Different Strokes : New Ingredients and Brushes Promise Mascara-Wearers No-Smear Lashes

EARLY LAST year, Maybelline phased out its cake mascara, a product that had been around since the 1920s. Although the product was discontinued because of declining sales, within a month of its disappearance from drugstores and supermarkets, the onslaught began. Fans of the $3.65 mascara flooded the firm’s Memphis headquarters with thousands of letters. By September, the lash makeup in the little red case was back on display.

Mascara-wearers are both loyal and vociferous. Most would rather fight than switch, and for good reason. Finding a product that lengthens, darkens and/or thickens lashes all day without flaking, smudging or breaking can be a tedious process. Often, a woman doesn’t discover that a new mascara has failed her until she looks in the mirror and sees black circles under her eyes, or until someone helpful flicks little black specks from her cheeks. So when she finds one that works, she typically stays with it.

This season, women are about to hear that recent innovations have made mascaras better than ever. Exotic-sounding ingredients such as cashmere, silk and primrose oil, as well as new brush designs that coat lashes more evenly, have been introduced to prevent the Tammy Faye Bakker look--and to woo consumers away from the leaders in the field: Maybelline, which sells 35 million tubes year in drugstores and supermarkets, and Lancome, the top-selling department store brand.

In 1988, Max Factor launched No-Color mascara, a $5 clear glaze for the lashes. The promise of “no more racoon” eyes was enough to get women to try the product. So many bought it, in fact, that Max Factor’s mascara sales jumped 45% that year, compared with an overall market that grew only 5%, according to market reports.

Next month, there’ll be another $5 mascara on the shelves: Stretch, a fiber-free lash lengthener. Max Factor’s research shows that more than seven of 10 women want a product that adds length.

Despite the newcomers, mascara-wearers still prefer Maybelline’s Great Lash and Cover Girl’s Professional, which together represent 14% of the mascaras purchased in the country. Many women, it seems, are like Andrea Dovichi, manager of a specialty store in Hermosa Beach, who buys Cover Girl at the grocery store. “I used to wear Clinique,” she notes, “but for $4, I can buy mascara and some bananas.”

But about one-third of mascara-wearers buy their mascara in department stores, often spending triple the price of drugstore brands. A Whittier housewife and mother of two small boys, Barbara Podevin has used Lancome Immencils Gentle Lash Thickener for 10 years and is more than willing to pay about $13 a tube. “I don’t have the time or money for experimentation,” she says.

Women who have time to investigate at department store counters will find some new mascaras. Guerlain’s StarCil is supposed to moisturize lashes as it lengthens and thickens. At $21, it’s one of the most expensive of the new products. Earlier this month, Christian Dior introduced its Mascara Parfait With Cashmere, which is also intended to prevent lash breakage. The product’s $12.50 price tag makes it one of Lancome’s strongest new competitors.

Still, no mascara, regardless of price, will be effective unless it is applied carefully. Makeup artist Joan Mazzei of Images for Hair in Corona del Mar suggests three coats, each allowed to dry completely. “After you apply the first,” she explains, “hold the brush vertically and move it across the tips of the lashes. Then add a third coat traditionally.”