On this date in 1878, 1881 or 1884 (depending on which source you’re looking at) Elizabeth Arden, cosmetics entrepreneur, was born. She founded Elizabeth Arden, Inc. which popularised make up for ordinary women, when up to that point, only prostitutes used it. Ten facts about her:
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She was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, one of five children. Her parents had immigrated to Canada from Cornwall, United Kingdom, in the 1870s. The family lived on a farm and weren’t well off. Her birth name was Florence Nightingale Graham, because her mother very much admired the nursing pioneer.
So where did the name Elizabeth Arden come from? Elizabeth came from a woman named Elizabeth Hubbard, with whom Florence formed a short-lived business partnership in 1909. They got as far as getting salon signs printed with Elizabeth’s name on before they parted company. Florence used them so she wouldn’t have to spend money on new signs. Also, she didn’t think the name Florence had the right vibe for a beauty salon. Arden was either from the name of a nearby farm, or her favourite poem, Enoch Arden, again, depending on which source you look at.
At first, she did intend to follow the profession of her namesake, perhaps a tribute to her mother, who died when she was 6. She soon worked out that nursing was not for her and dropped out of nursing school. She found work as a bank teller and as a receptionist for a company that made athletic supports before moving to New York to work for Eleanor Adair, who ran a chain of elite beauty parlours. This was where she learned the scientific approach to skin care.
Elizabeth Arden’s first salon was called the Red Door, a name which has remained synonymous with her brand ever since. It was located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The door was painted bright Red to draw attention to it. She also branded it as a “salon”, a relatively new term in beauty, rather than “parlour” in an attempt to attract high class customers.
There is a story that on a march for women’s rights, Arden gave out red Lipsticks to the marchers as a sign of solidarity. There is, however, no concrete evidence that this happened.
She was married twice. Her first husband was Thomas Jenkins Lewis, a banker who would help build her business empire. They were married for 19 years. Then she divorced him and he went to work for her rival, Helena Rubinstein. Her second marriage was to a member of the Russian royal family, Prince Michael Evlanov. Legend has it that she married him during her lunch hour. The marriage lasted 13 months before, like her first, it ended in divorce.
Arden’s other passion was racehorses. She bought thoroughbred racehorses and had some success. Her Horse, Jet Pilot, won the Kentucky Derby and her stables earned $4.7 million in prize money. The horses also helped inspire one of her best known products, Eight Hour Cream. It started as a salve for horses. One day, one of her customers said she’d used it on her son’s grazed knee which had healed up in eight hours.
She was a very demanding person to work for. When recruiting, she said "I only want people around me who can do the impossible." She once stopped production on an entire cosmetics line because the colour of the packaging wasn’t quite right.
In 1946 she became the first businesswoman to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. In 1962, she was given the Royal Warrant to supply make up to Queen Elizabeth II. "There's only one Elizabeth like me," she would say later, "and that's the Queen." In the same year, the French government awarded Arden the Légion d'Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to the cosmetics industry.
She left an estate of more than $50 million, which included $1 million in jewellery and a castle in Ireland.
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