By Style.com
There are certain stories, so dramatic, so entertaining, that they seem positively destined for television. The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It fits the bill, with insight into all the brand’s history.
Let us give you a brief synopsis to properly whet your appetite for this incredible read: The saga begins in 1915, founder Tom Lyle Williams watched as his sister Mabel, applied a mixture of petroleum jelly, burnt cork, and coal dust to her damaged brows and lashes, in an effort to simulate fuller, more luxurious growth. Tom immediately saw dollar signs in his sister’s makeshift mascara, and so began the now billion-dollar business that is Maybelline (named after Mabel, who inspired its creation). 
The book’s most publicized revelation is that Tom, despite being a married father, carried out a 50-year relationship with his partner Emery Shaver. 
However We were far more fascinated by the vignette about Evelyn, Tom’s over-the-top glamorous sister-in-law. The night after opening her Maybelline Dinner Theatre inJun Arkansas with a star-studded gala in 1975 (Bill and Hillary Clinton were on the guest list), Evelyn perished in a suspicious house fire, and the crime was never solved.
It’s definitely a good beach book, if you’re headed for warmer climes this winter—and if anything, it will forever change the way you look at that pink and green tube of the brand’s best-selling Great Lash Mascara. 
