40 Days and 40 Nights of Beauty Cult Classics
Day 40, Maybelline Great Lash
It mystifies me that this product winds up on every "best of" beauty product list.
It's charms elude me.
I used it for years because I was conditioned that this was the best and only mascara.
I was duped.
I am very passionate on how this product sucks.
My lashes experience no improvement with volume, length, or curl when using this product.
There is only clumps and chaos.
I have no technique and have been cursed with short stumps for lashes.
Great Lash only makes the situation worse.
Who are these fans of Great Lash? I need to hear their voices in this post because I think the "beauty powers that be" have made them up. They are like the Sasquatch of beauty junkies.
They are rumored to exist...but no one has ever seen them.
Feel free to diss or gush over this product in the comments.
Labels: 40 Days and 40 Nights of Cult Classics, Cult Classics, Mascara, Maybelline
posted by Annieytown @ 7:59 AM
68 Inspired Comments
68 Inspired Comments:
Great Lash gets a huge diss from me, Blogdorf! It may be the only mascara I've ever tried that actually burned and made my eyes tear up.
I hate this mascara. SO much. I'm with you--why do people like this? In high school, I had a friend whose mother wouldn't let her wear any makeup except Great Lash..and it looked like she got punched in the eye when she wore it.
THANK YOU!! I always think I am the only one that hates this stuff, because I always see it raved about and in my friends' makeup bags. I have yet to figure out the fascination with this mascara...
I always see make up artist with it, swearing by it. One day I caved and ask to try it [and I have giant eyelashes as it is] and it made them look shorter and fatter! I was like "why do you use this?" and she told me it's the blackest one she's ever tried, no matter what other labels said. And I guess it looked better through the camera. Eh, I agree with you blogdorf, it's awful in real life.
It's such a relief to see that i'm not the only woman in the world who HATES thsi mascara. I'm eternally no the hunt for a no bleed mascara that IMPROVES the look of my lashes-I tried this because it's always on the Top Makeup Lists, but it SUCKS! The dollar E.L.F. Earth and Water Mascara is better than this crap!
I completely agree. Great Last is awful!
I knew a woman who claimed this was awesome, but that was years ago and I bet she's seen the light.
Maybelline is one of the biggest advertisers in the fashion world. Call me a fussy old cynic, but maybe, just maybe that has something to do with this product turning up year after in "best of" features.
This product is truly awful. I can only say that Maybelline must be offering a lot of magazine editors cash to recommend this product. It does nothing. Maybelline is not on the best drugstore brands out there, in my opinion anyways and none of their mascaras are worth anything!
There must be some beauty "payola" to these Best of Lists when they put this product on their list...some under the table hook up or something.lol! I hate it. I bought Great Lash once and it was trash.
I've just stopped using Great Lash after seven weeks (I'm doing a science experiment with it -- otherwise I wouldn't be using it at all!), and it was smeary, clumpy, and generally not that great. I've already bought my new mascara a couple of weeks ago so I could have it on hand as soon as the Great Lash experiment was done.
I was first given Great Lash by a make-up artist when I was doing high school theatre -- she kept about twenty brand-new ones in her kit and gave them out to the girls so we wouldn't be sharing mascara. So I can see that as being one of the benefits -- it's cheap enough that you can just give one to each actress/model instead of having to deal with disposable brushes (or worse, sharing and giving everyone pink eye!).
I hate this stuff, too, but I read somewhere that makeup artists like it because it makes lashes look natural, not enhanced, on camera. Why would a normal woman want a mascara that looks like nothing? Ugh.
Great post, I can't stand this stuff either. smeared all over me. was so not that good. there aer tons of drugstore ones way better.
glad to see more of us think this way than the magazines would let on.
I will put my two cents in so that it isn't all Great Lash bashing here. I definitely used to be a lover of Great Lash. I used this mascara on and off for a few years. I actually thought it worked pretty well and I was able to get long, nice-looking lashes with the product. I did have to develop my technique a bit to achieve good results. I thought the blackest black formula had great pigmentation.
