Ladies I'm so glad you all loved my post on Facts you didn't know about Lakme`.Second in my series of "Facts You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Beauty Brands" is a brand with the catchiest of Taglines-
'Maybe she is born with it, Maybe its Maybelline'.
Ever wondered how the brand got its name? Or what's the connection between "Wonder Woman" & Maybelline? No??!
No sweat, time to tighten up your seat belt and ready for a thrilling ride in to the history of this great beauty brand 'Maybelline New York'
1.The Maybelline Company was created by a young New York chemist Tom Lyle Williams in 1915. When a kitchen stove fire singed his sister’s lashes and brows.The 20 year old William, 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 small laboratory (on borrowed $500)and produced a product sold locally called Lash-Brow-Ine.
So you must be wondering, that still doesn't explain the brand name. You see William's sister who was inspiration for this new invention was named Maybell.
So William decided to name the brand->Maybell + Vaseline=Maybelline.
Check out some of the oldest Ads for Lash-Brow-Ine. Notice the company name was Maybell Laboratories.
image source www.flickr.com
2.Maybelline is owned by L'oreal,which is worl's largest Cosmetics and Beauty company. In 1967 T.L Williams sold off major stake in Maybelline to Plough,Inc.for over a hundred million dollars, almost two billion in today’s currency.
In 1990 Schering-Plough sold Maybelline to a New York investment firm, Wasserstein Perella.The company was acquired by L'Oréal in 1996. Acquiring Maybelline gave L'Oreal access to mass markets in cosmetics.
One of the earliest Maybelline ads shown below-Eye makeup remained the core forte of Maybelline for the longest time.
image source www.bettieyoungsbooks.com
image source http://www.adclassix.com
3.Maybelline is world's largest selling mass market cosmetics brand and owns 7.4% of the cosmetics market share-Worldwide.
4.In 1963 Maybelline launched a new product, the mascara wand. When this was found to be superior to cake mascara, Maybelline Ultra-Lash mascara went into mass production, all but annihilating the competition. Millions upon millions rolled into Maybelline’s treasury. The international market expanded off the charts.
image source http://pzrservices.typepad.com
image source www.old-ads.com
5.So you saw MAC Wonder Woman collection and thought-"Wow why didn't any one think of this before?"
Well Maybelline did. They didn't launch a wonder woman themed limited edition collection, they did the next best thing.They hired Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter as the company's beauty fashion coordinator! Check out the original Wonder Woman in old Maybelline lipstick ads.
image source www.goremasternews.com
image source http://pzrservices.typepad.com
6.Maybelline got Screen Sirens like Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, and later Ava Gardner to appear as gorgeous advertisements in movie magazines.
Past spokes model for Maybelline have included Christy Turlington,Josie Maran,Adriana Lima,Miranda Kerr,Sarah Michelle Gellar,Melina Kanakardes,Sheetal Mallar,Kristin Davis and Deepika Padukone.
7.Author Sharrie Williams (grand niece to the Maybelline founder) has penned a book called
"The Maybelline Story—and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It" spins a true tale that spans 4 generations and reveals the humanity, the glamour, and the seedy underside of her family. Despite all their flaws this family established and nurtured one of the great conglomerates of the cosmetics industry. It is a fascinating and inspiring tale of ambition, luck, greed, secrecy,love & forgiveness.You can read detailed intriguing history of the brand in her book.
"The Maybelline Story—and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It" spins a true tale that spans 4 generations and reveals the humanity, the glamour, and the seedy underside of her family. Despite all their flaws this family established and nurtured one of the great conglomerates of the cosmetics industry. It is a fascinating and inspiring tale of ambition, luck, greed, secrecy,love & forgiveness.You can read detailed intriguing history of the brand in her book.
ok.....more more more!!:D
ReplyDeleteWow...I m loving these series of posts!!
ReplyDeleteDr Shivani & Pooja, more of these definitely coming you way :)
ReplyDeleteI loved those posters! Sooo pretty, no?
ReplyDeleteWow, this is really interesting!
ReplyDeleteI love reading about the progress and evolution of makeup ^^
Anonymous- Hey really glad you enjoyed the post, thanks for dropping by at my blog. Even I'm fascinated by history and evolutuion of makeup I'll be posting some more in this series. Do follow and subscribe by email to read more :)
ReplyDeleteReally fascinating! I'm now going to check out the rest of your blog! :-D
ReplyDeleteMel Mel- Thanks so much :D Happy to hear you enjoyed the post, watch out for more :)
ReplyDeleteLove the vintage blog. Thank You for talking about my great uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Co. in 1915. Please check my blog about my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It at www.maybellinebook.com.
ReplyDeleteOh my ..i totally indulged and got mesmerised in its magic for a few minutes. that was super interesting.keep it up.
ReplyDeleteSharrie Williams-Thanks for checking out my blog & enjoying the post. Its a totally surreal feeling to actually hear from the very author who penned the amazing history of this great brand. Best of luck with your book :)
ReplyDeleteCheeky Chic- I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it :) I've done some more posts in this series on history of Lakme & Max Factor, check them out I'm sure enjoy reading those
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the Maybelline Story. I'm Tom Lyle Williams great niece, Sharrie Williams. Check my website and blog at www.maybellinebook.com, or pick up my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.
ReplyDeleteHi Sharrie. I live in T-Ville and know your wonderful Williams family:) The first vintage ad above looks a lot like Ashlyn WIlliams to me:) Cheers!
DeleteI worked at the Maybelline Office in Chicago in 1969-60. It was a wonderful company to work for. Employees were given any makeup they desired just by submitting a list, which was sent downstairs to the factory and filled. Mr. Williams was a very nice gentleman.
ReplyDeleteMAC
I am very glad that I find your regular post here. Which seems to be very important and it made good time pass for me. I will always give a nice thrust look in to you from my bookmark feed. I don’t actually comment and don’t like to spend time in typing the comment. But here I have to do this because this one deserves a good like. India Ayurvedic Cosmetics Market
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book, "The Maybelline Story" by Sharrie Williams with Bettie Youngs. I think Sharrie Williams was TL Williams' (founder of Maybelline) granddaughter, not his grand niece, as stated above.
ReplyDeleteoops! I am wrong. She's his nephew Bill's daughter.
ReplyDelete