The Great Mascara Experiment: Update #1

Ah yes, did you think I forgot? I didn't! You might have, but I didn't! Need a quick recap?

For seven weeks straight, I wore Maybelline Great Lash in the shade "Soft Black" every day. Even if it was 11 o'clock at night and I'd forgotten to put it on in the morning, I would put it on for about ten minutes before washing it off. The important thing was that the brush hit my lashes every day starting February 1st and ending March 22nd. (The original plan was to just do six weeks, ending March 14th. But since I didn't have enough time to put together the petrie dishes the weekend of the 14th, I did them this past weekend.)

I also had a second tube that I bought the same day, same color, same batch code (at least I didn't need to buy fifty, but I did want to be sure they were as identical as possible), and left in the package until I was ready to swab it.

This past Sunday, March 23rd, I put together my bacteria-growing kit from HomeTrainingTools.com. I followed the instructions in the kit on how to prepare the agar (boiling 1/4 cup water with half of the provided agar) and poured it into the two petrie dishes, labeling one "brand new" and one "after seven weeks". I swiped the respective mascaras into the petrie dishes and set them in my dresser where it's dark and not too cold so that the bacteria can grow.

After two days, I haven't seen any change. However, it usually takes about a week for significant bacteria growth to show up, so I'm not surprised. I mean, after all, it took seven weeks of mascara-using to get to this point, so what's one more week?

And I am taking pictures, obviously, so you can expect the result some time in April! (And by some time in April, I mean next week!)

Now that my daily mascara has been retired to the World of Science, what am I using? I'm trying out CoverGirl's Lash Blast, with its big fat rubber brush (seriously, that thing could be a weapon and I am not sure how I feel with it being something that goes that close to my eye!). I was pretty impressed with Lash Exact, so it's worth, uh, the experiment. What can I say? I watch a lot of ANTM.

And a lot of Mythbusters, of course. (My favorite part of that website? The phrase "hat-throwing robot". I don't know how or why I would use one, but I want one.)

images from www.adamsavage.com and www.covergirl.com