I don't use Great Lash anymore; I have moved on to Bigger and Better brushes and formulas. However, I used and loved this product for a while, so I can definitely see why some people still like it. Sales of Great Lash are declining in the mascara market,though, so I think consumers are learning that there are other options out there besides that well-known pink and green tube.
I have used the brown/black Great Lash since high school and I love it. I'm not looking for length or curl, and it just goes on natural without clumps on my already long lashes. When the Cover Girl Lashblast came out, I switched over to it because I bought into the hype on the new brush. My eyes burned all day and I had to rush home and wash my face after work at 7 p.m.! When I complained about it, someone reccomeded Maybeline Full'n Soft mascara (silver tube) because it was like Great Lash (pink and green tube), only it had a better brush. It does and I love it! Mascara is the only Maybelline product that I use. I hope they never DC it!
Kevin Aucoin was not wrong about this product, Annie! :^p
I actually like this mascara. It takes a lot of work to use it though... After curling my lashes I take the wand and I wipe it wish a tissue to wipe most of it off the brush - then I apply two coats
I'm not a mascara fan really, I like tint not volume or thickening - so the effect I get from doing this meets my needs.
It's good if your a lash tint girl, but you really need to wipe down the wand good.
GREAT LASH SUCKS. Period. This can be seen by the fact that even the fans of it on here say that they had/have to work with it to get it to do what they want.
Absolutely there must be major "payola" going on where the best of lists are concerned.
I wore Great Lash in high school and college. Loved it then, won't touch it now. They either changed the formula, or I got smarter about what looks good.
Great Lash works decently on me as a basic mascara that defines and darkens my lashes -- I've never experienced irritation or clumpiness on my own stumpy lashes, although it smudges something awful. But I think Jolie in NYC wrote about why Great Lash is beloved by makeup artists while there are legions of consumers who scorn it -- it works well with fake lashes, it seems. The post is titled "The Mystery of Maybelline Great Lash" if you want to google it. :)
I agree that Great Lash is yucky - does nothing to enhance lashes and makes a smeary, clumpy mess. I love other Maybelline mascaras, though - especially Lash Discovery and Unstoppable.
Why, why, why does this such great reviews in magazines? WHAT makes it so great? Maybelline must be spending HUGE amounts of money to have this reviewed so highly by so many. It is by far the worst mascara ever marketed. I tried it once, I gave into the hype. NEVER AGAIN! Many, many, many better, cheaper ones out there.
I have to agree this stuff is complete rubbish. I have never had good luck with it either.
So glad I am not the only one who gets a big "Huh?" on this mascara. Too fake-looking for me.
I constantly saw this mascara as the best in many magazines. I was so excited when I tried it but was dissapointed. I thought I was the only one who felt that way. Perhaps I didn't apply it correctly since it was one of my first mascaras!
I hate HATE hate great lash. However, that being said I use it. I only use it on the corners of my eyes, because my Dior and Lancome brushes are too big to get in the nook of my inner eye without smudging on my eyelid. I know other small brush mascaras exist, but I already use two or three great (expensive) mascaras.
I think it really depends on the user, because when I use great lash, my lashes come out long and natural looking; when my sister puts it on though, its comes out SUPER clumpy...
Great Lash is crap, plain and simple.
Just to get it to do the basic job it's intended to do, you have to "put alot of work into it." Why?? If you're looking for cheap drugstore mascaras, there are WAY better (ie: effective) ones than this: Revlon, L'Oreal, etc.
Great Lash is so bad it makes sub-mediocre mascaras look good!
I am still looking for the mascara of my dreams....one that doesn't disappear by the end of the day, doesn't flake all over your cheeks and doesn't pool in your eyebags making a late night look even worse! The one that's come closest to being perfect for me is Givenchy Eye Fly in Black. Sadly, Great Lash is out there with hundreds of other under-performers. Another huge dissapointment is Chanel's new blue mascara - so weak and insipid. So save your $$$! love Britishbeautyblogger
Forgot to say: it wouldn't be anything to do with the advertising budgets that mean it always gets a rave review, would it?
actually, i like great lash. i like the dark pigmentation (that i haven't been able to find with any other mascara)and it makes my lashes look SUPER long.
i also like how easy it is to take off. nice, compared to some other kinds of mascara.
