Brief Timeline of Cosmetics

Brief Timeline of Cosmetics
1900: Black entrepreneur Annie Turnbo begins selling hair treatments, including non-damaging hair straighteners, hair growers, and hair conditioners door-to-door.

1904: Max Factor migrates from Lodz, Poland, to the United States, and four years later to Los Angeles, where he sells make-up to movie stars that does not cake or crack.

1909: French chemist Eugene Schueller develops the first safe commercial hair dye. In 1910, he names his company L'Oreal.

1905: Sarah McWilliams begins to sell a hair grower door-to-door. After she married Charles J. Walker, she became known as Madam C.J. Walker and incorporated her company in Indianapolis in 1911.

1909: Florence Graham and cosmetologist Elizabeth Hubbard open a salon on Fifth Avenue in New York, which Graham will rename Elizabeth Arden.
Edna Johnson and Theresa Thomas
near a table holding up
cosmetics and smiling

1914: T.J. Williams founds Maybelline, which specializes in mascara.

1915: Lipstick is introduced in cylindrical metal tubes.

1922: The bobby pin is invented to manage short (bobbed) hair.

1932: Charles and Joseph Revson, nail polish distributors, and CharlesLackman, a nail polish supplier, found Revlon, which sells nail polish in a wide variety of colors.

1932: Lawrence Gelb, a New York chemist, brings home from Paris a hair color product that penetrates the hair shaft, and starts a company called Clairol. He opens a company named after the product, Clairol. In 1950, he introduces Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath, a one-step hair coloring product.


1933: A new method for permanent waving, using chemicals, which doesn't require electricity or machines, is introduced.

1935: Pan-cake makeup, originally developed to look natural on color film, was created by Max Factor.

1941: Aerosols are patented, paving the way for hair spray.

1944: A Miami Beach pharmacist, Benjamin Green develops sunscreen to protect soldiers in the South Pacific.

1958: Mascara wands debut, eliminating the need for applying mascara with a brush.

1961: Cover Girl make-up, one of the first brands sold in grocery stores and targeted to teens, is introduced by Noxema.

1963: Revlon offers the first powdered blush-on.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/do_history/fashion/Cosmetics/cosmetics.html