Why I will wear Great Lash until I die

Or until it's discontinued, in which case I'll die. So it all ends up the same way anyway.

Photo: RealSimple Magazine

The reason I'm defending Maybelline's Great Lash now (as opposed to like 20 years ago), is because of all the hate it gets on the internet. I was reading glamour.com's reader's favorite beauty products, and Great Lash won in the best drugstore mascara department. Is anyone really surprised? Not me. The people who like Great Lash are cultic followers (as am I), and the people who dislike it violently dislike it (you can read all of the nasty comments on the glamour post). I'm not sure why women hate it so much, except for maybe just as a stubborn rebellion of its cultic following. But here's why I love it:

(No, I'm not going to write "Because it's cheap" first. That's a silly reason to like anything, especially if that's your only reason.)

1. The brush is the perfect size for getting all of your lashes, even the little lower ones. A lot of mascaras these days have GIMONDO brushes, which I think are hard to maneuver.
2. You can get it in "Blackest Black" (my favorite), which is really inky and makes your lashes glossy, not dry-looking.
3. My eyelashes never feel hard or crunchy after applying it, just soft.
4. I never have to use an eyelash curler. I know Great Lash doesn't claim to curl your lashes, but it does for me! I used to have to curl my lashes when I used Maybelline Lash Stylist, XXL, and
Define-a-lash. (And when I lived in Japan and used a bunch of Japanese mascaras that you've never even heard of, so why would I tell you what they're called?)
5. It's versatile. You can apply one quick coat and have dark enough lashes for daytime (which is what my mom does), or you can apply several and get a dramatic look (which is what I do). The trick is to apply several coats all at once, before the mascara dries. Otherwise, you'll get clumpy stuff going on, which is what the haters complain about.
6. It's fairly smudge-proof. Unless you start crying, then it will definitely streak. But if you plan on crying a lot, buy the waterproof. It works just as well.

The point is, I am a life-long fan of Great Lash, and not because I've been using it for 20 years (nope, just 2 years) or because it's cheap. I would still use it if it were $10 a tube.