POSH HOLIDAY ISSUE of NICHE MAGAZINE, featuring Sharrie Williams "Maybelline Memories Column."

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  NICHE MAGAZINE | HOLIDAY 2013

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  SHOOT EXCLUSIVE | HOLIDAY 2013

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  COLIN & JUSTIN | HOLIDAY 2013

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  CLOUD NINE | HOLIDAY 2013

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  GLITTER GUIDE | HOLIDAY 2013

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Read The Holiday Issue NOW!  turn the page until you see Sharrie Williams Column On Page 91.

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From The Editor’s Desk

Holiday 2013 - Fashion & Lifestyle – We are delighted to share this All That Glitters issue of NICHE magazine with you. It is filled with the anticipated wonders of the season, and in true NICHE fashion, a little of what you least expect.

Fall 2013 - Fashion & Lifestyle – As you fall back into this season of cashmere sweaters and cozy home décor, allow the pages of NICHE to help you discover your true autumn colours.

Summer 2013 - In celebration of summertime, NICHE went all out! There isn’t a page in this issue that doesn’t speak to the magnificence of the season. Filled with seaside outlooks and coastally inspired fashion, this edition of NICHE magazine is bursting with sunshine and bright inspiration.

Inspiration 2013 - Inspiration comes from unexpected places. With exciting design and fashion trends; exotic travel and beauty breakthroughs, this is the ‘What If’ and ‘If Only I Could’ issue in which readers will find ideas, dreams, and inspiration.

Spring 2013 - NICHE Magazine delivers spring in a big way. From our one-on-one interview with Canada’s original supermodel Tricia Helfer, to our exclusive Bride Reinvented fashion shoot at the Empress Hotel, and our expose on fashion legend, Vera Wang – this issue is all about unexpected beauty! We travel to Paris, France delight in the bubbles of... Read More »

Winter 2013 - NICHE Magazine’s debut brings the world to the doorstep of its readers with exclusive, well-written editorial features. In this premier edition, read our exclusive with Ryan Gosling, watch as we cover the world’s couture from Winter 2013 fashion weeks, travel with NICHE to Venice, Bora Bora and Hotel de Glace, revel in be

Be sure to visit my Hilarious Saffrons Rule Blog at
http://saffronsrule.com/

NICHE MAGAZINE featuring Author Sharrie Williams as Celebrity Columnist.

NICHE magazine is... Fca

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In the 1964 most Airline Stewardesses carried Maybelline in their over-night bags

Remember when Flight Attendants were called Stewardesses?

And carried over-night bags on short trips!

Well, most likely these Maybelline products could be

 found in most of their bags during the 1960s.

1960's American Airline Commercial.  Check the make-up and oh, were they really so naive!  I guess so, and to think that's what I aspired to be when I was 19...But Maybelline was the make-up in most every girls bags...Why?  because it was Quality Yet Sensibly Priced.

North Scottsdale Lifestyle Magazine, features Author Sharrie Williams

The Maybelline Story And the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It

Perhaps you remember the familiar advertising slogan, “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe It’s Maybelline.” It might be one of the last legacies handed down from the original family of an American dynasty. Although the company now known as Maybelline New York was acquired by L’Oréal Paris in 1996, Maybelline remains a household name.

One of the original family’s direct descendants, Sharrie Williams, has authored, The Maybelline Story…and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It, to tell her family’s own fascinating story.

The office in her attractive, yet beautifully stylish adobe-style North Scottsdale home, is neatly stacked with a rich collection of photos and memorabilia. She tells the story of how the vision of her grandfather’s brother founded the American make-up giant, Maybelline Cosmetics.

The book is a true page-turner, each chapter leaving the reader wanting more. In the Preface, Alan Andrews Ragland, describes company founder, Tom Lyle Williams, as “a self-made man—a boy from small- town American who, through determination, great ideas and plain old hard work, created an astonishingly successful company called Maybelline.”

In 1915, Mabel Williams, inspired her brother, Tom Lyle, to formulate an eye-beautifying product called, “Lash-Brow-Ine.” Today’s version of that original product still claims to be the best-selling mascara of all time. Tom Lyle, bought the company that became known as Maybelline with a $500 loan he borrowed from his brother, Noel J. Williams

That company, named in sister Mabel’s honor, would eventually become the leading cosmetic industry giant in America.

