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War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry

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A fascinating dual biography of the women who founded today’s beauty industry
They were both born in the nineteenth century in humble circumstances–Helena Rubinstein in an orthodox Jewish household in Kraków, Poland, Elizabeth Arden on a farm outside Toronto. But by the 1930s, they were bitter rivals in New York, the rulers of dueling international beauty empires that would forever change the way women thought about cosmetics, salons, and wrinkles. This riveting biography brings these two celebrated women to life, revealing the ruthless drive and innovative business strategies that took each to the top. Along the way, it offers an intriguing look at their personal idiosyncrasies (Rubinstein collected art, Arden racehorses), their checkered marriages, and the rarefied social milieu in which they both traveled.

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

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About the author

Lindy Woodhead

5 books16 followers
Lindy Woodhead worked in international fashion public relations for over 25 years. During the late 1980s she spent two years as the first woman on Harvey Nichols' board of directors. Lindy retired from fashion in 2000 to concentrate on writing; her first book, War Paint (Virago), a biography of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, was published in 2003. She is a regular contributor to The Spectator and The Times Saturday Magazine. A Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, she is married with two sons and lives in southwest London and southwest France.

Source: http://www.profilebooks.com/lindy-woo...

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5 stars
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191 (37%)
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138 (27%)
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51 (10%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
Profile Image for Tristan Robin Blakeman.
199 reviews2 followers
September 1, 2018
I must admit I had no real specific or particular interest in these cosmetic empresses - I bought the book because I'm going to see the Broadway show and wanted to know more before I went to see it.

I haven't got even halfway through - but I'm finished. I'm just not interested.

The women are both business savvy, fashion-conscious, publicity-geared, and fabulously successful. And, as far as I can tell, neither is really a very nice person and reading about them and their immense success (no matter how long it took or how hard they worked for it) was - for me - a bit of a yawn.

The book was well researched, and Ms. Woodhead knows her way around adjectives - she describes the worlds these women inhabit very vividly. It's well written and thoughtful.

I can't really recommend it - it's not really a story I'm interested in reading about. But, it is well written, and if interested in the subject matter, these women are sure to enthrall other readers.
Profile Image for Renata.
2,649 reviews416 followers
April 19, 2018
I feel like the impulse that there's a story here is good, but this isn't an especially compellingly-written story despite all the juicy details buried in here. I picked this up on an impulse because I had seen the musical War Paint (also on an impulse) and thought I'd like to learn more. And I did! But this was kind of a slog and I wouldn't especially recommend it to anyone.
Profile Image for Lavinia C.
2 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2011
inspiring...women can rule the world if they're as mean as these two were.. :p
Profile Image for Julie.
720 reviews20 followers
February 5, 2021
I have had this on my reading list for a long time and though it was a long book, it was filled with wonderful details about the lives of these two women rivals in the cosmetics/beauty industry. Author Lindy Woodhead meticulously researched Rubenstein and Arden’s histories which included the beginnings of the beauty industry and their effects on it, their friendships with the rich and the famous and their rivals including Charles Revson. But she also she discussed the 20th century history’s effect on their businesses during the two world wars, Prohibition and the new trends that redefined the industry in the 50’s. The book ends with what happened to the industry in the early 60’s after their deaths. I found it fascinating.

December 27, 2022
Sinds het lezen van de serie de kleuren van schoonheid door Corina Bomann werd ik gefascineerd door Madame Helena Rubinstein en Elizabeth Arden, niet realiserend dat deze vrouwen echt bestonden. Ik vond het interessant om meer te lezen over beide persoonlijkheden en hoe zij in hun tijd eigenhandig een groot cosmetica merk hebben neergezet. Al is ook veel in het dikke boek lang niet even interessant en een beetje langdradig beschreven.
905 reviews8 followers
March 5, 2018
As much a cultural history as a biography. Lots of names and connections of famous people.
Profile Image for Joan.
599 reviews6 followers
November 13, 2019
A fascinating read for anyone with interests in fashion and beauty, the lives of leading businesswomen, history, advertising, art and publishing. Lindy Woodhead's dual biography of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden was clearly exhaustively researched and is thoroughly documented. It presents the facts of their lives, insights into their personalities, but most importantly, in my opinion, a remarkable look into consumer culture and the changing scene in the United States and throughout the world, from the very last of the 19th century, into the Edwardian Age, through World I, the Great Depression, World War II and onward into the 60s, when the book wraps up with the deaths of its subjects and their legacies.

