Maybelline

WorldBrand briefing

AI supplement

Original synthesis to sit alongside the encyclopedia article below. Not part of Wikipedia; verify facts on Wikipedia when precision matters.

Maybelline is a globally renowned American cosmetics brand, specializing in affordable, mass-market makeup products including mascaras, lipsticks, foundations, and eyeliners. Owned by L'Oréal since 1996, it is recognized for its innovative formulas and wide accessibility across over 129 countries.

Key moments

1915Founded by Thomas Lyle Williams in Chicago, inspired by his sister Mabel's homemade mascara recipe.
1917Launched its first product: Maybelline Cake Mascara, the first commercially available mascara in the US.
1960sExpanded product line to include lipsticks and other color cosmetics, becoming a mainstream brand.
1996Acquired by L'Oréal Group, integrating into its consumer products division.
2000s-presentIntroduced iconic lines like Great Lash mascara and SuperStay lip products, solidifying its position as a top mass-market cosmetics brand.

Maybelline competes in the highly crowded mass-market cosmetics segment against key rivals:

1. Revlon: A long-standing American competitor with similar focus on affordable color cosmetics. Maybelline holds an edge in global distribution and product innovation, particularly in mascaras and long-wear formulas. 2. CoverGirl: Owned by Coty, CoverGirl targets the same demographic. Maybelline outperforms in digital marketing and social media engagement, leveraging influencer collaborations and viral campaigns. 3. drugstore private labels: Brands like L'Oréal's own NYX, and store brands such as Walgreens' No7, pose competition on price. Maybelline differentiates itself through strong brand recognition and proven product performance. 4. indie beauty brands: Emerging direct-to-consumer brands challenge with niche products, but Maybelline's extensive retail presence and established trust maintain its market leadership.

Overall, Maybelline's strength lies in its balance of affordability, quality, and global reach, supported by L'Oréal's R&D resources.

Leads in mascara category with iconic products like Great Lash, dominating shelf space and consumer preference.
Benefits from L'Oréal's global supply chain, ensuring consistent product availability across regions.
Invests heavily in inclusive shade ranges, catering to diverse skin tones which resonates with modern consumers.
Faces pressure from rising clean beauty trends; responds with eco-friendly packaging and ingredient transparency initiatives.

As one of the most iconic mass-market cosmetics brands under the L'Oréal portfolio, Maybelline has built a decades-long reputation for democratizing high-quality, on-trend makeup products that are accessible to broad consumer demographics across all income brackets. The brand has cemented its core identity around balancing premium-level product performance with affordable price points, making everyday makeup use approachable for casual users and beauty enthusiasts alike across generations of customers.

Leveraging L'Oréal's global research and development resources since its acquisition in 1996, Maybelline has continuously iterated on its signature product lines, most notably industry-leading mascara formulas, long-wear lipsticks, and inclusive foundation ranges designed to suit diverse skin tones from regional markets around the world. This integration of global technical expertise with localized consumer insight has allowed the brand to stay relevant even as global beauty trends shift rapidly.

Operating in the highly crowded competitive mass beauty segment, Maybelline maintains a distinct competitive edge against rival drugstore brands, direct-to-consumer indie beauty labels, and private label drugstore alternatives, thanks to its unmatched global distribution footprint and accumulated multi-generational brand recognition. This balance of heritage trust and modern cultural relevance positions it as one of the top global mass cosmetics brands by public awareness and market penetration.

Brand Leadership

Score: 87/100

Maybelline consistently ranks among the top three global mass-market color cosmetics brands, holding leading market share in core categories including mascara, everyday drugstore lipstick, and accessible foundation. It outperforms close peers such as Revlon and CoverGirl by leveraging L'Oréal's centralized R&D and global distribution network to secure first-mover advantage for high-demand new product launches.

Consumer Interaction

Score: 85/100

The brand operates one of the largest social media audiences in the mass beauty category, with highly shareable user-generated content campaigns, regular micro and macro influencer collaborations across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and viral product launches that routinely generate hundreds of millions of organic impressions, delivering audience engagement rates that outpace most direct competitors targeting the same demographic.

