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Elizabeth Arden was a woman ahead of her
time - a true pioneer in the way she approached life and
business, not to mention the field of beauty. She was a
creative visionary and an equally smart businesswoman who had
the drive to make her dreams come true.
Elizabeth
Arden was originally named Florence Nightingale Graham, born
in Canada in 1878. She lost her mother at the age of 6 and
grew up with her father, sisters and brother. As she grew up,
she explored nursing school and various other jobs in Toronto.
However, she always felt a certain unrest and knew that there
was something bigger that she must do with her life.
From early on, Florence was a visionary. As a nurse,
she foresaw burn creams and skin salves not just as medicine,
but with the potential to be beauty creams and lotions. She
began to take over her kitchen at home as a laboratory,
experimenting with various ingredients, relentless in her
search for the perfect beauty cream. At one point, the
neighbors were convinced that the terrible odors coming from
the house was the smell of rotten eggs being cooked and that
the family was too poor to buy fresh food!
Florence
faced many initial failures, and even had to face
discouragement from people around her, including her family.
Her father encouraged her to give up and get married - as
proper young women did in the early 1900's. However, Florence
always kept in sight her dream - her business plan of building
a cosmetics corporation.
At age 30, Florence decided
to go to New York. Filled with hope and expectation, when she
arrived in New York, it was love at first sight -- she
devoured the culture, sights, and energy of the city. She
befriended a chemist, and began her research into the future
of "beauty cream," an unknown concept until then; at the same
time, she also worked at a beauty parlor and mastered the art
of the facial massage, under the tutelage of the one of the
premier beauty gurus of the time.
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