As the story goes, after witnessing his sister Mabel, “replacing” her singed eyebrows and lashes with a mixture of burnt cork and petroleum jelly, Tom makes a tremendous discovery. He realized that the way actresses made their eyes so compelling on screen could be easily replicated for non-starlets with a few ingredients in their proper ratios.

Sharrie Williams relates a colorful story of how her great uncle, the middle son of an American family (with roots going back to the 1600s, that include Benjamin Franklin, the founder of West Point and a leader of the Boston Tea Party) played a pivotal part in American history, creating a company with a product that has become a familiar household name.

During the “roaring ‘20s,” the “flapper era” would provide a devoted following for the eyelash and eyebrow beautifiers that Maybelline produced. The demand for Maybelline products was so great that even through the Depression the company remained successful.

“Hollywood and Silent Films were a key ingredient in making Maybelline, the great company it became during the 20th century,” Sharrie explains.

Some of the famous faces over the years who have represented the Maybelline Cosmetics Company have included: Gloria Swanson, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Lana Turner and Loretta Young.

After the company sold in December 1967, Linda Carter of Wonder Woman fame became the face of Maybelline for a time. After it sold again to Loreal Paris, Maybelline New York’s famous Super Models representatives have been the likes of Christy Turlington, Kirstin Davis, Miranda Kerr, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Melina Kanakaredes, and Sheetal Mallar. Julia Stegner, Jessica White, Emily DiDonato, Lisalla Montenegro, and Shu Pei.

The author grew up in Southern California leading a middle class lifestyle until the sale of the Maybelline Company made her father an overnight multi-millionaire, which she says turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. Sharrie reveals candidly her own realization about beauty, from the inside out.

We asked her some questions about her life and experience in writing the book.

nsL: What is one of the most interesting things you learned from documenting your family’s history—and from growing up in that family?

SW: I learned, our lives were like the old Saturday Night Live skit, ‘It is better to look fabulous than to feel fabulous.’ I remember when the Maybelline Company sold, my parents went through a nightmare divorce and my father became obsessed with creating a lifestyle of the rich and famous. It was a brutal transition and I covered up my grief with a lot of make-up, designer clothes and an expensive car. After all…to the world I was supposed to be happy and look fabulous, but inside my heart was breaking. This lifestyle went on until I too, faced a divorce and the loss of a child. From that point on I wanted to find the real person hiding inside the perfect facade I created to protect me from being hurt.

nsL: in your book, you point out that the Maybelline Company survived through some of the most tumultuous times in American history. What made the company sustain during the Great Depression? What was it like to be a part of that history?

SW: My great uncle Tom got down on his knees every night and asked God for guidance. During the Depression he lost his fortune, but he was given the key to success. Up until that time, the Maybelline product was mostly available through the classifieds in magazines and newspapers. He decided to sell Maybelline in the dime stores, making it affordable for all women, putting the product in a little red box and dropping the price from 75 cents to 10 cents. He moved from Chicago to Hollywood and used the famous faces of movie stars to endorse his product…and the rest is history. I’m grateful to be from the family that gave the world a quality product for beautifying their eyes, yet it was, and is, still sensibly priced.

nsL: how did you come to live in North Scottsdale and have you adjusted to living in the desert?

SW: My daughter graduated from Arizona State University and received her Masters from University of Phoenix. She fell in love with a boy at ASU and married him at his father’s home in Tempe. After their first child was born, I knew I had to be where my kids were. So I rented my home in California and bought this charming adobe-style home on an acre in North Scottsdale. I’m still going back and forth to California to see my sister and my friends, but after almost three years living here, writing my book and now my blog everyday, I’m falling in love with the peace and quiet and creative energy radiating from the beauty surrounding me here in the desert.

nsL: What are some of your own personal beauty and healthy lifestyle tips?

SW: I’ve been using use the most incredible skin products from Dr. George Brennan in Newport Beach for over 15 years and they have kept my skin tight and plastic surgery unnecessary. HC Compound and PM Stimulator: These two prescription strength products are used together to accelerate exfoliation, lightening and the cell renewal process. The HC Compound contains point one percent Retin A, and the PM Simulator contains four percent hydroquinone and 12 percent lactic acid.

nsL: What are some of your favorite summer foods?

