Maybelline is a
makeup brand sold world-wide and owned by L'Oréal.
The Maybelline Company was created by New York chemist T.L. Williams in 1913. Williams, then in his early 20s, noticed his younger sister applying a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker fuller look. He adapted it in his little laboratory and produced a product sold locally called Lash-Brow-Ine. The product was a local hit, but the awkward name held it back. His sister, who inspired the product, was named Mabel. So T.L. Williams re-named it Maybelline, a combination of Mabel and Vaseline. It is under this name that Maybelline has achieved its now legendary status in the field of cosmetics. In 1917 the company produced Maybelline Cake Mascara, "the first modern eye cosmetic for everyday use" and Ultra Lash in the 1960s, which was the first mass-market automatic mascara.
In 1967, the company was sold by T.L. Williams to Plough, Inc. (now Schering-Plough) in Memphis, Tennessee. The entire cosmetic production facility was moved from Chicago to Memphis over one week-end. In 1975, the company moved its factory to Little Rock, Arkansas, where it is still located. In 1990, Schering-Plough sold Maybelline to a New York investment firm, Wasserstein Perella. Maybelline Operational Headquarters remained in Memphis until being sold in 1996, when headquarters moved to New York City.
Maybelline received a huge boost when the company hired Wonder Woman star Lynda ...