Rubinstein and Arden were intense rivals, each attempting to capture the luxury cosmetic market for her own. They spent decades one-upping each other with their spas, new products, their personal acquisitions and, at times, the poaching of their staff members. I have to say I found myself rooting for Madame Rubinstein more often than not, but oddly enough, I don't recall ever using any of her products or seeing them among my mother's things. Long after Ms. Arden's death, I purchased some hand and body lotions from one of the successor companies that had control of her label and I became something of a devotee. I still have just a little of one of those lotions, and looking at the bottle, and knowing what I know now about her and her much earlier cosmetic and beauty lines, the item is very far from what Arden once represented. She would have been quite shocked at the plastic bottle, and what I recall as its moderate price, but I think she might have liked the scent...

Like many successful businesspeople, both Rubinstein and Arden came from humble backgrounds and embroidered some details of their pasts to their advantage – to further their success, and to bring them the lives they desired. Rubinstein became a renowned art collector, and Arden purchased racing horses and stables.

Their styles and personalities were completely different, and they moved in different circles. They both survived the devastation of two world wars and a worldwide depression, and thrived. They shared one trait – ambition, and the desire to be the best in their area of commerce.

They also had a common enemy – Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, or as Madame Rubinstein referred to him, the "nail man". Revson emerged as a formidable competitor, though his fortune was made in a different setting, the mass-market world of drugstores and and mid-market retailers. Their next biggest competition followed in the person of Esteé Lauder, who achieved her own success in the luxury markets Rubinstein and Arden had once led.

The Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden brands survive today as subsidiaries of large multinational corporations, but their namesakes are legends only, and not top of mind to today's consumers. War Paint, however, will inform readers of the influence their founders once had, and provide insights into the relatively recent history of their heyday.
Profile Image for Julia Taylor-Golbey.
8 reviews1 follower
March 31, 2012
One of the best books on marketing packaged as biography. Arden and Rubinstein strategically constructed sophisticated personal histories to distance themselves from humble beginnings before setting up shop as the original lipstick queens and what a great cat fight it was. Spanning the first half of the 20th century, they not only redefined beauty and the acceptance of cosmetics but they drove advertising, fitness campaigns and lifestyle marketing that now has become commonplace. They battled the Third Reich, J.Edgar, the FDA and each other to pave the way as powerful female CEOs but forgot one critical fact: mortality and the need for succession planning.
Profile Image for Rosa.
473 reviews14 followers
August 13, 2022
I first heard of this book back in 2017 when my best friend got us rush tickets to the Saturday matinee of the Broadway adaptation. As I cast my eye around the merch table on the way out of the theatre, I happened to see a copy of the book and a made a mental note to look for cheaper copies of it in the future (as I knew the price for it at the show would probably be much higher.)

I finally found a copy of this book via the e-library, Hoopla, and this is the first non-fiction book I've read on that platform. As to the book itself, I quite enjoyed it. The information flows well, even if we do backtrack a couple of years sometimes from one chapter to another. There is also more time given to talking about Helena Rubinstein than Elizabeth Arden; I don't know if this is because Woodhead found Rubinstein more fascinating or if she was just able to find a bit more documentation about/from Rubinstein's estate, but the narrative length is tilted in her favor, especially in the earlier years. (I can't blame Woodhead for this too much though; Rubinstein changed her own childhood narrative multiple times, and the differing stories she gave are absolutely fascinating. Her stories may not have been true, but she was a born storyteller.)

I really like the fact that Woodhead does not paint Rubinstein and Arden as particularly great people, but nor does she describe them as terrible monsters. Both of them were women who grew up with little money, who studied the work of those around them, took what they could from it, and then made cosmetic business empires out of it at a time when no one else had thought to do it. And they were tyrannical, hypocritical, judgmental workaholics. But they also could be very philanthropic and gave a lot to their extended family who could be ungrateful and occasionally took advantage of them. The stories told by friends, families, and employees of these women make it very clear that they were women to be looked up to, but that you needed to have a strong spine to work with them for very long. No wonder they decided to make a musical about these two women; they had a lot of character and drama tended to follow them around.

