Rose Hankins decided that her 2008 silver Dodge Magnum needed a feminine touch.
So the Berkley, Mich., resident applied what she thought was the perfect accessory – car eyelashes.
“It’s kind of a masculine car and it added a little femininity to the car,” said Hankins. “It just made it look really cute.”
Each front headlight now has black plastic eyelashes, courtesy of Windsor resident Maxine Ebegbuzie, owner of Nneka’s Essentials International, an online distributor of Nneka’s Bling 3D eyelashes and Crystal Eyeliner.
Priced at $33.99, the eyelashes appeal to customers who like to dress up vehicles, said Ebegbuzie.
“They are customers who dare to be different.”
The eyeliner sells for $19.99. Both products are imported from overseas.
Virtually all of her 300 sales so far have been made to customers in major cities in the United States and Canada, although Ebegbuzie is hoping the eyelashes will catch on with Windsor and Essex County car owners.
She introduced the car eyelashes and eyeliner this month at the LaSalle Strawberry Festival and will also be at Windsor Bluesfest in July.
Designed to adjust to all headlight shapes and sizes, the eyelashes are made of “highly durable” plastic, said Ebegbuzie. They fasten with two-sided automotive tape commonly used in the accessory industry to prevent damage to the vehicle.
“These products have been tested through rain, snow, and wind and are car-wash and highway safe.”
The majority of her customers are professional women “who like to flash their vehicles. They want to feel young again and add personality to their vehicles.”
The business is more of a hobby for the 31-year-old business graduate from the University of Windsor. Ebegbuzie works as an assistant to the director of inter-faculty programs at the U of W.
She discovered the accessories while surfing the Internet and has been selling them since January.
“It’s been fun,” said Ebegbuzie. “It’s wild and crazy and hard to wrap your head around it at first.”
Montreal resident Michelle Bouthillier said the eyelashes, along with blue eyeliner, make her 2010 white Mini Cooper stand out.
“I can go in a shopping mall and see my car. It’s there; who else has the eyelashes? C’est moi.”
The lashes accentuate the car’s gender, she added.
“I drive a girl car, and it gives it a little shimmer.”
The girls love it, the guys not so much, said Bouthillier. In fact, her husband Marc insists that she remove the eyelashes, whenever he drives the car.
“He doesn’t like it too much,” she said. “I put it on for myself. This is my car, I make that stand, I have my eyelashes on. My car is a woman. Her name is Sally.”