Arden was born
Florence Nightingale Graham in
Woodbridge,
Ontario, where she lived until she was twenty-four years old. In
1909 Florence Nightingale Graham dropped out of nursing school in
Toronto.
She joined her elder brother in
New York City, working briefly as a
bookkeeper for the
E.R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company. While there, she spent hours in their lab, learning about skincare. She then worked - again briefly - for Eleanor Adair, an early beauty culturist, as a "treatment girl."
Still in
1909, Arden formed a partnership with Elizabeth Hubbard, another culturist. When the partnership dissolved, she
coined the business name "Elizabeth Arden" from her former partner and from
Tennyson's poem "
Enoch Arden."
In
1912, Arden travelled to
France to learn beauty and facial
massage techniques used in the
Paris beauty salons. She returned with a collection of
rouges and tinted powders she had created. In an era when it was only acceptable for stage performers to wear
makeup, Arden introduced modern eye makeup to North America. She also introduced the concept of the "makeover" in her salons.
Arden collaborated with A. Fabian Swanson, a chemist, to create a "fluffy" face cream. The success of the cream, called Venetian Cream Amoretta, and corresponding lotion, named
Arden Skin Tonic, led to a long-lasting business relationship. This revolutionized
cosmetics, bringing a scientific approach to formulations.
In
1915 she married Thomas J. Lewis, a banker, thus becoming an American citizen. The same year she began international operations and started opening salons across the world. By the end of 1930's, it was said that "There are only three American names that are known in every corner of the globe:
Singer sewing machines,
Coca Cola, and Elizabeth Arden." A fact proved by
Heinrich Harrer in his book
Seven Years in Tibet, where he stated that it's possible to buy Arden's product even in Tibet.
During
World War II, Arden recognized the changing needs of the
American woman entering the work world. She showed women how to apply makeup and dress appropriately for careers outside the home. She created a lipstick called Montezuma Red, for the women in the
armed forces that would match the red on their uniforms.
Arden's drive for success cost her
marriage to Lewis. They divorced in
1934. A second marriage to a
Russian prince only lasted 13 months.
Although most of her commercial success was in cosmetics, she also pioneered restorative
musical exercises based on
yoga. She started a fashion business in
1943 with notable designers like Charles James and
Oscar de la Renta on staff. She was on the cover of the May 6, 1946 issue of
Time magazine.
Arden is also notable for creating foundations that matched a person's skin tone; creating the idea of the "Total Look" in which
lip,
cheek, and
fingernail colors matched or coordinated; and she was the first to make a cosmetics commercial shown in
movie houses.
She would use the name Maine Chance for her exclusive resort and health spa on Long Pond in
Mount Vernon,
Maine, catering to such clientele as
Mamie Eisenhower. At one time, the resort and its operating farm produced much of the food for the spa and was a significant employer in the town. Arden used the name
Maine Chance Farm for her
thoroughbred horse racing and breeding operation in
Lexington, Kentucky. In 1931 she had bought her first horse at the Fasig-Tipton sales at the
Saratoga Race Course and in the nineteen forties and fifties she built Maine Chance Farm into a major force in American Thoroughbred horse racing. In 1945, Star Pilot and Beaugay were the
Eclipse Award colt and
filly champions, and her stable was the leading money-winner in the United States. In 1947 her colt
Jet Pilot, trained and ridden by future
Hall of Famers Tom Smith and
Eric Guerin won the
Kentucky Derby. In 1948, she also acquired the great
filly Busher as a broodmare from a spectacular auction conducted by
Louis B. Mayer. Busher was not only inducted into the
Hall of Fame, she ranked #40 in
Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century. In 1954, her filly "Fascinator," won the
Kentucky Oaks. For her contribution to the racing industry, in 2003 Elizabeth Arden Graham was posthumously inducted into the
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
In recognition of her contribution to the cosmetic industry, she was awarded the
Légion d'Honneur by the French government in 1962. She died in
New York City in
1966 and was interred in the
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in
Sleepy Hollow, New York under the name Elizabeth N. Graham. Her estate was worth $30 to $40 million (US) and she had over a hundred salons worldwide.
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