For decades, vegan beauty and vegan makeup fans have struggled to find a mascara that checks all the boxes: animal-friendly, luscious, long-lasting, and contains only clean ingredients.

Some brands offer products that stay on but lack oomph; many mascaras contain toxic ingredients, and those that offer luscious lashes often run down faces after just a few hours of wear. With its innovative product The Best Little Mascara Ever, My Little Mascara Club has met all of the mascara challenges.

The Best Little Mascara Ever produces gorgeous lashes with makeup that stays put and is made using only clean ingredients. Subscribers to My Little Mascara Club receive a petite tube of their namesake product once a month, containing enough mascara to keep lashes covered until the next delivery, but without the excess that would otherwise dry up and clump.

Kinder Beauty is thrilled to be partnering with My Little Mascara Club for our beauty box. But we simply couldn't get enough of this ethical, fabulous company.

So we talked to Christie Kerner, CEO, and Founder of My Little Mascara Club, to find out all about the company that has taken vegan mascara to the next level.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

KINDER BEAUTY: What inspired you to start My Little Mascara Club? 

Christie Kerner: I’m one of those people who legit doesn’t leave the house without mascara. It’s not like I don’t feel like a pretty person without it, but I just really prefer accentuating my eyes and have done so for so long that it’s a part of how I prefer to show up!

Years ago, I found myself "Frankenstein-ing” my mascara to be the right size, the right consistency, and have the right curve of the brush, etc. It got me wondering why such an important product still had such a bad reputation for doing its one job—staying on our lashes all day—and why there always seemed to be such toxic ingredients involved.

I set out on a mission to fix it. It took years and hundreds of tries, but thanks to some amazing cosmetic scientists, we now have what we love to call The Best Little Mascara Ever. Our mascara has a zero dirty rating from Think Dirty; creates long, full lashes; stays put all day, and is just the right size to stay fresh through the whole tube. I’m thrilled, but mostly because our customers are so thrilled and I’m excited to have created something that we all needed.

KB: How does your subscription service work and what do customers receive?

CK: We deliver the perfect little mascara—a nice fresh tube—every month. Customers choose between our two formulas as the base of their subscription. As the mascara experts, we also provide a vegan and cruelty-free free remover (micellar water with cucumber—it’s so refreshing!), and eco-friendly tools that subscribers can add monthly or just as they need more. That’s not all, though—we are obsessed with helping people smile, so we always include a happy little freebie, too.

Next-Level Mascara

KB: Your company is one of our very favorite beauty brands. What makes The Best Little Mascara Ever different from other mascaras?

CK: So many things!

Our clean ingredients: We were literally just featured in the summer 2021 Global Cosmetic Industry report for our success in moving mascara forward to be clean. Traditional mascaras released 40-50 years ago that are still bestsellers today have very dirty ingredients (8-9 out of 10, where 10 is very dirty).

And, while more modern mascaras like Thrive and Lash Paradise made huge strides forward (rated 4-5), we have done something exceptional by creating something so clean it earned a zero dirty rating.  

Our size: Size matters and little is better. Think about it! Have you ever thrown out mascara because it’s totally and completely empty? Most women say no!

We throw it out because it one day suddenly turns dry, nasty, clumpy, and gross. Traditional mascara tubes are just too big for a product that is wax-based to sustain through the whole tube! We right-sized it. And bonus: it’s actually way easier to use a shorter wand since you have better hand-eye coordination and can get better angles. 

Our formulas: Both of our formulas are extra smudge-proof, but our Length + Definition formula is seriously so. We actually used a different base than a typical mascara. You have to apply one eye at a time since once it sets it’s locked in.

But, you can cry, laugh, sweat, rub your eyes, get a massage, pretty much anything but go swimming in this mascara and it’ll stay put. Yet—get this—it’ll remove gently with just warm water (lots of it!). No remover is needed, and since it dissolves differently there are no black circles, either. It’s sorta magical.

