A legendary innovator and a tireless entrepreneur, Miss Elizabeth Arden established the American beauty industry a century ago. Born Florence Nightingale Graham, she traveled from rural Canada to New York City, where she opened the first Red Door salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910.

Elizabeth Arden’s fundamental belief was that beauty should not be a veneer of makeup, but an intelligent cooperation between science and nature in order to develop a woman’s finest natural assets. She lived by her mantra, “To be beautiful is the birthright of every woman.”

Miss Arden created skin care products that benefited, not masked, the skin. She not only promoted her concept of Total Beauty, including diligent skincare, nutrition and fitness, but lived it prudently as she persistently sought to bring a scientific approach to skincare formulations.