Elizabeth Arden’s Magic Makeup!

I was extremely inspired by Elizibeth Arden so I chose to dig a little deeper & write a blog about her!

A legendary innovator and a tireless entrepreneur, Miss Elizabeth Arden established the American beauty industry a century ago. Born Florence Nightingale Graham, she traveled from rural Canada to New York City, where she opened the first Red Door salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910.

One of Elizabeth Arden’s trademarks was to dress always in pink. She was also noted for her passion for owning race horses; a horse from one of her stables won the Kentucky Derby in 1947.

Miss Arden created skin care products that benefited, not masked, the skin. She not only promoted her concept of Total Beauty, including diligent skincare, nutrition and fitness.

Miss Arden was uncompromising in her vision to create the new and absolute best products, packaging and services that women not only needed, but desired; whether it was the cult-classic Eight Hour Cream, her legendary Blue Grass fragrance, or a bold red lipstick to coordinate with the uniforms of the women serving in the armed forces during World War II.

She was the first to introduce eye makeup to the women of America and pioneered the creation of the “makeover.”

Miss Arden developed the first travel-size beauty products, and was the first in the cosmetics business to train and send out a team of traveling demonstrators and saleswomen.

By the 1930s, Miss Arden had opened Red Door salons in the majority of the fashion capitals around the globe.

Contribution to industry:

In her salons and through her marketing campaigns, Elizabeth Arden stressed teaching women how to apply makeup, and pioneered such concepts as scientific formulation of cosmetics, beauty makeovers, and coordinating colors of eye, lip, and facial makeup.

Elizabeth Arden was largely responsible for establishing makeup as proper and appropriate — even necessary — for a ladylike image, when before makeup had often been associated with lower classes and such professions as prostitution. She targeted middle age and plain women for whom beauty products promised a youthful, beautiful image.

Business aspect:

In May 1912, although she usually avoided political causes, Arden joined a massive march of suffragettes through New York City. More than 15,000 women marched, all dressed in white, and all wearing bright red lipstick as a sign of courage and solidarity. Arden was reportedly motivated more by a desire to rub elbows with the society matrons in charge of the march (potential customers), than a real interest in women’s rights.

In summer of 1912, Arden traveled to Europe, where she studied cosmetic trends in Paris and London and collected product samples. In Paris, she made the startling discovery that French women were wearing mascara and eye shadow. Arden added eye makeup to the list of products she would work on when she returned to New York

Rivalry With Helena Rubinstein:

Although Arden seemed to have captured the market for cosmetics and skin care in New York, a new rival appeared on the scene in 1914. Helena Rubinstein, born in Poland in 1870, had made a name for herself in Australia and in London and Paris as a provider of high-quality skin-care products and services. Rubinstein, who preferred to be called “Madame,” had left Europe at the outbreak of World War I and sailed to New York.

CONTINUED SUCCESS DESPITE THE GREAT DEPRESSION!

With the help of her husband and sister, Arden opened salons in both Paris and London in the early 1920s. She was motivated not only by profit, but also a desire to infringe upon the territory of Madame Rubinstein.

Arden soon expanded her product line to include eye makeup, lipstick, and hair and bath products. She added exercise classes and diet instruction to her list of services. By the late 1920s, her company was earning more than two million dollars annually in the United States alone.

In 1929, however, it appeared that the Great Depression would have a negative effect on Arden’s profits. Remarkably, it did not. It seemed that most of Arden’s top customers — the wealthy — could not do without their facial products, even if they had been forced to give up many of their other luxuries.

WORLD WAR II

As the threat of a second world war loomed large, Arden stayed informed on the situation in Europe. She had planned ahead and opened salons in Central and South America in anticipation of losing her income in Paris and London.

Profits were not Arden’s only concern. She helped her employees who worked in occupied European countries to get back to the United States safely, and even sponsored some war refugees who had fled to the U.S. Arden also held evening classes for women who had taken on the jobs of the men who had left to fight in the war. The classes instructed women in diet and exercise, and gave advice on proper attire for the workplace.

WORKING UNTIL THE END

Elizabeth Arden never retired — neither from the cosmetics industry nor the horseracing business. She maintained her strong — if inflexible — style of leadership despite frequent bouts of illness in her later years and two minor strokes. Arden was awarded the Légion d’Honneur from the French government in 1962 for her many contributions to the cosmetics industry.

Elizabeth Arden died of complications following a stroke on October 18, 1966 at the age of 84.