Maybelline was America's first Mascara, 1915. Eugene Rimmel's, European, mascaro, was a darkener for men's mustaches. Let's Set the Record Straight

 Cosmetics and Skin http://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/bcb/water-cosmetique.php

Given that ‘rimmel’ means mascara in Turkish, Farsi and several European languages, it is sometimes said that Eugene Rimmel [1820-1887] was the originator of mascara. However the product he made – called Water Cosmetique – was developed to be used on men’s moustaches not women’s eyelashes.
Cosmetics and Skin always has it right.....


Diane Penelope Blog

http://dianepenelope.com/mascara-worlds-popular-beauty-product/

In 1913 French chemist and perfumer Eugène Rimmel developed the first non-toxic lash paint for sale. That cake mascara (in a pan and brushed on) was created with a blend petroleum and black coal dust. The downside was that it was very messy and the texture inconsistent. Despite this, it was ridiculously popular across Europe. Rimmel in some countries still refers to mascara (like Hoover and Kleenex).

In 1917, Eugene Rimmel created the first packaged cosmetic mascara. Produced from a blend of petroleum and black coal dust, the history of mascara began with a cake mascara that although reformulated, is still found today.

I have to step in here and say, this is Maybelline's history, mistakenly printed under Rimmel.  The picture on the box of Rimmel cake mascara is from the 1950s. Tom Lyle Williams with his sister Mabel Williams were the first to create a formula made of petroleum and black coal dust, in 1917. Rimmel was strictly a man's mustache darkener at the time Maybelline was founded in 1915.

Original Lash-BrowIne ad, placed in 1915, Photoplay movie magazine.  Rimmel at the time was strictly a black goo for men.

 Lash-Brow Ine. became Maybelline in 1917

Maybelline cake mascara with Silent Film Star, Mildred Davis, 1917

 College Optometrists blog https://www.college-optometrists.org/the-college/museum/online-exhibitions/virtual-eye-and-vision-gallery/appearance-of-the-eye.html

The eyes could be made to stand out by making the face paler, with make-up applied so thickly it was almost a mask. Indeed our word ‘mascara’ comes from the Italian word for mask, ‘maschera’. In 1834 the French-born perfumer Eugene Rimmel (1820-1887) moved to London and invented the first non-toxic commercial mascara.

Again, I want to point out what Rimmel formulated was strictly for a mans mustache, not for the use on eyelashes.


Vintage Dancer 1920's Makeup
https://vintagedancer.com/1920s/makeup-starts-the-cosmetics-industry/ 

Mascara was still in the development stages. It could be purchased in liquid, wax or cake form. If you wanted to try Maybelline’s mascara, the company was kind enough to include a brush, which had to be moistened with water before dipping in cake powder, along with a close-up photo of silent film star Mildred Davis for use as a reference.

Maybelline's little sister Lash-Brow-Ine in 1915.

                                       Before Maybelline
                 there was Lash-Brow-Ine.

"Before and After" ad for Lash-Brow-Ine, 1915.

 In 1915, women were just starting to accept cosmetics again, after avoiding them during the Victorian era. Creams and powders prevailed on the market; however, eye make-up remained all but taboo.  In England, social constraints against cosmetics, including lash color, persisted well into the Victorian age, though business was brisk in back-alley beauty services. 

Proper English ladies of the nineteenth century considered
make–up to be off-limits, the province of prostitutes whose penchant for cosmetics earned them the label “painted women.”  Viewed as appropriate only for prostitutes and music-hall performers, make-up was so forbidden in
Victorian society a man could divorce his wife for wearing it.

Directions inside a box of Lash-Brow-Ine, 1915.

While the American colonies were under British rule, the use of white powder, rouge and lipstick was brisk. After the revolution, cosmetics became political. For example, an unpainted face was a sign of a good Republican.
Women were expected to pinch their cheeks and bite their lips if they hoped to brighten their faces. Men enjoyed greater leeway. They could and did, dye and condition their air, mustaches and sideburns, often with a touch-up dye for graying hair called Mascaro, from which Tom Later derived the word mascara.

Yet, the onset of the silent movies in the early 1900’s was changing the way society viewed cosmetics, as alluring actresses such as Theda Bara and other screen stars glamorized the painted look once associated with prostitution.

Theda Bara as Cleopatra, in 1917

Women began to enter the work force and began to build independent lives for themselves, making fashion and beauty a bit more robust.  At the same time, women were beginning to organize for their political rights, holding suffragist rallies for right to vote. In New York in 1913, more than one parade of Suffragettes marched down Fifth Avenue past a salon owned by a woman named Elizabeth Arden.  Arden in New York, along with Helena Rubinstein in England, opened the first beauty salons in the cosmetics business, specializing solely in skin products.


Read more about the birth of Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  You can now purchase an autographed cope directly from me by clicking on maybellinestory.com under the picture of the book. 

I will be posting my radio interview on Voice America next Monday, and will be doing the Dare to Dream radio show on May 11th.  Stay tuned for more exciting tid bits and Maybelline trivia from those wonderful days gone by.