Ese rímel resistente al agua me gusta mucho, pero es difícil de quitar.

Ese means that and points to something a bit removed from the speaker, either physically or in the conversation.

In Spanish, the three basic demonstratives are:

• este = this
• ese = that
• aquel = that over there

So Ese rímel... is That mascara...

In real speech, Spanish often uses demonstratives the same way English does when referring back to something already mentioned or visible.

Yes. Rímel is a common word in Spain for mascara. It is a borrowed word and is very natural in everyday use.

You may also hear:

• máscara de pestañas = a more explicit/formal way to say mascara

In Spain, rímel is very common in casual speech.

Also, rímel is treated as masculine here, which is why the sentence has:

• ese rímel

not

• esa rímel

The written accent in rímel shows where the stress goes: RÍ-mel.

Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different stress pattern. The accent makes the pronunciation clear and standard.

In Spanish, adjectives often come after the noun, especially when they describe a factual quality.

So:

• rímel resistente al agua = water-resistant mascara

This is more normal than putting the adjective first.

Spanish adjective position is more flexible than English, but in this kind of everyday descriptive phrase, noun + adjective is the standard pattern.

Spanish often expresses this idea with a phrase rather than a single adjective.

• resistente al agua = water-resistant / waterproof
• impermeable can also mean waterproof, but it is not the most natural choice for mascara in many everyday contexts

For cosmetics, resistente al agua is very common and idiomatic.

Because a + el contracts to al in Spanish.

So:

• a + el = al

That is why you get:

• resistente al agua

not

• resistente a el agua

This contraction is required in standard Spanish.

Great question. Agua is grammatically feminine, but singular feminine nouns that start with a stressed a- or ha- often use el in the singular to make pronunciation easier.

So you get:

• el agua fría
• el águila
• el hambre

But they are still feminine, which you can see in the adjectives:

• el agua fría — fría is feminine
• mucha agua — not mucho agua

That is why a + el agua becomes al agua.

In the plural, it goes back to normal feminine articles:

• las aguas

Because gustar works differently from to like in English.

Spanish structures it more like:

• That mascara pleases me a lot

So in:

• Ese rímel me gusta mucho

the subject is ese rímel, and me means to me.

A quick breakdown:

• Ese rímel = that mascara
• me = to me
• gusta = is pleasing / pleases
• mucho = a lot

This is one of the most important differences between English and Spanish sentence structure.

Because the subject is singular:

• ese rímel = one mascara

So the verb must also be singular:

• me gusta

If the thing liked were plural, then you would use gustan:

• Esos rímeles me gustan mucho = I like those mascaras a lot

The verb agrees with the thing that is pleasing, not with the person who likes it.

Here, mucho is an adverb, meaning a lot.

It modifies the verb phrase me gusta:

• me gusta mucho = I like it a lot

Because it is an adverb here, it does not change form.

Compare:

• mucho rímel = a lot of mascara → adjective/determiner-like use
• me gusta mucho = I like it a lot → adverb

In this sentence, es difícil describes an inherent or general characteristic of removing it.

• es difícil de quitar = it is difficult to remove

Using ser here is the normal choice because we are describing the action as generally difficult.

You might hear está difícil in some contexts, but it usually sounds more situational or temporary, and it is less natural here in standard neutral phrasing.

So for this sentence, es difícil is the expected form.

Both are possible.

• Es difícil de quitar = It is difficult to remove
• Es difícil quitarlo = It is difficult to remove it

The version with de + infinitive is very common in Spanish when describing how easy or difficult something is:

• fácil de usar
• difícil de entender
• imposible de abrir

In es difícil de quitar, the thing being removed is understood from the context: ese rímel.

So Spanish does not need to repeat lo here.

Yes, absolutely.

• Ese rímel resistente al agua me gusta mucho, pero es difícil de quitar.
• Ese rímel resistente al agua me gusta mucho, pero es difícil quitarlo.

Both are natural.

The difference is mainly stylistic:

• difícil de quitar sounds slightly more compact and descriptive
• difícil quitarlo makes the object more explicit

In everyday Spanish, both are fine.

Because ese rímel is already the subject of gusta.

In:

• Ese rímel me gusta mucho

you do not need an extra object pronoun, because the structure is already complete:

• Ese rímel = subject
• me = indirect object
• gusta = verb

Adding lo there would be wrong.

In the second half, Spanish can either leave the object understood:

• es difícil de quitar

or mention it explicitly:

• es difícil quitarlo

So the pronoun is optional there because the context already makes the reference clear.