Born as Florence Nightingale Graham,
Elizabeth Arden grew up on a farm in rural Ontario in poverty. She immigrated
to New York in 1907 and worked as a clerk in a beauty shop. By 1910 she had
reinvented herself as Elizabeth Arden and opened her own salon on 5th
Avenue. Being one of the first highly successful women entrepreneurs, she began
to formulate, manufacture and sell her own cosmetic products which led to
expanding her business under the corporate name, “Elizabeth Arden” by 1914. Her
business eventually included more than a hundred Elizabeth Arden salons in the
United States and Europe. The company manufactured more than 300 cosmetic
products which sold for a premium price to maintain an image of exclusivity and
quality. Elizabeth Arden successes helped create the $150 billion global health
and beauty industry that exists today, also developing advertising and
marketing techniques that became part of the business landscape.
In her salons and through her marketing campaigns, Elizabeth
Arden focused teaching women how to apply makeup creating such concepts as
scientific formulation of cosmetics, beauty makeovers, and coordinating colors
of eye, lip, and facial makeup. Elizabeth Arden was responsible for founding
makeup as proper for a ladylike image, when at that time makeup had been viewed
as only used by lower classes and such professions such as prostitution. Her
products and services targeted middle age and plain women for who beauty
products guaranteed a youthful, beautiful image.
In 1934, Elizabeth Arden rehabilitated her
summer home in Mt. Vernon to the Maine Chance Beauty Spa, and later expanded
her line of spas nationally and internationally. She was the first to
introduce the destination spa concept to the United States. Arden Americanized
the idea by creating a women’s sanctuary not only for well-being, but for
beauty treatments, fitness, exercise and diet. Some of the nation’s most famous
and glamorous stars of the 40’s and 50’s were guests of the 1,200-acre estate including
singer Judy Garland, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and actress Ava Gardner.
The spa was also a major employer of local
people and affected the economy, tourism, culture of the region and helped
establish the resort industry that Maine is popular for. The spa offered its
clients treatment rooms, steam rooms, exercise rooms and recreation rooms with
several guest houses and a bathhouse. The property also included a chicken
farm, pig farm, vegetable and flower gardens and riding stables for guests to
access. In 1950, it cost $500 to get a six-week treatment at Maine Chance;
equal to a little over $4,000 in today’s money. Seventy years later Maine
Chance is gone, but its followers are present with similar destinations
continuing to develop up all over the country.
Spa brands have existed since Elizabeth
Arden opened her “Red Door” a century ago on Fifth Avenue, New York and over
the course of her lifetime, Arden launched over 100 Red Door day spas around
the world. Now 30 locations
remain open in the United States, claiming that “every guest who visit should
leave physically refreshed and mentally rejuvenated.” The concept of the Red
Door spas were founded on the principles that the essential glow of beauty must
come from within and the idea of enhancing your life through beauty, harmony
and well-being. The spas offer a range of treatments from facials, hair care,
waxing, massages and many other. The Red Door spas use innovative spa
treatments that combine powerful ingredients and cutting-edge techniques to
deliver outstanding results while feeling relaxed. Some of the treatments date back to Miss. Arden’s
classic beauty techniques like her beeswax formula that was promised to
moisturize the skin. Even though the legacy of the beauty trade is no longer
with us, Elizabeth Arden’s brilliance continues to live on through her successful
empire that paved the way for the rest of the industry.
Posted by: Kelly Odell
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