Elizabeth Arden

kristen — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:45:55 +0000

Elizabeth Arden, born in 1878, was born Florence Nightingale Graham in Woodbridge, near Toronto, Canada, the daughter of farmers. Elizabeth Arden is a symbol of extravagance and luxury in the multi-billion dollar beauty industry. Perhaps the greatest illustration of this was during the 1960 presidential election, when Jacqueline Kennedy, responding to allegations of her extravagance, retorted that Pat Nixon shopped at Elizabeth Arden.
Elizabeth Arden did not start her professional career in the beauty industry. Unable to finish high school because of her distressed finances, she entered nursing but found it wasn’t for her. After quitting nursing, Arden worked as a dental assistant, stenographer, and cashier before ultimately following her brother William to New York City. In 1908, as a cashier in a New York beauty salon, she persuaded her employer, Eleanor Adair, to teach her how to give facials, which she mastered.
After a short, disappointing partnership in a beauty salon with Elizabeth Hubbard on Fifth Avenue in New York City, Arden took over the business in 1909. She assumed a new name by scraping “Hubbard” off the front door and substituting “Arden,” a name from her favorite poem, Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden”.
It was Arden’s background in nursing that allowed her to become a pioneer in skin care. She introduced cosmetic chemistry into the development of her skincare products – a novel practice at the time. While Arden offered a selection of more than 300 varieties of creams and cosmetics—she also added essential grace notes to her products. She replaced medicinal aromas with floral scents; created elegant, systematic packaging; and opened luxurious and artistic treatment venues, which contrasted strongly with the medical austerity of other beauty-culture clinics. The rich profits from Elizabeth Arden’s products subsidized the salons and made growth possible close attention to product research. Her most successful product was Amoretta, a fluffy, non-greasy face cream.
In 1934, Arden converted her own estate into America’s first destination spa, called Maine Chance. She is responsible for nurturing an entirely new spa culture. Responding to women’s desires for both well-being and beauty, she offered cosmetics and treatments for home application as well as salon pampering at her famous Red Door salons and her Maine Chance retreat. Arden believed in elegant surroundings, including antiques and oriental carpets. Her red door would become famous as the trademark of hundreds of Elizabeth Arden salons in the United States and Europe. Arden also gave her clients advice on proper diet and offered an exercise salon once exercising became popular.
Arden advertised extensively in magazines, but her best investment in advertising, she said, was her charity balls, which were always featured prominently on the society pages. Her message to all women remained, “Hold fast to life and youth.” Eventually she had annual sales of $60 million.
Arden owned every share of stock in her company and consistently rejected her advisers’ urgings to make provision for the continuation of the company in its same legal form after her death in 1966, which would have saved millions in tax liabilities. Arden remained in firm control of her business virtually to the day she died in New York City. To take care of death duties, the business was sold for $37.5 million to Eli Lilly & Company.

Charles Revson

kristen — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:36:23 +0000

The huge company we know as Revlon was founded in 1932 by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph as a nail polish company with $300. Charles Haskell Revson was born on October 11, 1906 in Somerville, Massachusetts. After graduating high school, Revson went to work for a dress company and then as a nail polish salesman for the Elka company with his brother Joseph. When they were told they couldn’t sell beyond their New York City territory, they quit and began their own business. Charles and Joseph Revson founded Revlon Nail Enamel Corporation with Charles Lachman, a chemist who had married into Dresden Chemical Company (a manufacturer and distributor of nail polish). The L in Revlon is for Lachman, who had no active role in the company but owned a third of the business. Revson offered opaque nail polish that completely covered the nail and more color options. Most nail polishes at that time were transparent, and only came in three shades of red. Revson used his sales skills to sell to beauty salons, and eventually made a big order to Marshall Fields in 1934. In 1939, Revlon had another huge increase in sales when lipstick that coordinated with the polish colors was introduced using the slogan “matching lips and fingertips”. Revlon sponsored the television show, The $64,000 Question in the 1950’s which also increased sales. In the 1960’s and 1970’s Revlon expanded into skin-care products, shampoo, hair spray, and perfumes. In 1973, the affordable fragrance Charlie became the best-selling fragrance worldwide. On the downside, Revson’s attempt to expand into the fashion field, shoe polish, plastic flowers, and electric razors all failed. However, Revson was a very innovative marketer. He came up with creative nail polish colors, like ‘Fatal Apple’, launched seductive advertising campaigns before they became the norm, and broke tradition in international advertising. Instead of matching the ad to the market, he introduced American style and looks to foreign countries, making a ‘Western look’ popular. Over the years Revson gave many millions of dollars to charities. He was particularly supportive of Jewish, medical, and educational causes. Upon his death almost half his estate of $100 million was used to establish a charitable foundation. Revson passed away from pancreatic cancer on August 24, 1975. Currently, Revlon and its subsidiaries, Almay, Ultima II, and Mitchum lines, sells to large masses of consumers in 175 countries. U.S.-based Revlon went public in 1996 and in 2009 had 5,600 employees.

Free Beauty Events » background

Elizabeth Arden

Charles Revson