Why did Helena Rubenstein withdraw from the UK?
At the outbreak of World War I, she and Titus moved to New York City, where she opened a salon in 1915, the forerunner of a chain throughout the country. This was the beginning of her vicious rivalry with the other great lady of the cosmetics industry, Elizabeth Arden, who was born Florence Nightingale Graham (1881–1966). (Arden, who had a predilection for everything pink, was the daughter of an extremely poor small farmer near Toronto.) Both Rubinstein and Arden, who died within 18 months of each other, were social climbers. And they were both keenly aware of effective marketing and luxurious packaging, the attraction of beauticians in neat uniforms, the value of celebrity endorsements, the perceived value of overpricing and the promotion of the pseudo-science of skincare. From 1917, Rubinstein took on the manufacturing and wholesale distribution of her products. The “Day of Beauty” in the various salons became a great success. The purported portrait of Rubinstein in her advertising w
