Free Beauty Events

Emanuel Stolaroff (Neutrogena)

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Have you ever wondered how the Neutrogena brand got started or how it got its unique name? It was actually launched by just one person, Emanuel Stolaroff, in 1930. He started a small specialty cosmetic company called Natone which was a supplier to Beauty salons associated with the film industry. By the 1940’s, Natone began manufacturing and distributing cosmetics for retail. In the 1950’s, Stolaroff became interested in a soap developed by Dr. Edmond Fromont (a Belgian cosmetic chemist) that rinsed so easily from the skin that the skin would return to its normal pH in just 11 minutes. This is where the name ‘Neutrogena’ came from. Stolaroff brought the Neutrogena brand to the United States and his company became so much associated with Neutrogena that he renamed his company to ‘Neutrogena Corporation’.

The next big thing to happen to the brand was in the 1960’s when Lloyd Cotsen (President and Stolaroff’s son-in-law) promoted Neutrogena soap to the medical profession. This gave Neutrogena a huge advantage over other companies. The company focus turned to safe, mild, premium quality skin care products. In 1973, Neutrogena went public and by 1980 it also offered hair care products.

In 1984, Stolaroff passed away after a lengthy illness at the age of 84. He remained active chairman of Neutrogena until his death.

In 1994 Johnson & Johnson acquired Neutrogena for $924 million, which boosted Neutrogena sales and introduced it to markets such as India, South Africa, and China. Neutrogena products are now distributed in over 70 countries.

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Tags: biography, emanuel, history, Neutrogena, stolaroff
Posted in Biography | 2 Comments »

Jeanine Lobell (Stila Cosmetics)

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Jeanine Lobell, creator of Stila Cosmetics, was born in Sweden and raised in Europe. After she completed school in London, she moved to Los Angeles, where she began her career doing makeup for music videos. Increasingly, the celebrities she first worked with requested Jeanine and her status grew along with her career. Lobell soon got to the point where she was doing makeup for magazine covers and celebrity makeup for premieres and award shows.
Lobell received an offer from a boutique to create a makeup brand and she became involved in developing the products. She wanted to grow beyond the confines of the boutique and in 1994 created Stila Cosmetics. Stila Cosmetics was a high quality brand and had fun packaging. “I believe that a beautiful package sets up expectation for a great product” – Lobell. Stila is also known for its multi-tasking formulas, eco-friendly packaging, and fashion-forward colors. The brand was sold to Estee Lauder in 1999. But that wasn’t the end, Lobell served as President of Stila Cosmetics at Estee Lauder Companies Inc.  In 2006, Estee Lauder sold Stila Cosmetics to Sun Capital Partners. They in turn sold Stila to Patriarch Partners LLC, making it a Lynn Tilton company. Lynn Tilton was recent featured on a 20/20 special on billionaires with Barbara Walters.
Currently, Lobell lives on the East Coast with her family. Her celeb client list includes Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Lucy Liu, Liv Tyler, Angelina Jolie, Penelope Cruz, Amy Adams, and Naomi Watts.  She still does magazine covers such as Harpers Bazaar, Allure, and Elle. Lobell also does runway makeup during Fashion Week.

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Tags: biography, history, jeanine lobell, Stila cosmetics
Posted in Biography | 3 Comments »

Elizabeth Arden

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

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.

Tags: background, biography, Elizabeth Arden, history
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T.L. Williams – Founder of Maybelline

Friday, January 14th, 2011

According to Maybelline Co., modern mascara was born in 1913 when Maybelline creator T.L. Williams marketed his sister’s recipe for makeup in Chicago. His sister Maybel used petroleum jelly mixed with coal dust to make eyelashes look more dramatic. Williams adapted the formula in a laboratory and produced a product sold locally called Lash-Brow-Ine, which became a local hit. In search of a catchier name, Williams renamed the product Maybelline, which is a combination of Maybel and Vaseline.

In 1915, the company Maybelline was founded as a mail order company. In 1917, Williams’ company produced Maybelline Cake Mascara which was the first compact mascara and was very popular. By 1920, Maybelline began to sell eyeshadows. In the 1930’s new lines were added to their product mix including eyeliners. By 1932 Maybelline shed the mail order business model and began to sell products in stores, making them more accessible to customers than ever. For the next 30 years Maybelline was very successful, and in the early 1960’s introduced Ultra Lash – a revolutionary product that was the first mascara to be dispensed in a tube with a waterproof formula.