Also, for a person who knows little about the history of cosmetics and rarely even wears makeup, I found all of this absolutely fascinating. Because I had no point of reference for most of what I was reading, I was constantly googling images of the names and places Woodhead was mentioning. It fascinates me that makeup was just becoming an acceptable thing for ladies around the time my grandmother would have been looking to wear it, and that was just barely 100 years ago! Since it's common knowledge that makeup was popular in the times of the Egyptian empire and certain makeup trends were fashionable in the Renaissance and Early Modern period, it's easy to forget that the Victorian Era had made makeup into something trashy and that women would have to "take back" this trend for themselves. But reading about how Arden and Rubinstein led the charge for it was really engaging reading. Also, there's quite a bit about the history of marketing which was just starting to become a major thing starting in the 1920s (see Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which is all about consumerism), and cosmetics was at the forefront of the advertising boom.

And some of the small side anecdotes were absolutely hilarious. I mean, Helena's son Horace kidnapping a gangster and his girlfriend and then getting arrested for it and Helena's reaction to the whole thing? I can't remember if there was any reference to it in the Broadway musical, but I laughed like a hyena reading about it.

The only downside for me was caused by the method I had to use in order to read the book. When I usually read non-fiction, I always have one finger at the back of the book with the endnotes so that I can read the footnotes at the end of each chapter or when I come across a note of it in narrative. Because it's an e-book, I couldn't read any of the notes until the very end of the book (there were about 62 pages of them), and they were not formatted in a reader-friendly way. I had to skip reading the endnotes, which just leaves me feeling like I didn't actually read the whole book. I don't like that feeling.
Profile Image for Bmeyer.
390 reviews2 followers
April 29, 2020
Wow, to have lived Helena Rubinstein's life?! I came into this book having used Elizabeth Arden products, fantasized about spending a day in her spa, and loving make up in general so learning about how these two women shaped the skincare industry down to the very series of steps we use to care for our skin was a real treat.
It's obvious to me that Woodhead was more intrigued by the life Rubinstein lived, and I can't really blame her. Where Arden was very much focused on the American spa market, from the beginning Rubinstein hopped around the world and got into the nitty-gritty of creating skincare (including creating the first line of skincare for men). She rubbed shoulders with famous artists like Salvador Dali and Picasso. She held salons in Paris with Colette and Willy. Arden was personal friends with the wives of several Republican presidents and changed the way racing thoroughbreds are cared for. Arden may have also been a romantic asexual before there was a vocabulary for such a designation.
I will say it took some times for the story to land on the rivalry between Rubinstein and Arden. They may have loathed one another, but as I'm not sure they ever actually met this may have been a marketing stunt. They definitely avoided one another and pumped those who each other fired for information about their competitors product lines and ways of thinking, but I tend to think that's just business savvy? Also in relation to the discussion about Rubinstein leaving her children with her her husband and continuing to work through their adolescence, I felt Woodhead leaned heavily toward disapproval and censure. I was surprised, for a book written in 2004, to see that.
Overall a very interesting, in depth look at the two women. I am not at all surprised to learn a Broadway musical was inspired by it.
Profile Image for Ariadna73.
1,726 reviews115 followers
May 30, 2016
This book is a biography in parallel. It tells the story of both women at the same time. They lived during the same years and dedicated their lives to the same business. They achieved similar success and their lives were somewhat similar. They were business competitors, and they never met. Not once. They were rivals.

This is the book that I read:



The book opens with a quote from 1828 about how for the human being and instincts to be wealthy is not important if they don't rise above all the others to flaunt their wealth, and that the war on fashion is as bitter as a gladiator's competition. All of that just to make the statement of being of better status than all the other human counterparts.

This book is plenty of solid and juicy information about the lives of the two women. It is well written, it is entertaining; and I would take it with me for a not very short flight. In the following paragraphs, I will post some examples of the ideas in the book, and the way the author delivered them.

