Featherlash may be Paltrow’s dream mascara, but one that she is proud to share with the world. “I’ve become more of a mascara person, especially as I’ve gotten older. It’s the one thing that my makeup artist, Georgie [Eisdell] said to me,” Paltrow explains. “And I do think it makes a big difference in making your eyes more defined and looking more awake.” However, Paltrow has a bone to pick with the “toxic” ingredients that find their way into tubes. But what makes a mascara “clean”? The notoriously vague term is confusing at best, but what does it mean to Goop? It’s a question I posed to Paltrow, who shared that Featherlash is made without coal-tar-combustion byproducts (also known as “carbon black,” a popular ingredient to give mascara its inky, dark pigment), in addition to petroleum-derived emollients and oils, synthetic bioaccumulative resins and polymers, animal-derived ingredients, and hormone disruptors. (Writer’s note: A 2023 NIH study maintains that carbon black — a group 2B carcinogen per the IARC — is safe to use in cosmetics on “healthy, intact skin,” and that any carcinogenic effects are a risk when the ingredient is inhaled in lung overdose amounts. That said, it’s a matter of personal preference if you want to avoid it altogether.) As for what is in the formula, it’s loaded with nourishing ingredients like vitamin E and a patented biotin peptide complex to strengthen the lash root and prevent fallout.
