1920 cosmetic disaster involving Lash Lure?

Answer 1

This actually happened in the 1930s, but still... This is one of my favorite cosmetics Horror stories. Not because it's a nice light fun story--in fact, it's one of the most horrible things you'll ever read--but because when someone comes up on line and says there is never a reason to test makeup on animals, you can pull this out and say, "yeah, there really is." Lash-Lure was a form of mascara--supposedly, it was a PERMANENT form of mascara. The active ingredient was paraphenylenediamine, a black aniline dyestuff. Aniline dyes were invented for dyeing cloth, and they're extremely permanent. They're also extremely toxic--so toxic you and I can't buy them. If a paraphenylenediamine dye gets in your eyes, you have to flush it with water for 20 minutes or so and see the doctor. Well...if you've ever worn mascara you've gotten some in your eyes, right? It's completely unavoidable. You ARE going to flick a little in your eye from the brush, or you'll actually touch the brush to your eye. When this happens with a chemical as potent as paraphenylenediamine, the product literally dissolves your eye. A lot of women lost their eyesight to infection or to the chemical, and some actually died from it--and apparently this is the most excruciating pain you will ever know. The big problem wasn't just that you had a mascara that could dissolve your eyes, but that the federal government had no authority to regulate cosmetic preparations. The theory was that all cosmetics were safe, right? (Google "aqua tofana" and "arsenic face powder" to see where THAT idea gets you...) After the FDA constructed a "chamber of horrors" containing photos of Lash-Lure victims, Congress added cosmetics to the Pure Food and Drug Act...and the first thing the government did was to take Lash-Lure off the market. Now we've got an All New permanent mascara, but this time it's a drug called Latisse. Who knows what's gonna happen this time?