cosmetics industry history-

Cosmetics Industry. Though the wearing of cosmetics goes as far back as ancient Egypt, the economic history of its business practices can be traced to the late eighteenth-century consumer revolution. In both England and France, the middle classes entered the market as consumers of luxury goods for the first time due to the availability of affordable imitations. Among these new purchases, cosmetics were an essential means of representing social position and wealth, especially mimicking the white face paint and rouge worn at court. Aristocratic courtiers, both men and women, traditionally bought their makeup from reputable master artisans. In France, the guild of perfumers controlled the production of perfumes and creams, regulating new innovations and outlawing any means of publicity.By the 1770s, however, independent sellers benefited from the new customer base, marketing their products through newspaper advertisements, money-back guarantees, and instructional pamphlets. Many cosmetic sellers were innovative entrepreneurs who profited from the toppling of traditional hierarchies and the expansion of consumer markets promoted by the Enlightenment and fully realized by the French Revolution of 1789. A number of prominent eighteenth-century beauty businesses survived the Revolution unscathed. Some, such as Maille (founded in 1747, maker of vinegar rouges) and Dissey & Piver (1774), are still around today.As cosmetics developed public visibility, so did concern over the ingredients they contained. Doctors warned that the addition of lead, hydroxide, arsenic, and other minerals to face paints could be deadly. Horror stories of death and disfigurement were common fare in England. In France, the Academy of Medicine attempted to control the sale of dangerous products by instituting a system of scientific examination for all cosmetic patent requests.Medical concerns were matched by growing criticisms against the application of visible makeup. By the end of the century, a new ethos of beauty had triumphed that emphasized hygiene, health, and naturalness. Men were no longer to pamper themselves and women were to do so with the goal of emphasizing their inherent traits rather than applying layers of paint. Water was the best cosmetic, and the roses of youth the best makeup. This shift forced cosmetic sellers to reevaluate their selling strategies. New products, such as creams for face whitening, hair loss potions, and toilette soaps, became popular. Old products were renamed and relabeled. For instance, rouge became “vegetable rouge” and was marketed as being able to mimic the first blush of youth without any visible artifice. This transformation of meanings and products allowed cosmetics sellers to survive in a period that emphasized unadulterated beauty.The majority of cosmetic manufacturers in the early nineteenth centuries were small family businesses. It was not until the 1830s that these artisanal workshops expanded into industrial enterprises. The development of distillation through vapor, the use of volatile solvents, and the manufacture of industrial glass allowed perfumers to sell their goods more widely and cheaply. Guerlain, established in 1828, had a bustling factory by the 1850s and a range of highly original flowery scents.As the historical base for flower growing, the city of Grasse in the south of France became the center of industrial production, boasting sixty-five perfumeries by 1866. Select French perfumers provided the courts of Europe with scents, while cosmetic manufacturers sent their wares as far as the Americas. Advertisers evoked the dominance of the national industry to represent French industrial and commercial progress. During the European quest for colonies in the nineteenth century, cosmetics became symbols of national pride, a process that often implied the transformation of exotic ingredients into European commodities. British imperialists may have learned to appreciate bathing from their Indian subjects, but the very English toilette soap was marketed as the ultimate tool for civilizing the natives.Europeans, specifically the French, dominated innovation and industrial production of cosmetics during the nineteenth century. In the United States, only a handful of companies had industrial capabilities. Most cosmetic products were fabricated in small batches and sold by itinerant hawkers. Women were central to the development of recognizable brand names. They opened beauty parlors, invented new products, and marketed their goods across America. Many of these women came from poor backgrounds, finding in the beauty trade the possibility of stable female employment.Women, however, faced discrimination in a business world that privileged the professional skills of male chemists and perfumers. African-American women had an even harder time finding shelf space for their products in white drugstores, often preferring door-to-door and catalog sales. Trained African-American beauticians, working for a specific brand, such as Annie Turnbo's Poro hair system, were at the vanguard of franchise and pyramid schemes.These small businesses focused on hair care, face creams, and bath products, few venturing into the disrespectable world of makeup or the sensual world of perfume. Rouge and face paint were associated with actresses and prostitutes, and many of these products still contained zinc oxide. Perfumes made with real animal or vegetable scents were seen as sexual enticements or extreme luxury products for the elite. Developments in chemistry and pharmaceutical research, however, made the compositions of cosmetics more reliable as well as cheaper by the end of the century.The discovery that organic matter could be synthesized in the 1860s led to the first synthetic scent in 1868 by Houbigant. Synthetic scents were much cheaper than organic ones, allowing for greater production and distribution. In 1906, the United States and France both passed laws to control cosmetic manufacture, prohibiting the use of lead and other harmful ingredients. Increasingly, leading cosmetics firms hired chemists to help develop new products and by 1933 adopted animal testing to guarantee safety.Developments in science may have made cosmetics safer and cheaper, but a radical change in women's roles was necessary before they garnered mass-market appeal. The late nineteenth century saw the development of department stores, national magazine advertisements, and photography, all focusing attention on the feminine quest for beauty. Advertising campaigns promoted the use of toilette soap, toothpaste, and shampoo.By the turn of the century, the high price of personal hygiene was an accepted aspect of consumerism. After World War I, even the use of makeup gained mass-market appeal as a result of radio and newspaper advertising campaigns. The New