Lydia O'Leary Reeves

(March 27, 1900 - September 14, 1985)

Inventor, Socialite. Lydia O'Leary was born in Massachusetts into a large Irish-American family headed by Henry and Hannah O'Leary. From birth she bore a port-wine stain, a deep raspberry-colored birthmark that covered much of the left side of her face. What began as a limitation eventually became the catalyst for one of the most influential cosmetic inventions of the twentieth century. After attending high school she enrolled at Fitchburg Normal School for Teachers, graduating in 1921. She worked briefly as a teacher before moving to New York City, where she hoped to find opportunity in retail. Instead she was turned away by department-store interviewers who deemed her appearance "unsuitable" for public-facing work.

In New York she found back-room work painting placards. It was here that she conceived the idea of a cosmetic preparation that could conceal her own birthmark as effectively as pigment could cover a painted flaw. She experimented with bases and colors until she produced a product that provided coverage yet moved flexibly with the skin.

Lydia O'Leary without Covermark

Her initial patent application was rejected, but she appealed, and in a dramatic demonstration before the examiners removed her makeup to reveal the birthmark they had not noticed. She then reapplied the product, proving its effectiveness beyond argument. In 1932 she was awarded U.S. Patent No. 1,877,952 for her "dermal cover preparation," which became the foundation of the Covermark brand.

Lydia O'Leary with Covermark

Through her company she introduced the world to corrective makeup, a category that bridged beauty and medicine. Dermatologists began recommending her products for patients with birthmarks, burns, vitiligo, and scars. During and after World War II she worked with plastic surgeons and dermatologists to help rehabilitate wounded soldiers, showing how pigment could restore confidence while physical healing continued. On June 14, 1949 she was interviewed on the national talk show We, the People about her pioneering work as a cosmetics entrepreneur. Her products became widely used, and by the latter half of the century many other companies had followed her lead. By the 1980s Covermark was marketing camouflage makeup to men and even to children who had never used cosmetics before, a reflection of how far her concept had spread.

In 1945 she married James Reeves, who with his brother Daniel had built a successful grocery chain before selling to Safeway in 1941. The marriage ended with his death in 1957, but O'Leary continued to lead Covermark and was active in New York society. In 1954 Salvador Dalí painted her full-length portrait, later sold at Christie's and remembered by family as once displayed in the foyer of her Park Avenue home. She lived for many years at 740 Park Avenue, one of Manhattan's most prestigious addresses.

In her later years O'Leary suffered a stroke that left her in fragile health, though she remained a respected figure in the world she had transformed. She died in 1985, leaving behind a company that endured through successors and international licensees and a legacy that redefined the purpose of cosmetics. Remembered as a pioneer, she transformed her own adversity into an invention that gave countless others the means to face the world with renewed confidence.

Lydia was laid to rest in the O'Leary family plot in New Bedford, Massachusetts.