Elizabeth Arden was born in Canada on December 31, 1881 where her parents had emigrated from Cornwall in South West England.
She joined her brother in Manhattan where she worked for the E.R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company as a bookkeeper. While there, Arden spent hours in their lab, learning about skincare.
Her real name was Florence Nightingale Graham. She adopted the personal and business name of ‘Elizabeth Arden’ after opening her first beauty salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910.
Arden painted her first beauty salon red in order to stand out from the gray ones that were the standard at the time.
Elizabeth Arden married Thomas Lewis on November 29, 1915, at age 33, and automatically became an American citizen. Lewis was an advertising man who managed Arden's wholesale operation and together they expanded the business greatly, but constant work led to their divorce.
With her rival Helena Rubinstein, Arden made make-up acceptable to "respectable" American women, to whom Arden introduced eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick tinted to match their outfits.
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| Elizabeth Arden / photo by Alan Fisher. |
She joined her brother in Manhattan where she worked for the E.R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company as a bookkeeper. While there, Arden spent hours in their lab, learning about skincare.
Her real name was Florence Nightingale Graham. She adopted the personal and business name of ‘Elizabeth Arden’ after opening her first beauty salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910.
Arden painted her first beauty salon red in order to stand out from the gray ones that were the standard at the time.
Elizabeth Arden married Thomas Lewis on November 29, 1915, at age 33, and automatically became an American citizen. Lewis was an advertising man who managed Arden's wholesale operation and together they expanded the business greatly, but constant work led to their divorce.
With her rival Helena Rubinstein, Arden made make-up acceptable to "respectable" American women, to whom Arden introduced eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick tinted to match their outfits.
By 1929 she owned 150 upscale salons across the United States and Europe. She was the sole owner, and at the peak of her career, Arden was one of the wealthiest women in the world.
Convinced that pink was the most flattering color, she made it her trademark whether it be clothes, diamond rings or lipstick.
She was the first to sell travel-size beauty products and to incorporate a founder’s name into a product name.
Arden hated spectacles so much she wouldn’t employ anyone who wore them.
Elizabeth Arden operated Maine Chance Stables in Kentucky, where the 1947 Kentucky Derby winner was bred.
Elizabeth Arden operated Maine Chance Stables in Kentucky, where the 1947 Kentucky Derby winner was bred.
Arden died at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on October 18, 1966 aged 84; she was interred in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, under the name Elizabeth N. Graham.
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