Maybelline

The Maybelline Company was founded in Chicago by pharmacist Thomas Lyle Williams in 1915. Williams noticed his older sister Mabel applying a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker, fuller look. He adapted it with a chemistry set and produced a product sold locally called Lash-Brow-Ine.

Williams renamed his eye beautifier Maybelline in her honor. In 1917, the company produced Maybelline Cake Mascara, "the first modern eye cosmetic for everyday use", and Ultra Lash, the first mass-market automatic, in the 1960s.

In 1967, the company was sold by Williams to Plough Inc. (later Schering-Plough) in Memphis, Tennessee. The cosmetic production facility was moved from Chicago to Memphis over one weekend. In 1975, the company moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1990, Schering-Plough sold Maybelline to a New York investment firm, Wasserstein Perella & Co. Maybelline's headquarters remained in Memphis until its acquisition by L'Oréal in 1996. Its headquarters was then moved to New York City in 1996 and its factory to Brooklyn in 2000.

Maybelline received a boost when the company hired Lynda Carter as the company's beauty fashion coordinator after her television series ended; she also appeared in several of its television and print advertisements.

Josie Maran, Miranda Kerr, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Melina Kanakaredes, Zhang Ziyi, Siti Nurhaliza, Fasha Sandha, Sheetal Mallar, Julia Stegner, Jessica White and Kristin Davis have endorsed Maybelline products. The current faces of Maybelline are Adriana Lima, Christy Turlington, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Emily DiDonato, Erin Wasson, Beatriz Shantal, Tiffany Stratton, Jourdan Dunn, Josephine Skriver, Marloes Horst, Gigi Hadid, ITZY, Liza Soberano, Urassaya Sperbund, Winnie Harlow, DJ Peggy Gou, Kiss of Life and Ten (singer) of NCT.

On March 17, 2025, it was announced that Hey! Say! JUMP's Ryosuke Yamada would be brand ambassador for Maybelline Japan's Super Stay Cream Pact Foundation. On February 10, 2026, Yamada was announced as Maybelline New York Japan's ambassador. At the event, he revealed images of a new campaign and CM for "Maybelline Super Stay Lumi Matte Liquid Foundation".

Criticism

In 2021, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reported that Maybelline tested on animals. According to a 2010 report, however, animal testing of products is required by law in some countries to sell cosmetics.