Songfacts®:

• At its core, "Last Night's Mascara" is a glittery yet gut-wrenching exploration of beauty, pain, and the kind of emotional hangovers that linger long after the party ends. The titular mascara - usually a tool for glamor - is recast here as both a symbol of emotional camouflage and the undeniable evidence of a tearful night gone awry.
  
  "Would you look at me now?" Griff asks, a rhetorical plea steeped in vulnerability. It's the morning after, the remnants of last night's anguish still smeared on her cheeks as she beseeches God to help her move on.
  
  "I had the idea of makeup being a metaphor for all of your anxieties and worries, or a person that's completely hurt you," Griff told Rolling Stone. "It's describing the time period between a Friday or a Saturday night to a Sunday, and the emotional lull of what can happen in your weekend."
• Last night's mascara's such a pretty thing
  It covers my eyes, I'm a beauty queen
  Running down my face, listening to "Orinoco Flow"
  
  Enya's 1988 song "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" is known for its calming chorus. You can almost see Griff sitting on the floor, mascara dripping like a Dali painting, as she listens to Enya's soothing, ethereal song.
• Griff wrote and produced "Last Night's Mascara" entirely on her own. "This one really is just 100 percent me," she said, describing the thrill (and terror) of seeing how people react to something so unfiltered.
• The song almost didn't see the light of day. Originally penned for her debut album, Vertigo, it was left unfinished and shelved. But on September 27, 2024, Griff performed an acoustic version live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as an experiment.
  
  She played it again three weeks later during her first date in Nashville opening for Sabrina Carpenter on her Short n' Sweet Tour. Griff posted the live performance of the song and the internet loved it. Encouraged by the reception, she finished the track mid-tour, tweaking it in hotel rooms and backstage dressing areas, and rushed it to release on November 8, 2024. "It was a mission to get done on the road," she said, "but I wanted to do this for you."