The Powder and the Glory
Meet Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, the two women responsible for the cosmetics industry, as it exists today. Helena Rubinstein immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, by way of Australia, and starting with nothing, created the $150 billion dollar health and beauty industry.
Elizabeth Arden came to the United States from Canada and became involved in the same business. The two rivals never met, but lived parallel lives, turning cosmetics into respectable, necessary items, while becoming household names, cultural icons and examples of female corporate magnates in an age of male dominance.