SW: I eat mostly vegetarian to keep my blood free from toxins, and I enjoy raw salads, with two tablespoons of olive oil every day; a watermelon at least once a week; and my favorite breakfast is a cup of frozen blueberries in the blender with almond milk. I find the more flushing foods I eat, the cooler I feel, and I sleep much better in this heat.

nsL: you’re in great shape. What do you do for exercise?

SW: I go at least four or five days a week to AZ on the Rocks for yoga, and I swim in my pool for cardio. Combining all these ingredients has been my fountain of youth, and I’m blessed to have the time and space to live such a healthy lifestyle here in North Scottsdale.

Sharrie Williams blog and website can be viewed at MaybellineBook.com. Her book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It can be purchased on Amazon.com and through her website. Follow Sharrie on Twitter @sharriewilliams and Facebook Sharrie Williams.

Article Eleanor Andersen | Photography Joseph Albert

Magazinelink. http://www.nscottsdalelifestyle.com/2012/08/29/september-2012-issue/

MY HOUSE BURNED DOWN IN THE LAGUNA BEACH FIRESTORM 1993,

         Laguna Beach, October 27, 1993. 

As fierce wildfires fueled by 70 mph Santa Ana winds swept through the Laguna Canyon and hurtled towards their neighborhoods, people found themselves literally racing to escape the 200-feet-high flames. When it was over, the fire had claimed 366 homes. 

Excerpt from my, 1993, Diary, unedited. Post - Oct 27.


I laid there, in my boiling hot room, and sorted out my day. The first thing I had to do was call Barbara - my neighbor across the street - and see if she put the copy of my William Morris book contract, in my mailbox... so I could take it to school, and go over it.  My Attorney had faxed it to her husband Mark's office and he was nice enough to bring it home for me.


I knew it was going to be a difficult day, because of the heat, and my back was still killing me.  My face too, was dry, itchy and pealing, because I'd just had another deep face peal, and  couldn't wear make-up again today. I wished I could stay home and hide, but I had to get the contract figured out and faxed back to David by the end of the day.  This time, I was determined... nothing would stand in the way, of me writing my book.


Before Georgia left the house for school, she turned on the T.V., and I heard the reporter say, Orange County was on fire.  I'd heard this before, but was never alarmed.....I figured we were safe here Laguna, tucked away from the rest of the county in a Lagoon..... but when I got up, and looked out the window, I was stunned by the amount of smoke in the air and how the sun looked like it had turned to blood.


Than I noticed Mark and Barbara's roofer's, working at 7:00 a.m., and worried about the hot tar blowing in my windows. I knew I couldn't stay in the house with the windows shut all day.  The heat would kill me.

The Santa Ana winds were out of control, blowing 90 miles an hour, or so it seemed, by the look of the palm trees swaying in the wind. I forced myself to get dressed, and get out of the town as soon as possible until it blew over.

Before I left, I called Barbara and told her the roofer's had an actual fire going on her roof, but figured they must know what they were doing, so didn't worry too much about it.  We talked about the brand new Black Cherokee Jeep, she'd just gotten, and I remarked on how spoiled she was, having a rich husband, who buys her anything she wants.

"Oh, I know," she agreed, "isn't it terrible, how spoiled we both are," she laughed, throwing it right back to me.


"Well, I suppose you're right," I said, "I'm very lucky too, after all I  get to spend the day doing aerobics, Yoga and Tie Chi, than study my contract while eating lunch."


We both laughed, knowing that few people had a lifestyle as comfortable and as fun as ours.


"What do you think about the fires," I asked her, needing some reassurance before I headed out of town.


"I'm worried, of course," she confessed, "but it looks like they're pretty far North, don't you think?," she said.


"You're right," I said, "but doesn't it look like the end of the world? I've just got to get out of here."


"I'm so sorry," she said, "about the roof.  They were supposed to be done a week ago, but you know contractors, you can't depend of them."


"It's okay," I said, "I need to get to school anyway.  I've missed the last two days of exercise classes, because my back went out."


"Well, good luck with the book contract," she said, "I'm excited for you.  I know the project is going to be great, how can it miss, the story is phenomenal"


"Thanks Barb," I said, "and thank Mark for bringing the fax home."