Here is a page where the author explains the similarities in both lives. How they were not beautiful themselves, and how they both married twice; the second time around with aristocrats that would give them the noble titles they were born without:



Here is a page that shows how Rubinstein had a culture of overpricing her products and services. She had a very good notion of her target customer, and it was a wealthy woman, who will never buy something inexpensive. So, she put very high price tags for everything she sold:




Not surprisingly, Rubinstein and Arden were workaholics. With Helena being so thrifty and conscious of money, that she personally signed each and every expense that her company did. However, she was also a compulsive shopper, and merchants already knew her so they worked up the prices before she entered their stores, and then offered here "bargains" to make her happy. She was absolutely inconsiderate of the time and money that belonged to the other people. She was only concerned and aware about hers:



Here are some pictures of Mme Rubinstein. She was not beautiful at all, but she was extremely aware that looks were everything in her business, so she tried her best to show an extremely wealthy and serious image in all the photos that were published of her. She also made all her pictures be retouched to offer the most flattering image she could:



Here are some pictures of Elizabeth Arden. She was not a great beauty, but she had the best minks, jewels, and photographs that money could buy, so she looked OK in the pictures that are left of her:



The author also gives us pictures of the beauty shops and the different treatments that were offered in that time. It is amazing how these women could invent something that we all take for granted these times:



To own a business has a lot of implications. The women also had to deal with marketing companies, different sales campaigns and publicity. Here are some examples of their ideas:



This is an example of the standard stands that each used to sell their products. They were strikingly similar even when they never sat down to share any of their thoughts:



Here is a little taste of the high social and cultural interactions that the women maintained. Arts, nobility, culture, entertainment, haute couture, etc:




And here some curious facts on the use of vibrators and other sex toys as beauty treatments. This book is full of fun facts like this one:



In summary, I loved this book, the way it was written, and the insight in the lives of two very interesting entrepreneur women of the past century.

I hoped you liked this entry. If you feel like viewing more of the books I read, you are welcome to visit my blog: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com
Profile Image for Barb.
432 reviews
June 27, 2019
The author states in the Acknowledgements that" it was never going to be an easy task to intertwine two lives.." The book was structured chronologically, but the book jumped between Madame Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden with very little warning. I had to go back to the beginning of paragraphs to make sure I knew which woman was being discussed.
This book is very well researched and gives more history than just these two women. The reader learns about the culture and society of the early 1900's. It also gives a detailed history of the business of cosmetics and all the players involved.
Rubinstein and Arden were remarkable women at a time when men domineered the world of business. The two women never met, yet were archenemies. They were a lot alike. Both lied about their age and their childhood. They embellished their lives so they appeared more important to high society. They were demanding bosses and had difficult relationships.
63 reviews8 followers
July 4, 2017
From start to finish, this book was a thrilling look at the two women who, more than any others, defined the beauty industry for generations. At points, there is almost a novel feel to the book, and Lindy Woodhead is amazing at spinning a story. Richly sourced and detailed, there is enough here for those who are longtime fashion buffs or, like me, new to books about cosmetics. The stories of both Miss Arden and Madame Rubinstein are rich and interesting, and I can absolutely see why this has been made into both a documentary and a rich Broadway production.

Highly recommend!
95 reviews
June 17, 2017
I gave up on it about a third of the way through. I think if you are in that business the details would be great. For the casual reader, I was hoping for more personal discussions. Outside of the fact that they both worked long hours and didn't like the same life their husbands had, there wasn't much else about them that interested me. Lots of references to individuals of that era--many who meant little to nothing to me.

Profile Image for Bill.
516 reviews2 followers
August 11, 2018
Arden and Rubenstein ran the cosmetic industry for the first half of the twentieth century. The were both larger than life figures and knew everyone worth knowing. The book is detailed and gossipy. They both thought they were immortal. They convinced everyone around them they were immortal. Their deaths shocked everyone. A half century later both their product lines are still available, perhaps they were immortal.
Profile Image for Melinda Elizabeth.
1,148 reviews11 followers
August 6, 2023
This was a tome that took me a while to get through (sometimes the case with bios!). It was well researched and thorough which really gave you a glimpse into the early days of commercial cosmetics. There was lots of things to look up and look at, which is part of the reason why it took me so long to finish! Both women were strong and smart, pushing forward an industry which is absolutely commendable. Really enjoyed this.
Profile Image for Colleen Grier.
381 reviews
July 26, 2017
Fabulous nonfiction on the birth of the Cosmetics industry and the two pillars who built it! Strong business women that you have rarely heard of in the echelons of industry but their cosmetics spawned advertising,spa industry, branding, cosmetic bottling and packaging. Most interesting was their hobbies and philanthropic works! A long read but worth it.
July 26, 2017
Fascinating