I've used Great Lash for years. I've tried many others, but Great Lash is the only mascara that doesn't irritate my eyes or end up on the skin under my eyes. I don't have to do anything special to get it to work - I just brush it on - no clumping.
I also like Great Lash with the curved brush and Maybelline's Intense Volume mascara, but I don't really get the white primer.
I remember it was the first mascara I owned. I put the Great Lash on my lashes and thought "Wow. Mascara sucks as a beauty product. I'm never using it again." It wasn't until a couple of years later that I realized my spidery-like, eleven-year old lashes had occured because of the crappiness of Great Lash. Nowadays, I am loyal to MAC's Fibre Lash and loving it!
I hate Great Lash!! I'm always suckered into thinking I've missed something whenever I see a makeup artist using it on TV and I go out and blow $3.00 on it AGAIN. And AGAIN, I'm always disappointed. It's so clumpy and smeary. I always look like a raccoon after an hour or two.
Great Lash is in all the artists' kits because it only has to last for the photograph, and because it works best when it is applied TO you, not when you apply it yourself.
The end.
Even if it is the blackest black, I'd rather have beautiful, long, BROWN eyelashes than wet, clumpy short black ones.
I'm a sucker for any "Best of" list so I've actually tried Great Lash twice and both times it immediately made my eyes burn and itch and swell up so that I had wasn't able to wear any eye makeup for a week. I must be allergic to one of the ingredients but it's so smeary and clumpy that even I wasn't allergic, I still wouldn't use it. I don't get the hype. DiorShow has the same consistency and did the same thing (puffy red eyes for days). DiorShow has also been showing up on all the Best of lists too but to me it's just overpriced Great Lash.
Wow!
I am an absolute confessed mascara junkie. I have tried just about every mascara and am guilty of spending insane amounts on those little tubes when I already have 5 open packs...
That being said. I love great lash in blackest black! I get long clump free vicious lashes that no other drug store brand can come close to replicating. My next favorite is Cover Girl's new OutLash in the orange tube. I don't have any problem keeping my mascara in place either...so I guess I am that mysterious sasquatch in the beauty realm!
IN my opinion the most over hyped mascara I have ever tried was Bad Gal Lash!!!
Oh, A-men to that. I've never used a mascara so anemic, flaky and downright disappointing.
I do like some of the other Maybelline mascaras though -- apparently, they were not all made alike.
great lash looked fine on me for about two hours and then I got the grease meltdown and little flakes under my eyes. I can't imagine what would have happened had i used the regular formula instead of the waterproof formula. Now that I wear contacts there's no way you could make me try it again.
Clinique High Impact is my very favorite mascara because it does make an impact, but the formula has a nice texture so you can make it natural looking or go whole hog. Also even if I accidentally get Clinique on my eyeball the formula is non irritating, so the only thing that hurts is the jab in the eye.
Forgot to add that my mom tried Great Lash at the same time that I did and hated it too. It also melted off her lashes and since I was in high school at the time she was significantly less greasy than I was. We both concluded that the hype was just good advertising.
This stuff is terrible! I have bought it twice because of beauty reviews rating it the best. The second time I bought it I figured I was the one who was crazy! Mac Mascara X and Mac's Plush lash are my faves. Laura Mercier is not bad too.
I bought this last year for the first time ever b/c I heard the amazing things about it...I used it for a month and threw it out. It clumped, flaked, etc. Never again.
I never cared for it either.
However, when I was in HS, I had a friend who used to apply a zillion coats and could create massive lashes out of her tiny ones. It took ages but looked like false lashes when she was done. Now she wears eyelash extensions! ^_^
actually its charms 'elude' you :)
Wow!
I am an absolute confessed mascara junkie. I have tried just about every mascara and am guilty of spending insane amounts on those little tubes when I already have 5 open packs...
