Many people know the story of Maybelline and it being the first commercially advertised eyelash dressing. A pharmacist saw his sister mixing kohl and vaseline to apply to her lashes. Her name was Maybel.
Get it? Maybel… vaseline. Maybelline. All kidding side, this is a true story.
Vintage Cake Mascara
You may have come across a little package of makeup that looks like this in an antique store. This is the first version of cake mascara. The Maybelline version is the most common one you will see.
Cake mascara works like this. You wet the brush that comes with the package and rub it into the mascara cake pot, apply to your lashes and let it dry.
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For those of you who might be tempted to goof off and actually apply this makeup to yourself for fun… please don’t. We didn’t have the same cosmetic ingredient standards back in the day. And imagine how much bacteria and gunk can grow on something that has been sitting for 75 years. That’s an infection waiting to happen.
Cake Mascaras Today
Here are new cake mascaras available now that are a fun alternative, so you can feel like one of those beautiful vintage ladies in front of her vanity applying her makeup. Cake mascara can also be a great alternative for people you have bad reactions to the chemicals of commercial wand mascara.
Classic Vintage Cake Mascara
Besame Cosmetics has been making classic vintage makeup for years and is the gold standard for reproduction vintage cosmetics. The Besame Cosmetics Cake Mascara comes in the prettiest little tin with a brush.
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Brown and Black Cake Mascaras
This Natural Cake Mascara on Etsy comes in Brown and Black.
Cake Mascara for Sensitive Eyes
This Organic Aloe Mascara Bar on Etsy is designed for eyes that can be sensitive to mascara. And you can get this great applicater!
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6 Comments
Desiree
It’s really cool that this exists. I can just see myself getting this all over my face, though!
Parnuuna
Ooh, sweet. It looks so lovely (the mascara) in it’s little box. 🙂
Kristian
Another reason to be wary of applying make-up old enough to be antique is also that lead might be in it ( in high school I belonged to a theatre group which for decades had previously been pretty much nonexistent. We found a lot of old- 1930’s or so- make-up and they had lead in it! Scary!)
Thanks for telling us about this. Actually, this sound waaaaaay more hygienic than even the normal wand mascara (which actually is quite unhygienic, what with the closed container).
This passenger's element
On my to buy list now…thanks! Awesome post 🙂
Retro Mum
Lola cosmetics has one too that I LOVE!
Eliza Fragrances & Cosmetics
I so want to try cake mascara; would also love to make my own. Now I know where to buy it! 🙂