Misslyn

Misslyn is a colour cosmetics brand that sells eye, face and lip make-up and accessories at the entry level of the market. Its own accounts of where and when it began do not agree. The about page of the brand's Italian website says it was founded in Italy in 1957 by Ivo M. Lechner [2], while the homepage of the same site says it was born in Germany in the 1980s and grew up within the Artdeco group [1]. Trade press from the 2010s places the brand's manufacturing in Germany and its ownership, from 2010, with the ARTDECO cosmetic Group of Karlsfeld near Munich [10].

The brand is active, with storefronts in Italian and English trading in 2026. Who owns it today is less clear. A German trade paper reported in February 2020 that Artdeco was looking for a buyer for Misslyn, and the group's most recent sustainability report does not list it among its brands.

Misslyn's origin story exists in more than one version, and no independent source confirms the founder's name. On its Italian about page, the brand says it was born in Italy in 1957, founded by Ivo M. Lechner with a clear mission: to make make-up accessible, creative and fun. The same page says the brand soon stood out for its pop colours, bold packaging and formulas made for people who like to experiment.

The homepage of the Italian site tells a different story. There, Misslyn is said to have started in Germany in the 1980s with the idea of making make-up accessible, creative and always fashionable, and to have grown within the Artdeco group. That version sits awkwardly with other dates. Artdeco's own history page says Helmut Baurecht founded the ARTDECO brand in Munich in 1985 [11], and trade reports from 2011 onwards describe Misslyn as a brand Artdeco acquired, not one it created. One reading reconciles the two texts: the brand began in Italy in 1957 and moved to Germany in the 1980s. This article follows that reading, while noting that the brand's website states both versions without linking them.

Trade press adds further dates. A 2016 notice about the brand's UK launch described Misslyn as founded in Italy "over 30 years ago" [10], which points to some time before the mid-1980s. A 2018 article in Cosmetics Business said the brand had been founded 30 years earlier, which would place its start around 1988 [7]. Neither matches 1957.

The brand's documented history begins with its change of ownership. In 2010 Misslyn was acquired by the ARTDECO cosmetic Group, a family-run German make-up company. In August 2011 the travel-retail trade publication The Moodie Davitt Report announced that Artdeco would present its "newly acquired brand" at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, an industry trade fair [6]. According to that report, Misslyn had launched in Germany that April and was already sold in Germany, France, Iran, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia and Poland, with the rest of the world to follow. Its slogan at the time was "Your Beauty, Your Color, Your Style", and it planned a new colour promotion every six weeks.

By 2013 the German consumer-testing magazine ÖKO-TEST listed Misslyn as one of the brands of the Artdeco Cosmetic Group, alongside BeYu, Malu Wilz, Make up Factory and Anny [8]. The magazine named Helmut Baurecht as the group's owner and managing director.

In April 2016 Misslyn entered the United Kingdom. The launch notice said it was distributed there by Chleo Enterprises and sold through the online retailer BeautyBay.com, and that the brand was represented in almost 50 countries worldwide. Its range then covered eyes, lips and complexion, along with nail polishes, nail care and special-effect polishes, and it aimed to release a new trend colour collection every six weeks.

In October 2018 Cosmetics Business reported that Misslyn had arrived in 11 Primark stores across the UK. The article described it as a colour cosmetics brand inspired by 1960s colour, said it made its products in Germany, and put its reach at five continents and 38 countries. Its line-up then included lipsticks, lip liners, glosses, false lashes, mascara and nail polishes.

Misslyn's purchase by Artdeco in 2010 is reported by trade sources from 2011, 2016 and 2018, and the brand's Italian homepage also refers to having grown within the Artdeco group.

One point of confusion appears in the 2018 Cosmetics Business article. Its opening summary says the brand "is owned by Chleo Enterprises" [7], while the body of the same article says Artdeco bought it in 2010. Chleo Enterprises had been named in 2016 as Misslyn's UK distributor, and the article does not reconcile the two statements.

What happened after 2020 is not documented. On 7 February 2020 the German trade paper Lebensmittelzeitung reported that Artdeco was thinning out its brand portfolio and seeking a buyer for its make-up brands Misslyn and Beyu, and that it was negotiating with Chinese and Russian investors over the sale of individual brands [9]. The company denied rumours that it would sell a majority of the business itself. The outcome of any sale of Misslyn has not been made public. The ARTDECO cosmetic Group's sustainability report for 2022/23 names ARTDECO, Malu Wilz and Anny as its brands and does not mention Misslyn [12]. The brand's current owner is therefore not publicly confirmed.

The Italian storefront adds one more detail. Its contact page gives a sales email address on a chemiagroup.com domain and an Italian phone number, rather than Misslyn or Artdeco contact details [3]. The company behind that address is not named on the site. The English-language storefront, misslyn.com, trades as "Misslyn Cosmetics" and gives no legal company name or address.

From its earliest documented years under Artdeco, Misslyn sat at the lower end of the price ladder. In 2011 it was presented as a make-up concept for specialist retailers in the entry-level price segment of the selective market, aiming to offer an alternative to discount cosmetic brands. It was aimed mainly at young, trend-conscious users, though described as suitable for all ages. Its 2011 "Colour Your Style" collection relied on bright neon shades for experimental eye make-up, bold lips and nails.

The current brand voice is playful. Misslyn's Italian site describes beauty as a game with no rules, only the wish to express oneself, and calls the brand a "toolbox" for glowing, intense or natural everyday looks. It invites customers to dare, change and experiment, with what it calls a mix of energy, style and irony. Make-up, the brand says, is not only about how one looks but about how one wants to be. The homepage carries the slogan "POP UP YOUR MAKE UP".

Misslyn sells colour cosmetics in three main areas. The current Italian range covers eyes (brow products, eyeliners, mascaras and eyeshadows), face (foundation, contouring and bronzer, powder, primers and setting sprays, highlighters and blush) and lips (lip masks, lip liners, glosses, lipsticks and lip tints), plus accessories. Nail products, a regular part of the range in coverage from 2011, 2016 and 2018, do not appear in the current Italian site's navigation.

Some product names have lasted more than a decade. The Smooth Lip Liner and the Intense Color Liner were both named in the 2011 Cannes coverage and are still listed on the brand's site. In 2011 the Smooth Lip Liner was described as free of fragrance and preservatives, the lipstick as free of mineral oil, and the High Shine Duo Eyeshadows as fragrance-free; these were statements about individual products rather than brand-wide claims. Other items on the current site include the XXL Volume Mascara, the Made to Stay lip liner, the Eye Want It! eyeshadow set, the Eye Believe In Fairytales! eyeshadow palette and the Brow Chicka Wow Wow liquid eyebrow liner.

No third-party certifications, patents or proprietary technologies are documented for the brand.

Misslyn is active. Its Italian storefront, misslyn.it, was trading in 2026 with a banner announcing new make-up on the way, and the English-language storefront misslyn.com was also live. The brand runs accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. Its international reach has been reported as seven countries in 2011, almost 50 countries in 2016 and 38 countries on five continents in 2018. No owner has been publicly confirmed since the 2020 reports that Artdeco planned to sell the brand.