That being said. I love great lash in blackest black! I get long clump free vicious lashes that no other drug store brand can come close to replicating. My next favorite is Cover Girl's new OutLash in the orange tube. I don't have any problem keeping my mascara in place either...so I guess I am that mysterious sasquatch in the beauty realm!
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I agree with you I don't understand the cult following of this mascara either.
Great Lash-Well, I have believe it or not tried mascaras that have sucked much worse than this one. This one is basic, with a small brush. In freaking 1903 or whenever it was invented Im sure it was state of the art. It darkens with good pigmentation. And...... well thats about it. It's cheap, it smells nasty and to end up on a "best of" list it would have to be because the citizens of Bungfuk Arkansas could only think of one when thinking of mascaras they actually know the names of. "Well last time I was at Walmart". Ok so on to mascaras that suck more. I thought Lash Blast's ugly orange tube housed a similarly trendy cheaply make crap of a product. Believe it or not Diorshow isn't all it's cracked up to be either. The mascara flakes.... big time because the formula is so dry. The worst mascara's in existence go to Cargo, Smashbox, Bobbi Brown and Lorac. At least at like $2.00 a tube you wouldn't have been able to buy a halfway decent lunch for what a the aformentioned crap tubes of mascara would have costed you. There are sharpie brow, brohos and other ghetto people who I would much rather see wearing Great Lash then just too much shadow and liner and no mascara (peeve). Ok for cheap mascara if you must do drugstore I suggest Loreal Voluminous original formula. If you can afford it YSL Faux Cils, and Chanel Imit, or Kiss Me Mascara (for blond lashes like mine) are the best available now.
I'm a beauty writer and my publisher won't let me write bad things about Great Lash for fear of losing advertising revenue. L'Oreal is one of the biggest advertisers and they don't like to read bad things about their products. Great Lash is one of the worst mascara's out there. It does nothing for your lashes and smears and flakes.
diss from me!
I tried this once many years agol - and hated it. there are even other maybelline mascaras out there (like volum' express) that are better than this one.
i don't understand how this mascara gets all those top ratings.
I absolutely hate Great Lash! I also kept buying it over the years, about once every 3 or 4 years I'd read yet another bogus "best of" beauty article saying Great Lash was amazing so I thought I had just had the misfortune of buying an old/bad tube but it's always the same: clumpy, dry, and gross! Do the beauty editors and makeup artists get a kick back from Maybelline for endorsing? That's all that makes sense to me!
Anon: Thanks! I have corrected it in the post.
Everyone: I need to try Great Lash with false lashes. I am curious about the results.
Holly - I agree with you about DiorShow - I tried it on at Sephora once and I think it fell off my lashes before I was even 6 feet away from the counter!!
I never thought I would buy $28 mascara, but Chanel Inimitable is worth it.
All of the thickening mascaras seem to just stick my eyelashes together... so sure they're thicker, but there's not half as many of them...and they look obviously fake and glued together and pretty awful, just imho. Great Lash (mostly) doesn't do that, especially if the tube is dried out a bit, but I still prefer lash tint, which darkens (my already reasonably long, reasonably thick, reasonably curly) lashes, without sticking them together or requiring any special effort.
Count me among the "no to Great Lash". Don't like it. Never have. Yecch. Why people "love" it is beyond me.
If Bad Gal Lash came in black-brown, it would likely be my holy grail.
i HATE this product. u should try Fiber Wig. It doesnt smudge and it comes off with warm water. its like fake lashes in a tube. i thank the mascara gods for it every day
HATE great lash. love l'oreal's voluminous. i think it's more about thatpeople think it's cool to love it and it photographs well, both on models and the tube itself, than it is about ad revenue. maybelline makes plenty of other mascaras that are far superior that writers could extol the virtues of.
Oh good! I thought there was something wrong with me for not worshipping this mascara, and continue spending my allowance on cr*p like this.
It flakes and makes my lashes all crunchy...I look much better sans makeup than with this mascara on.
Now thankfully I've moved on.
i work in the industry and am always shocked that GL is always top-ranked...so it's not all beauty editors, millions of women actually buy it! it may fall from grace when a new launch supercedes it, but it always resurges to the top...to me, it is one of the worst performing mascaras....i find it wet and it does not provide volume, length, curl, zip zero nada!
