Bat Guano in Mascara
By NailTech
@NailTech (6874)
United States
October 20, 2012 8:52pm CST
I was watching a TV show in which told about the ingredients of the mascara that some of us use. Bat guano is their poop. It has many different diseases and can make people really sick but when they use it in mascara all the bad things are taken out of it. Does this make you want to stop using it or will you continue to use this in your daily make-up routine. I don't use it as much as I used to thank goodness. I was grossed out when I heard this from a reliable source too.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
21 Oct 12
I have heard that this is just a myth, though the real ingredients of mascara are still pretty cringe-worthy to some people.
When we were touring caves as a family when I was like 7 or 8, the tour guide gleefully informed us that caves where bats lived were harvested for a very valuable resource and then asked if we (the children of the group) knew what that was. I think he was trying to corrupt our innocence or something. Anyway, he told us that bat guano was a valuable resources used in make-up and of course we reacted with "ewwww" and "gross!" and "I'm never wearing make-up ever!" Honestly, six years later when I did start wearing make-up... it didn't matter to me much anymore. If it didn't feel gross, smell gross, and didn't routinely make hordes of people sick, I didn't see why I should be grossed out by it.
I rarely wear make-up though, and rarely mascara because my eyelashes are naturally long, thick, and dark, and I kind of have this ridiculous idea in my head that fair blonde eyelashes are actually much prettier. 
Know anybody that sells white mascara? I'd probably wear that more often.
Know anybody that sells white mascara? I'd probably wear that more often.@NailTech (6874)
• United States
21 Oct 12
Well, now that I think of it and read the Snopes site it says there that it is not guano but another ingredient with almost the same sounding name. So whoever told us that it was bat guano was actually wrong. It still kind of has that consistancy though, doesn't it? I won't be using it any lesser or more than I do now, I think the guy I watched the other day on TV just didn't want his women to wear it LOL.
1 person likes this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
23 Oct 12
Well, it's a long-prevailing myth apparently. Which would be why Snopes had to debunk it. The real ingrediant... (Guaino I think?) is ground up fish scales or something. Not as gross to me, but plenty of people seem to think it's just as gross. 
@Loverbear (4918)
• United States
21 Oct 12
I haven't used mascara in many years now as it makes my eyes itch terribly. I was relieved that I don't use it when I found out that there was bat poop in it. Let's face it, you can call poop by a lot of fancy names but it is still poop
.
Of course I shouldn't throw stones, as I use manure on my plants around the house, and they do make a bat poop fertilizer...but I can't quite get my brain around using bat poop on my eyelashes for the sake of beauty! Now that I know that there is guano in it, I am even more not going to use it...even if they told me that it would make my eyelashes grow big, beautiful, and with little flowers at the ends of the hairs!!!
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Of course I shouldn't throw stones, as I use manure on my plants around the house, and they do make a bat poop fertilizer...but I can't quite get my brain around using bat poop on my eyelashes for the sake of beauty! Now that I know that there is guano in it, I am even more not going to use it...even if they told me that it would make my eyelashes grow big, beautiful, and with little flowers at the ends of the hairs!!!@NailTech (6874)
• United States
21 Oct 12
I went to the Snopes sight after I posted this (of course I should have checked there first and worded this discussion differently but it can't be changed now). Yes the guano is made out of fertiziler I agree, I have heard this from plant experts out there.
