Mascara Is the One Beauty Product I Really Bond With My Mom Over

Many of my friends bond with their moms over multistep skin-care routines, regular manicures, and dermatological treatments. While I'm certainly intrigued by and invested in all of those topics, that's not the beauty genre that gets me and my mom talking.

For us, it's all about mascara.

I fully came to this realization recently while we were getting ready for my wedding. While getting her makeup done professionally, my mom brought up the fact that she had just visited a department-store makeup counter to pick up a new tube prior to all the wedding festivities.

As she talked about all the different options at the counter and the look she was going for, it dawned on me that mascara has always been the product that has ignited the most enthusiasm in my mom.

It brought back memories of my mom and me shopping together in the past and her compliments on a fellow shopper's long and luscious eyelashes.

It made me think about how mesmerized she was when I was on a short-lived eyelash-extension kick. She was always commenting over how perfectly curled they were, how they created a put-together look without the help of any other products.

My mom has always had a natural, less-is-more approach to beauty, and she rarely wears makeup. However, that conversation on the day of my wedding made me realize that the most vivid beauty-related memory I have of my mom is her sitting at her vanity and applying mascara in the mirror.

At that moment, I could see her incredibly focused mascara-application face. I like to believe we all have one, and mine is actually fairly similar to hers. I also realized I have always been in awe over her long and dark eyelashes and how they bring even more attention to her gorgeous big brown eyes.

Mascara seems to ignite that same enthusiasm in me. At that moment in time on my wedding day, I was worried we were running behind schedule or that the day wasn't going to unfold smoothly. As I overheard her conversation though, I instantly got out of my own head because I became distracted at the mention of the makeup genre. Of course, I didn't want to be stressed, but I also wanted to be an active participant in the conversation. I had opinions on mascara that needed to be shared!

I never got to ask the exact name of the formula she ended up buying that day (I was trying to stay still for my makeup artist), but I can assure you I will call my mom just to find out — and I might even buy one too.