I've never had good experiences with Great Lash, and yet for some reason I still get a new one every year in my stocking - my mother swears by the stuff! Someone commented on the Diorshow mascara - I love the wand, but I do agree the formula is slightly lacking. Has anyone had better luck with the waterproof version? Right now, I swear by Blinc Kiss Me mascara - it makes little tubes around your lashes that stand up to water and pressure, but put the two of them together and the little tubes slip off easily - no soap required, and no raccoon eyes! Definitely a day- and travel-worthy mascara.
I, too, am a sucker for best of lists and have tried this mascara. I hate it. Its clumpy and just doesn't give me the long pretty lashes I want.
'm a beauty writer and my publisher won't let me write bad things about Great Lash for fear of losing advertising revenue. L'Oreal is one of the biggest advertisers and they don't like to read bad things about their products. Great Lash is one of the worst mascara's out there. It does nothing for your lashes and smears and flakes.
If you were really a beauty writer, you'd know that Maybelline, not L'Oreal, manufactures Great Lash!
^^^
If you were really knowledgeable about the beauty industry, you'd know that L'oreal owns Maybelline.
Wow,
Ford owns Jaguar too. Vodaphone owns 2/3 of Verizon and they use opposite forms of technology CDMA and GSM. Apple would have not had enough revenue to produce the ipod or the macbook had Bill Gates not invested heavily in Apple at the end of the 90's. My point is that the company that owns the product may produce very different products in very different places, it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the product at all. I do question the logic about not being able to negatively portray Great Lash. This is because the product is well.....cheap in comparison with other products under the L'oreal umbrella. One would think that if they were out to maximize profits that a $10.00 mascara would be marketed more than a $3.00 mascara. Thats just common sense. L'oreal also owns Kerastase, probably the most expensive hair brand in existence. I love my Aqua Oleum treatment but fair enough the quality is in a different class than great lash.
I agree! This mascara is the worst. I've never been able to understand why it receives so much hype.
Great Lash SUCKS! I hate that stuff, and when I buy the remover and the mascara is free, I can't even give it away. I used to swear by L'Oreal Voluminous until a few years ago when it appeared that the formula changed. So, now I am using Maybelline Define a Lash in the Green Tube. I like it ok, and was accused of having false lashes yesterday. I am trying to budget and am tired of paying more for mascara and having it not perform. I like Lancome L'Extreme, but it needs a base under it to thicken. It gets the length I like, though.
i hate this mascara with a passion so im so happy to finally be vindicated.
i do however LOVE Loreal Voluminous Mascara in black.
I just read a biography of Audrey Hepburn. It was actually more of a guide to living like her, aptly titled "What Would Audrey Do?". Apparently, this was the only mascara she used. This was the only time I've ever rolled my eyes at the woman who is supposedly the epitome of class.
I only tried it once, after reading about it in Seventeen Magazine at the age of 13. Somehow, I have a random tube of it that I keep in my purse for touch-up purposes, but I normally use L'Oreal Featherlash, and swear by it.
But, thank you so much for saying what I'm sure many, many others have secretly kept to themselves, thinking their lashes were just unfit to become Great Lashes.
I've found more success swiping the ends of my lashes on a Sharpie marker...and would risk blindness to do so over using the clumpy, spider-lash-making, black sludge in the pink and green container.
great lash sucks. i have been getting such a painful reaction to my eyes lately, and i assumed it was seasonal, until it started happening everywhere, indoors or out. then i realized it was my great lash mascara. it makes my eyes itch and burn SO PAINFULLY that i have to rinse them out with water immediately or else i won't be able to open them. it also makes them very red and bloodshot. its the only mascara i have right now so i can't wear eye makeup until i find a new one.
Okay...just stumbled upon this blog and felt the need to comment even though this post is almost 2 years old.
IMO, this mascara is beyond crap. I have relatively long, thick, full lashes and this mascara does nothing but clump them together and gives me that "tarantula lash" effect. No thanks.
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