Brand Momentum

Score: 79/100

Maybelline has delivered steady year-over-year growth across high-potential emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, expanding its inclusive shade ranges for underrepresented skin tones, launching dedicated clean beauty product lines to align with shifting consumer priorities, and updating marketing campaigns to reflect evolving cultural beauty norms to capture new younger customer segments.

Brand Stability

Score: 91/100

With nearly 110 years of unbroken global market operation, Maybelline has retained consistent long-term consumer trust with no major high-profile damaging product safety scandals across its global footprint, supported by L'Oréal's uniform global quality control standards that keep its repeat purchase rates well above industry averages even during periods of economic downturn that suppress discretionary beauty spending.

Brand Heritage & Age

Score: 93/100

Founded in 1915 with its first proprietary signature mascara formula, Maybelline is one of the oldest continuously operating mass cosmetics brands in the world, with decades of accumulated brand equity that has been passed across multiple generations of consumers, creating a level of inherent name recognition that newer emerging indie beauty brands cannot easily replicate.

Industry Profile Position

Score: 86/100

Maybelline is widely recognized as a global benchmark brand for the mass-market color cosmetics segment, regularly cited in industry analysis as a category leader for product accessibility, affordability, and inclusive product design, setting widely referenced industry standards for competing drugstore beauty brands for both formulation performance and marketing execution.

Globalization Reach

Score: 88/100

The brand distributes its full curated product portfolio across more than 129 countries worldwide, with localized product assortments tailored to regional beauty preferences, local climate conditions, and diverse skin tone demographics, paired with region-specific marketing campaigns that resonate with local consumers while retaining its core global brand identity as a trustworthy, approachable beauty staple.

This valuation assessment is supported by AI-powered brand value reasoning that synthesizes public operational data, market share metrics, cross-market penetration signals, and accumulated brand equity data to produce illustrative reference insights. All value-related outputs presented here are non-binding and for contextual reference only, not formally audited certified figures. To access official audited brand value results for Maybelline, please contact the World Brand Lab directly.

Overview

Maybelline

homepage
type	Subsidiary
founder	Thomas Lyle Williams
area served	Worldwide
key people	Trisha Ayyagari (President, Global)‡R1R‡ Amy Whang (President, US)‡R2R‡
industry	Cosmetics
products	Cosmetics · skincare · perfume · personal care
parent	L'Oréal

foundation	1915 in Chicago as The Maybelline Company

location	Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

Maybelline New York (formerly The Maybelline Company and Mabelline and Co.), trading as and commonly known as simply Maybelline, is an American multinational cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care company, based in New York City. Founded in Chicago in 1915,[3] it has been a subsidiary of French cosmetics company L'Oréal since 1996.[4]

History

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.[5]

In 1967, the company was sold by Williams to Plough Inc. (now 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[6] and its factory to Brooklyn in 2000.

Spokesmodels

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,[7] Liza Soberano, Urassaya Sperbund, Winnie Harlow, DJ Peggy Gou,[8]

Slogans

In 1981, the company adopted "Maybelline, Maybelline Ooh La La" as its advertising slogan,[15] which was used until 1991 when the tagline changed to "Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline" (and in some commercials as simply "...Maybe it's Maybelline.").[16] The latter slogan was found to be the most recognizable strapline of the past 150 years by CBS Outdoor.[17]

Criticism

In 2021, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reported that Maybelline tested on animals.[18] According to a 2010 report, however, animal testing of products is required by law in some countries to sell cosmetics.[19]

Collaborations

In January 2019, Maybelline collaborated with the German fashion brand Puma for its limited edition collection that was marketed as Maybelline X Puma.[20] It was claimed as the multi-tasking athleisure-inspired collection and consisted of five products. Adriana Lima was chosen as the ambassador for the collaboration.[21][22][23]

In May 2021, Maybelline collaborated with Marvel to create a limited edition that connects Marvel's most iconic characters with the brand's top-selling hero products.[24]

In July 2025, Maybelline was announced as WWE

External links

References

Maybelline advertising & marketing assignments adbrands.net^
L'Oréal Appoints Amy Whang President of Maybelline New York, Garnier and Essie for the US loreal.com, retrieved 2023-07-31^
Sheena Wilson, Adam Carlson, Imre Szeman. Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture McGill-Queen's Press, 2017, retrieved 28 July 2017