A brief history of Rimmel

Who's this then?

It's another oldie this week. The brand goes back as far as 1834, when a teenage Eugene Rimmel became his father's apprentice at his newly opened perfumery in London. By the age of 24, Eugene was an expert perfumer himself, as well as something of a cosmetics guru, and opened up his own flagship store in Regent Street. When he died, in 1887, his two sons took over the business and it grew and grew.

For Rimmel, the eyes had it and particular attention was paid to the mascaras, which flew off the shelves. In fact, the word 'rimmel' means mascara in many languages. Who knew?

Anyway, since the second world war Rimmel has changed hands numerous times, but for the past 16 years it has been part of the fragrance company Coty Inc. The range is now sold in more than 40 countries and is Britain's best-selling cosmetics brand.

So what's it all about?

Rimmel London, to give it its full name, aims to represent the capital by being 'witty, edgy and streetwise' - or so says the press release. Streetwise makeup, anyone? Hmmm. But the products are very reasonably priced, so the idea of experimentation and trend-setting does kind of work. It's easy to experiment with an eyeshadow if it only costs £3.99.

Rimmel hammers home the message that London is, you know, cool. It pulls out the big guns with ad campaigns telling us to 'Get the London look', enlisting Georgia May Jagger, Zooey Deschanel and, most famously, born and bred London lady Kate Moss, who has been with the brand since 2001.

And what's good?

Speaking of Ms Moss, last year she launched her first line for the brand - a range of seven lipsticks in rather striking shades (£5.49 each, boots.com). I went for the deep red pictured left - shade #01 - and put it to the gin and tonic test (ie how many G&Ts does it survive?). It really held its ground, even when I threw in a curveball mojito. It's a great suit-all shade, goes on smoothly and lasts much longer than some of the more expensive brands I've tried. At that price, it's definitely worth giving it a go.

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