This stunning look into the women who created a multi billion dollar industry is amazing. Drive, focus, and hard headedness gave them success; but their genius goes far deeper. I wouldn't want to work for them--much less be a member of their families. Nevertheless, from this distance, "Madame" and "Miss Arden" are titans of well deserved success.
537 reviews
August 25, 2018
You have to be interested in glamour and make-up for this one. I'm about as far away from that as can be, so this was a tedious read for me (for book group). I'm not interested in make-up, fashion, perfume, wealthy people's doings, name dropping, greedy people, unkind people, so this completely turned me off.
Profile Image for Shelley.
14 reviews1 follower
September 1, 2018
This book was very well researched and written. Lindy Woodhead knows her subjects well and it showed as she wrote of the rivalry and dislike between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, two formidable women who both started with nothing except a beauty cream with which they went on to build global empires. A very good read.
123 reviews
September 15, 2019
An intriguing insight in to the birth of the modern beauty industry via the lives and businesses of two dynamic women.

Well researched. A little confusing in places with paragraphs switching between the two women and it not always being entirely clear who was being referred to. Dragged a little towards the end. Glad to have read but would not read again.
Profile Image for Robert Day.
Author 5 books35 followers
August 24, 2021
A boring study of Lizzy Arden and Helly Rubinstein.

I have seldom been so bored whilst reading a book. Great research but a tiresome result.

It might well he a definitive biography of these women, but I was often bored to my core whilst reading it.

Don't read it. Just go and get a massage instead. Maybe get some face cream too.
August 19, 2017
Outstanding Life Story of Two Female Cosmetic Icons

Excellent, engaging read, thought provoking, fascinating biography of two driven female business women of the early to mid 20th century.
Profile Image for H.J. Moat.
Author 1 book5 followers
May 30, 2018
I first heard of this book because it was made into a musical starring Patti Lupone. Within 2 chapters I was astounded they'd managed to squeeze a juicy enough narrative out of it to make a compelling production (given the reviews I can't be sure they did). It's not that this book is boring - far from it - it's just that it's more of a drip-feed spanning eight decades. There is no clear narrative. It's like Elizabeth did this and then Helena did this. The 2 of them never even met as far as I can tell.
That said, it's very interesting to anyone interested in a) the beauty industry and b) anyone interested in culture and high society in New York and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Since I fall into both those categories it was a fascinating read. It wasn't a book I was reading every time I had a free minute (like say, The Rules Of Civility or a Jane Austen), but I always felt happy and well-informed when I did pick it up and read a chapter. For me the most interesting bits were not the 'and then Helena released this cream and Elizabeth retaliated by releasing this cream', but the bits about their wider circles - Helena getting painted by Picasso, and Elizabeth's friendship with the famous cafe society power lesbian Bessie Marbury.
What I will say is that I can't fault Lindy Woodhead's prose, she is such a good writer - simple and easy to read yet with a sense of romance and personality.
Profile Image for Nat Parsons.
20 reviews
August 9, 2019
Incredibly researched - gives a full and enthralling look at these amazing women's characters and drive.
If you're not interested in make-up, read it for the business ethic!
It's long but incredibly rewarding. Loved it.
32 reviews2 followers
October 28, 2019
Interesting, but poorly written. I think all of the detail would have been fine if it had been presented better, instead of jumping from subject to subject within a paragraph, but as it was it took way too long to get through.
Profile Image for Melinda.
36 reviews2 followers
February 10, 2022
This book was pick for book club. This is the first time in many years I haven’t finished a book. I gave up around page 116. I’m sure there is a good story here, but it’s buried in way too many little details that drag down the story.
685 reviews4 followers
May 22, 2017
Interesting women. Interesting stories. I gave up about half-way through, only because I don't think I'm interested enough in the world of make-up to spend the time to finish the book.
Profile Image for Phyllis.
536 reviews
July 6, 2017
A rather laborious read...parts were very interesting, especially the New York glitterati of the early 20th century. But the writing was full of minutiae and rather tedious. I'm so glad I finished!
Profile Image for Kathryn.
1,001 reviews
July 16, 2017
Tough to read after the musical version of this. But still interesting.
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