Our brush. There are some super-crazy mascara brushes out there. We [created] a brush that hugs the natural lash line of the human eye.

Doing so enables the best coverage and adds natural lift to the lashes! We find that women’s outcomes with mascara vary greatly based on their physical habits in the application process. And, there are a lot of different ways women approach applying mascara! So, we often give mascara lessons and help women with the tips and tricks to create the perfect look for their preference.

Our pricing. Premium mascaras can cost as much as $47. Although our mascara outperforms the others, it’s important to us that it’s also accessible to every woman out there, not just the rich ones!

It’s like you get a Nordstrom’s level mascara at Target level pricing. We sincerely want to help everyone upgrade to clean.

Our heart. Sounds silly, but it’s true! We donate thousands of mascaras to women in need. We have a fun program called the #createhappy quest where we teach women to create habits that help them become happier from the inside out, and we are certified plastic neutral across our entire company.

We care a lot, and it shows!

Rising to the Challenge

KB:  Since we can all agree that vegan beauty products are all the rage (and for good reason), why is it so hard to find a long-lasting vegan mascara?

CK: I think the reason that other companies haven’t achieved what we have with creating a mascara that is ultra-clean and truly works is that mascara is usually just one small piece of their cosmetic line. You could even say it’s not a fun item for them to innovate; their other items have beautiful colors, special textures, all kinds of things that are fun to talk about.

Mascara is like the simple workhorse of the cosmetics world. We don’t need lots of colors (we tried that in the ’80s and it was a fun minute but let’s not go there again, haha).

95 percent of women prefer a simple black mascara. Since we are mascara specialists, we gave this important product 100 percent of our focus and attention to make sure we could make it the best it can be. And, it worked! 

KB: Unlike other makeup brands, we know that you don't test on animals (huzzah!), but you take it even further. What is your “clean cosmetics promise”? 

CK: It’s obvious we took great care to build an ultra-clean mascara. We want our customers to know that they can trust that we’ll always meet a very high standard with each product they buy from us.

Our “clean cosmetics promise” is that all of our products are always: vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free, paraben-free, beeswax-free, and paraffin-free. These things are important, and just the way we do business. 

Lifted Up by Lashes

KB: My Little Mascara Club has a mission of helping women feel better about themselves and life. How have you been doing that?

CK: I’m an absolute mascara nut. But, our mission just might be my favorite part of building this company.

I actually had a lot of really tough experiences in my life. I spent over 10 years in an end-of-the-world survivalist cult, I had a tumor in my head, I’ve stood close to someone through their rocky journey from addiction to sobriety, and more.

It was my study of the principles of emotional intelligence that helped me become a really, truly happy person. I have learned how to create a baseline of happy zen inside my head, and helping others learn to do the same has helped me heal from my own trauma. I just can’t stop now! This is why we built the #createhappy quest.

It’s like a fun game where people—whether they are customers or not—can do missions and challenges to earn points they can redeem for all kinds of beautiful swag and treats.

I wholeheartedly believe in helping people learn to create happy moments. Lots of happy moments can create a happy day. And, lots of happy days can create a happy life! That’s why you’ll see us on IG stories, in our emails, and everywhere—encouraging people to take those small steps in the right direction, daily.

KB: Wow! Cruelty-free vegan mascara has never been so appealing. What is most rewarding about your work leading My Little Mascara Club?

CK: I love being in a field where I get to help women feel better about themselves and life. Mascara gives us confidence from the outside-in, but we are also committed to helping women learn to build confidence from the inside out. I have the best team anyone could ask for. 

Together, we are committed to reaching millions of women with our happy little mascara deliveries. I’m super grateful for the opportunity to create lots of good in the world. That’s what gets me up and fuels my 12-plus hour days on the regular!

Subscribe to Kinder Beauty today.

Maya Gottfried is the author of books for children and adults, including Our Farm: By the Animals of Farm Sanctuary and Vegan Love: Dating and Partnering for the Cruelty-Free Gal.