What is the name of the cosmetic company founded by T.L. Williams in 1915? The company was Maybelline.
Thomas Lyle Williams founded the Maybelline Company in Chicago in 1915. The company’s origin story centers on Williams’s sister, Mabel, who reportedly used a mixture of petroleum jelly and coal dust to darken and enhance her eyelashes. Williams adapted the idea into a commercial eye cosmetic.
The brand name combines “Mabel,” his sister’s name, with “Vaseline,” one of the ingredients associated with the original eyelash formula. Before Maybelline became a global cosmetics label, the business sold an early product called Lash-Brow-Ine. In 1917, it introduced Maybelline Cake Mascara, an important early mass-market eye cosmetic.
Maybelline is often confused with Max Factor because both companies helped popularize modern makeup, but they were separate businesses with different founders. CoverGirl and Revlon were also founded later. Maybelline was sold to Plough Inc. in 1967 and became part of L’Oréal in 1996. Today, Maybelline New York is the brand’s familiar name.