I got off the phone and called David next to tell him everything was on schedule and that I'd call him in the afternoon when I got home. Than I threw on some old cotton shorts, a crummy t-shirt without shoulder pads, and some tennis shoes. The house looked neat, and clean.  Everything was in order.  My manuscript,
family pictures, and letters, all filed in boxes and stored under my desk next to the door. I walked out the front door and down the old red brick steps to my car, than hesitated for one second, wondering if I should bring the pictures with me to decide which one's would be best for the book. Than thought, "no, leave them, they're safer in the house and I wouldn't want to take any chances of losing them."

I pulled the car out of the garage, locked it tightly with the new pad lock I just bought and backed it out of the driveway.  Before I drove off down the hill, I looked back to admire the new paint job, and landscaping.  It was just darling and I was proud I'd restored it to it's rightful position in the neighborhood, after years of neglect during my long divorce. I dreamed about the day I could finally build a second story on it and have a perfect view.

As I drove through Laguna Canyon, at 11:15 a.m., I noticed police cars, than saw the police putting yellow cones in the highway, to stop traffic from coming into town, it concerned me, but not enough to turn around and go home.   

How strange, I thought, as I sped past them. I looked in my rear view mirror and vowed not to worry, I'll be home at 5:30, I said to myself, and everything will be fine.

While I got on on the 405 freeway, heading South.....
Georgia was dressing for P.E. and going out to play soft ball on the field, when she looked up at the sky towards our house, and noticed it was blue and purple, with scarlet clouds... too eerie to be beautiful, and yet amazingly hypnotic, she thought. The other kids were singing, "it's the end of the world as we know it"... even though, at that point they really didn't know a thing.  There was a scary tension in the air, but the P.E. coach kept everyone playing outside, in the horrible heat.

By lunch, it was clear there was a problem and out in the distance Georgia, could see a cloud of black smoke slowly getting bigger and bigger, right over the town. Reports of a fire in Emerald Bay, a few miles North, began to filter across the campus, and though nothing was confirmed until she got to her 5th period class..... she knew it wasn't good.


Finally the word came that Laguna was on fire......but not to panic.

                              To be continued all this week....

Whitley Heights, Paradise during Hollywood's silent film era.

  Off of Camrose south of the Hollywood Bowl.

Before there was Beverly Hills, during the silent film days, Whitley Heights was where the famous stars of Hollywood lived. Francis X. Bushman had a large, opulent house, with the first swimming pool built in the  
area and Rudolph Valentino lived off Wedgwood Place.   
 

Villa Valentino, 6776 Wedgewood Place, Whitley Heights, built in 1922, this was the site of the home Valentino shared with Natacha Rambova in upscale Whitley Heights just north of Hollywood. In 1951 the state of California paid Tom Lyle Williams, $90,000, intending to demolish it to make way for the Hollywood Freeway. The foundation of the home survives and can still be seen from the freeway.The foundation to the home is still visible from the freeway.

 During the Jazz Age, life was a party, and Whitley Heights was Party Central for the Hollywood set.

 Issue: Issue Spring 2010 Whitley Heights click here.

By: DH
Traveling along Franklin Avenue, the east/west thoroughfare north of Hollywood Blvd., you might not notice the most historic enclave of 1920s residences from the Golden Era of silent films and speakeasies, aka The Roaring Twenties, rising above Franklin Avenue. And roar they did in those days of high living, laughter and a new industry that seemed to have no bounds. Ethel Barrymore, Charlie Chaplin, Marion Davies, W.C. Fields, Harold Lloyd, Carole Lombard, Rudolph Valentino and many others lived and held legendary parties that marked an era and the early Hollywood film industry.

Today the Hollywood Freeway runs through what was once the toast of the Hollywood, in it's Heyday. 

 Before the Hollywood Freeway took Whitley Heights, it was an oasis,of gorgeous landscaping and Italian architecture.

 The arrow points to Tom Lyle Williams, Villa Valentino, in 1935.

 Tom Lyle remodeled the Villa Valentino in 1937.

Tom Lyle Williams on the left, followed by his sister Mabel, her husband Chet Hewes, and his sister Eva and her husband Ches Haines.  Notice the statue, Aspiration in the background.

Read more about Tom Lyle Williams and his love affair with the Villa Valentino, in The Maybelline Story, buy a signed copy today at www.maybelliestory.com.