Woman, the flapper, and the screen star offered new models of femininity that represented liberation from past fetters, public display, and self-sufficiency. Makeup could ensure self-confidence and sex appeal while also functioning as a political statement: in a 1912 rally in New York City, suffragettes consciously adopted red lipstick as a sign of rebellion.As the image of the made-up woman became acceptable, many female-run businesses declined because of competition from larger corporations that could afford mass advertising, industrial production, and cheaper prices. The association of beauty treatments with African-American dignity and self-advancement promoted by Annie Turnbo's Poro line was replaced with advertisements that associated cosmetics with sexuality and whiteness.In addition to being unable to match the ploys of big business, many female entrepreneurs, both white and African American, did not survive the difficult years of the Great Depression. A few women who started small did thrive in this new competition, deploying their feminine identities as a key marketing ploy. Helena Rubinstein (1870–1965), a Polish immigrant to Australia, opened her first beauty salon in 1900 and by World War I had developed an international empire of luxurious beauty care. Elizabeth Arden (1884–1966), a Canadian who immigrated to New York City in 1908, built up a multinational company by the 1940s. Both women were from modest backgrounds, and focused on creating an exclusive, high-fashion image, while extending their brand as widely as possible to all women who could afford the high pricetag.Other successful companies targeted the larger market of middle- and working-class women. Working in Hollywood from 1908, the Russian immigrant Max Factor invented shades of makeup that looked natural under the camera lights. In great demand as the makeup artist tothe stars, Max Factor's reputation allowed his family to build up an empire of mass-market products distributed through supermarkets and drugstores. His pancake makeup and lipsticks advertised by the stars promised to turn everyday women into Joan Crawford or Bette Davis. Founded in 1886 as the California Perfume Company, Avon developed a national network of door-to-door saleswomen who gave it a firm hold on rural America. One of the few companies able to grow and prosper during the Great Depression, by the mid-1950s Avon had expanded into Latin America, and by 2000 it boasted selling networks in 140 countries. Avon promoted itself as a women's company with global concerns, aiming to empower local women through direct selling, create personal bonds between representatives and clients, and emphasize the role of beauty aids in building self-esteem.Europe and America were not the only places to develop international brands. In Japan, Shiseido, first established in 1872 as a Western-style pharmacy, proposed an alternative to the traditional chalk-white face and red lips. Its founder, Yushin Fukuhara, marketed Western-style compacts filled with skin-toned powders or colorful pastel shades. These powders were popular not only among aristocratic, westernized women but also among more traditional, middle-class women as well. Fukuhara's son Shinzo developed the brand, copying European-style packaging and promoting a liberated female figure. Today, Shiseido has become one of the world's most profitable cosmetics companies, rivaling L'Oréal and Revlon with its distinct hold on the Asian market.World War II brought with it shortages and belt-tightening. Governments debated the utility of cosmetic spending, while efficiency experts argued that makeup would enhance women's productivity in their new role as workers. For a small price, cosmetics fulfilled desires for scarce luxuries, thereby boosting morale for both men and women. After the war, the cosmetics industry continued to grow, with sales increasing from 1.2 billion to 2.9 billion dollars from 1955 to 1965 in the United States. Much of this increase was a result of an almost total acceptance of makeup as essential to proper femininity.Women were told that without makeup they would not be able to get or even keep a man. Lipsticks with evocative names and available in a dazzling array of shades were worn by 80 to 90 percent of American women by 1948. New product lines appeared to take advantage of the increased consumer affluence. While Estée Lauder (founded in 1946) sold high-end products in department stores, Revlon (1932) sold sex and fantasy in women's magazines and Cover Girl (1960) targeted the growing teenage market. Though aimed at different demographics of American women, none of these brands took into consideration African-American skin tone or beauty needs.By the 1960s, young politicized African Americans condemned face whiteners and hair straightners, adopting “black is beautiful” as a political cry for action. The white feminist movement also denounced lipstick and bras, burning these latter symbols of female oppression in a 1968 protest of the Miss America beauty pageant. The cosmetics industry was blamed for reinforcing the patriarchal capitalist economy and limiting women's role to that of an object.By the late 1970s, animal rights groups also began to target cosmetic companies for their use of vivisection, further turning the production of beauty into a political affair. The growing concern with natural, cruelty-free, politically correct products led to the creation of The Body Shop by Anita Roddick in 1976. Mass-market firms revised the tone of their advertisements, created new ethnic lines, and promoted female emancipation in an attempt to woo back customers. By the 1980s, makeup and cosmetics had regained their hold over women's wallets. Increasingly, women's-rights activists stressed the personal empowerment of self-fashioning, best represented by power-suited businesswomen on Wall Street and “lipstick lesbians” in the counterculture.In the 1990s, scientific promises helped sell new products, such as the fast-growing lines of fake-tanning lotions, anti-aging formulas, and cellulite creams. New ingredients, such as ceramides, alpha-hydroxy acids, and liposomes, not to mention botox treatments, intensified the quest for youth. Multinational cosmetic firms continued to grow by buying out smaller local cosmetics businesses, specifically targeting ethnic markets. Such companies as L'Oréal, Avon, and Revlon have also expanded rapidly into Latin America, Asia, and eastern Europe. With L'Oréal as the unquestioned leader, the top ten companies controlled 55 percent of worldwide cosmetics sales. With increasingly trendy packaging designs, celebrity endorsements, sophisticated advertising campaigns, and almost total social acceptance in the Western-influenced world, cosmetics seem to be an invincible economic force. See also Fashion Industry and Personal Services.