Flash Back Friday - Beauty Through the Ages

1900-1920

  

Makeup during the beginning of the 20^th century was minimalist.  Magazines with pictures drawn from fashion plates were highly sought after.

Pale skin was associated with the working class because people had tans from working outside. 

There weren’t many makeup companies available to the masses for a couple of reasons,  the inability to communicate with a large area other than telegraphs, telephone or land mail and the lack of techniques used to mine and  mass produce the ingredient for the cosmetic.    

Women used homemade remedies such as rice powder for the face, beet juice as a lip stain, pinched cheeks and lemon juice to lighten the skin. 

At the turn of the century the UK was slowly moving away from the Victorian era and a great many things had started to change whilst other things clung on in vengeance.

Women were very aware of their hair as a fashion statement and it was also becoming an important part of a female’s appearance, her hair was something she treasured.

The fashion for hair in the 1900’s would be large masses of ringlets which was particularly complementary for women with paler complexions, also very popular.

Women were experimenting at home with making their own hair care products with ingredients such as petroleum jelly, castor oil and gallic acid which were interesting ingredients!

The first permanent waving or curling machine was founded by Charles Nestle in 1905.

Pretty Scary if you ask me!

A French chemist known as Eugene Schueller created Aureole which was one of the first ever hair colours on the market and later the brand changed to the well known L’Oreal which we know today.

It was still widely frowned upon for a woman to dye her hair although many women still did.

Professional hairdressing was relatively expensive and women on budgets would even formulate their own hair dye from herbs, rust and other odd ingredients which probably did not smell great.

In the 1900’s before L’Oreal re-branded to its name-sake today it was also once known as “The French Harmless Hair Coloring Company.”

In the modern history of skin care, emphasis has been on science-based skin care methods. In the early 1900s, beauty companies like L'Oreal, Max Factor, Maybelline and Elizabeth Arden came on the scene. These companies produced effective skin care products, which the consumers found helpful for removing skin flaws. Evidently, the beauty industry boomed at the turn of the century.

  Elizabeth Arden

Elizabeth Arden’s real name was Florence Nightingale Graham.  How, have I never heard this? Imagine if she had never changed her name? Florence Nightingale 8 hr cream!!! Maybe not!

 She changed her name to Elizabeth Arden,  in the early 1900s. Elizabeth came from her first business partner, Elizabeth Hubbard and the name Arden from a poem by Alfred Tennyson, called Enoch Arden. 

She worked in several salons as a treatment girl until she formed her partnership with  Elizabeth Hubbard, another, beauty culturist in 1905.

She opened up her first beauty salon in New York in 1907.  It was on 5th avenue and it had a red door, to get more attention from passers by. (Red door and 5th avenue have both been used as names for some of the Arden fragrances)

In 1912, she traveled to France to  further her education of facial massages, beauty techniques, and cosmetic creams

 Max Factor

Max Factor was  founded during 1909 by Maksymilian Faktorowicz after imigrating to the America in 1904.

During the early years of movie-making, greasepaint in stick form, although the accepted make-up for use on the stage, could not be applied thinly enough, nor were the colours appropriate to work satisfactorily on the screen. Factor began experimenting with various compounds in an effort to develop a suitable make-up for the new film medium. 

By 1914 he had perfected the first cosmetic specifically created for motion picture use — a thinner greasepaint in cream form, packaged in a jar, and created in 12 precisely-graduated shades. Unlike theatrical cosmetics, it would not crack or cake. It was worn for the first time by actor Henry B. Walthall, who served as the model for screen tests.

With this major achievement to his credit, Max Factor became the authority on cosmetics. Soon, movie stars were eager to sample the "flexible greasepaint".

In the early years of the business Factor personally applied his products to actors and actresses. He developed a reputation for being able to customize makeup to present actors and actresses in the best possible light on screen. 

In 1918 Max Factor completed development of his Color Harmony range of face powder which due to its wide range of shades allowed him to customize and provide more consistent make-up for each individual actor or actress. 

 Time line of  Cosmetics 1900-1920

1900	Eleanor Adair establishes salon in London Charles Pfizer & Company Inc. founded. Beiersdor branch established in London.
1901	Gillette Company formed in Boston.
1902
1903	Helena Rubinstein opens first salon in Melbourne.
1904	Coty founded in Paris by François Spoturno.
1905	Yardley opens a wholesale outlet in Australia. Pompeian Manufacturing Company incorporated.
1906	Pure Food and Drugs Act (US) passed.
1907	Helena Rubinstein Pty. Ltd. founded. Helena Rubinstein opens salon in Sydney. Lehn & Fink acquires A.S. Hinds Company, makers of Hinds’ Honey and Almond Cream. American Cyanamid founded by Frank Washburn. Harriet Hubbard Ayer Company established by Vincent Benjamin Thomas.
1908	Coty opens first shop in Paris. Coty moves business centre to Suresnes. Helena Rubinstein opens London and New Zealand salons. William R. Warner Company acquired by Henry and Gustavus A. Pfeiffer & Company. Coty establishes Paris factory.
1909	Helena Rubinstein opens Paris salon. Florence Graham and Elizabeth Hubbard open salon in New York. Société Française des Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux founded by Eugène Schueller. Max Factor & Company founded by Maximilian Faktorowicz (Max Factor). Madame Walker starts business selling hair treatments (US). California Perfume Company moves headquarters to New York. Orosdi and Wertheimer open ‘Galleries Lafayette’ (Paris).

	1910	Coty opens London and Moscow subsidiaries. Elizabeth Arden opens her first salon in New York. Charles Ritz opens a hairdressing business in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York. Bourjois Inc. established in the United States.
	1911	Beiersdorf purchases patent for Eucerit skin cream. Lashbrow Laboratories started by Benjamin Ansehl (US). Cutex founded by Northrop Warren Company. Chesebrough Manufacturing Company becomes an independent entity after breakup of Standard Oil.
	1912	Coty opens in New York. Rights to Chapstick sold to John Morton who establishes the Morton Manufacturing Corporation to market it.
	1913	House of Bourjois opens in US. Houbigant starts business in New York. Dorin cosmetics introduced to England and America from Paris.
	1914	Elizabeth Arden opens second salon in Washington, D.C. Department stores begin to stock Arden Venetian line. Pears acquired by Lever Brothers. Helena Rubinstein begins wholesaling in the US. Guerlain opens second Paris store (First opened in 1828).
	1915	Helena Rubinstein opens New York salon. T.L. Williams founds Maybell Laboratories (Maybelline).
	1916	B. J. Johnson incorporates and becomes Palmolive. Richard Hudnut acquired by William R. Warner & Co (i.e. Pfeiffer). Armand Company incorporated under the leadership of Carl Weeks (US). Elizabeth Arden opens laboratory. Dorothy Gray opens her first salon in New York.
	1917	George Westmore introduces the first make-up department presence on a Hollywood lot at Selig Studio. Helena Rubinstein opens salons in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, and Toronto. Lever Brothers acquires Pears Soap.
	1918	Morny begin to export cosmetics (UK).
	1919	Charles Jundt buys the hairdressing salon at the Ritz-Carlton and Ritz trademark to start what will become Charles of the Ritz. Bourjois opens London office.