Perfume Passage Foundation is dedicated to preserving the history, beauty, and artistry of perfume bottles, compacts, ephemera and related vanity items. The Foundation seeks to educate and inspire visitors by illuminating the connection between perfume and the human experience.
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Beauty is only skin deep!
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Cosmetics have a fascinating history, as beauty ideals have changed dramatically over the last few centuries.
The word cosmetic is derived from the Greek word kosmein, which means to decorate or to adorn. When the ancient Egyptian tombs were excavated, archaeologists discovered Kohl containers, some made of ivory, bone and wood. Kohl was a black mineral used to embellish eye lashes and eye lids. In addition to a cosmetic that was applied with a spoon or stick, kohl could protect from insects that caused eye diseases as well as shielding eyes from the hot desert sun.
Bactrian cosmetic dish carved from schist with a sage hue. Broad dish bears 8 petite receptacles within floral-form arms that radiate off the deep basin walls and form the periphery. 2500 BCE
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Bactrian bronze unguentarium with bull stopper 2500 to 2250 BCE
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Bronze cosmetic vessel, 1500 BCE,
Canan (ancient near east)
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While cosmetics and fragrance evolved since ancient times, the evolution of beauty products on display at Perfume Passage, allows us to preserve this history through the stories of these vintage items and their manufacturers.
In the 18th century, many upper class women had dressing cases that included their homemade cosmetics, dyes, false hair and lotions.
Men and women wore bits of gummed silk called patches on their faces. These covered blemishes but were also a decoration. Some patches were small star, animal or ship designs. Men could even indicate their political allegiance by which side of his face he wore his patch.
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18th century face patches
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Illustrating the beauty trends of 18th century France and explaining the secret meaning behind the placement of beauty spots. Courtesy of Trinity Mitchell
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Doctors frequently carried canes which, when tapped on the floor, released a perfumed disinfectant through a perforated lid from the cane’s top, hopefully safeguarding the doctor from disease.
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In the 19th century, the use of cosmetics declined in the US. Soaps were used as well as homemade hand lotions.
Many men thought cosmetics were effeminate and stopped powdering their wigs and wearing patches. Hair products were still acceptable as the wealthy liberally used macassar oil and even animal grease.
In the 1860s, it was discovered that zinc oxide provided an excellent base for face powder. It was safe, held its color and was inexpensive.
Between 1880 and 1900, the mark of a true lady was her natural untouched appearance. Society believed that only actresses and prostitutes wore makeup.
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While our obsession with a youthful appearance began centuries ago, focusing on how the beauty industry developed into the one we recognize today, begins with the women who made it happen at the turn of the century and early 1900s.
Studying the nearly $100 billion cosmetics industry helps us to learn and understand more about history and what was happening in the world. Cosmetics really are a gateway into the past as well as our future.
Even though public use of cosmetics was still frowned upon in the late 1880s and early 1900s, the sight of women using makeup in public was becoming more common.
More than ever before, women – especially young women – wanted to have their essential cosmetics available any time they needed to use them. This demand coincided with the increasing manufacture of ladies compacts that included face powder, rouge and lipsticks.
The changing times allowed courageous women to establish businesses that provided a variety of beauty products, many were homemade.
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A timeline of the decades and happenings in the world of beauty help us understand that the belief that health, hygiene and beauty are all connected in some way. Manufacturers have always claimed that their products we should use not only enhance our beauty, but they also improved our health. Over the past 100 years, these claims are still used in advertising and promoting products--hair dye to give us healthy hair, makeup to make our skin healthy, lotions to smooth our skin and scented products to protect us from disease.
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Entrepreneurs began to produce their own cosmetic products that promised to provide the “natural” look for their customers. Some of these new companies were small, female-owned businesses. They typically used a sales agent system for distributing their products, allowing women to earn money independently. The California Perfume Company, later rebranded as Avon, successfully used this business model.
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California Perfume Company
trademark seal, above.
An early laboratory based in
a kitchen, below.
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A traveling saleswoman in the early days of
California Perfume Company.
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Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1849-1903) was an American cosmetics entrepreneur and journalist during the second half of the nineteenth century.
She was a Chicago socialite. She became famous for initiating the first cosmetic company in the US and for fighting to maintain her business against male competitors. She set the stage for later female cosmetic moguls.
