and then emulsified. The wax is heated separately and added later on. The pigments too are added when all the ingredients are placed in a homogenizer and mixed at a high speed.