In 1967 Williams sold Maybelline to Plough, Inc. (now Schering-Plough) in Memphis, TN. As a result, the company moved from Chicago to Memphis. In 1975, the company moved again to Little Rock, AK. In 1990, Schering Plough sold Maybelline to New York investment firm Wasserstein Perella. In 1996 company headquarters moved to New York. “Maybe She’s Born With It” became Maybelline’s advertising slogan in 1991. The company was purchased by L’Oreal in 1996 and now also sells lipsticks, nail polish, and foundations.

Tags: history, Maybelline, T.L. Williams
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Mary Kay Ash

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Mary Kay Ash, better known as Mary Kay, is a cosmetics industry icon best known for her empowerment of women and pink Cadillacs. She was born Mary Kathlyn Wagner on May 12, 1918, in Houston. By age six, she was caring for her seriously ill father while her mother worked 14 hours a day at a restaurant. As an adult he studied to become a doctor, but focused on sales full time as her success grew. She would write weekly sales goals in soap on her bathroom mirror. Her inspiration to start Mary Kay Cosmetics came from her experience working at World Gifts as national sales director. She quit in 1963 when a male colleague hired as her assistant was promoted over her at twice her salary. With $5,000 in formulas, jars, and office equipment, Mary Kay started her business at the age of 45. She bought a formulation for a skin-care cream developed by an Arkansas tanner, promoted it as a beauty product and recruited friends to sell “Beauty by Mary Kay.” The company was profitable almost immediately and had nearly $200,000 in revenues the first year. Mary Kay held national meetings (which bring together over 10,000 consultants a year), where top associates wearing ball gowns are escorted by tuxedoed gentleman and presented with lavish gifts like glittering diamond tennis bracelets and Cadillacs. Her rationale for such big prizes was that the sales people were responsible for her company’s success, so it would be better to spend the money on employees than on a commercial. Mary Kay fashioned a three-tier approach to life and success. God came first, then family followed by career. The corporate symbol, a bumble bee, is a creature that aerodynamically should not be able to fly. Mary Kay has said, “But someone forgot to tell the bumblebee. Women are like that — given the opportunity, encouragement and awards, they will soar.” The company mission statement is, “Enriching women’s lives.” Although Mary Kay began as just a basic skin care line of five items, it evolved into a $1.2 billion international operation. Today the company has 850,000 sales associates in 37 countries and 200 products across nine beauty categories. Fortune Magazine has named Mary Kay among The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, and also recognized Mary Kay as one of the 10 best companies for women. She died on November 22, 2001 and is interred in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.

Tags: ash, biography, cosmetics, history, mary kay
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Shu Uemura (1928 – 2008)

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Shu Uemura, international cosmetic brand and subsidiary of L’Oreal, all started with Japanese makeup artist Shu Uemura. Shu Uemura helped pioneer the concept of the makeup artist and merged makeup and art through his bi-annual mode makeup collections and on-stage makeup performances. He got his first big break by his miraculous transformation of Shirley MacLaine into a Japanese beauty in the 1962 American movie “My Geisha”. This launched a makeup artist career with films in Japan and Hollywood, including work with celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Lucille Ball. Uemura founded the company Japan Makeup Inc based on skincare. In 1962, Uemura developed his first product (Unmask), a cleansing oil that removes makeup without stripping moisture, that is still sold today. He returned to Japan to teach what he learned, opening a school for makeup artists in Tokyo. In 1983, Uemura re-launched his brand under his own name and opened a cosmetics boutique which was unique in its gallery-like interior. Customers would get the feeling that they were walking through an artist’s studio rather than a store. Large tester counters made it easy for customers to interact with the products. Uemura wanted ‘no barrier between sales clerks and customers’. His main concept was that every woman is captivatingly unique. His brand, renamed Shu Uemura, expanded to include handmade makeup brushes, perfumes, and fake eyelashes. Uemura passed away in 2008 of pneumonia, but his legacy lives on today in 125 boutiques worldwide (half of them are in Japan).

Tags: beauty, biography, history, Shu uemura
Posted in Biography | 1 Comment »

Charles Revson

Friday, May 28th, 2010

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.

Tags: background, biography, Charles Revson, history, Revlon
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