In 1886, she launched Recamier Toilet Preparations, Inc., which she managed and marketed by incorporating her own name on the label and writing strategic, innovative advertising copy. She used her family name and crest on her products. People of her class were appalled at such indiscretions, but Harriet understood that it actually encouraged women who aspired to a higher social status to purchase her products. Her products included creams, balms, scents, brushes and soaps which brought in over one million dollars a year. She used much of her earnings for interesting advertisements and paid endorsements by famous entertainers.
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As the Victorian era was ending, the "pale look" was the rage and women applied lemon juice as a face tonic. The more daring women created cosmetics from household and pharmacy products. Noticeable makeup was reserved for stage actresses and prostitutes.
In the early 1900s Sarah Breedlove developed and promoted a line of beauty and hair care products for black women through her Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She marketed herself as an independent hairdresser and retailer of cosmetic creams and her business was headquartered in Indianapolis in 1910.
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Max Factor, who had opened his salon in Los Angeles in 1909, was making a name for himself with his work in Hollywood. He helped create the on-screen looks of many female actresses including Theda Bara's heavily kohled eyes.
Theda Bara was a popular actress of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. She earned "The Vamp" nickname from the femme fatale roles she played. Bara made more than 40 films between 1914 and 1926, never appearing in a sound film.
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Florence Nightingale Graham (1881-1966), known as Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded and built a cosmetics empire that began in 1910. By 1929, she owned approximately 150 salons in Europe and the US and her nearly 1,000 products were sold in 22 countries.
Arden taught women how to apply makeup, provide beauty makeovers and introduced the concept of coordinating colors of eye, lip and facial products.
She promoted makeup as proper and appropriate, even necessary, for a ladylike image, and that it wasn't only for actresses and prostitutes. She also targeted middle age and plain women, promising a youthful beautiful image if they used her products.
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At the outbreak of World War I, Helena Rubinstein moved to New York from Paris, where she opened a cosmetics salon in 1915. She was a Polish-American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder of Helena Rubinstein Inc. and became one of the world's wealthiest women.
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Helena Rubinstein photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1930 for a magazine for one of
Conde Nast's publications. This photo is displayed at Perfume Passage.
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Her company effectively marketed and provided luxurious packaging for her products. She was aware of the value of using celebrity endorsements, overpricing products and promoting the pseudoscience of skincare. The "Day of Beauty" in her various salons became a great success.
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Dorothy Gray was born Dorothy Cloudman in Gorham, Maine where she grew up on a farm. After moving to New York she worked for Elizabeth Arden as a treatment girl before opening her own salon in New York in 1916.
Until Revlon, Inc. appeared on the scene, Dorothy Gray was one of the three most successful cosmetic companies in the US, the others being Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, both of whom, like Dorothy Gray, had strong personalities.
The success of the company was not due to product innovation, but rather their ability to following trends rather than setting them. However, like Rubinstein and Arden, Gray had a solid product line, an extensive stable of salons, was New York based, and advertised extensively.
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Ruth D. J. Maurer is not a familiar name in the cosmetics industry. It might be a surprise to many to learn that at one time her company made millions of dollars, had outlets that sold her cosmetics throughout the US, and for a time her brand was better known than Helena Rubinstein or Elizabeth Arden
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Maurer’s idea was to establish Marinello shops in areas where her products could be sold, but also where women could receive personal beauty treatment and advice. She established the Marinello Schools where women were taught how to care for all aspects of their personal care. Maurer trademarked the name "Marinello" as a brand for training and education in the beauty culture field and the "Marinello Way" was born, along with the National School of Cosmeticians.
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By the 1920s, it became fashionable for women to wear more noticeable make-up. It became acceptable because of the growing influence of Hollywood and its glamorous actresses, as well as theater stars and the flapper girls. The new "painted" women were now considered respectable, even though they wore eyeliner and eye shadow and bright lipstick like their screen idols.
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Clara Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom during the 1920s silent film era and successfully made the transition to the "talkies" in 1929. She received global fame and the nickname "The It Girl" from her appearance in the 1927 film It. She personified the flapper girl of the roaring '20s and was considered a sex symbol in the decade.
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Clara Bow with what was described as Cupid's bow shaped lips.
This was considered to be the ideal shape of the time.
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Entering the 1930s, the cosmetic industry underwent a major shift in their business model. Small female-owned cosmetic companies were replaced by larger corporations. At this time, in order to remain competitive and achieve larger product distribution, cosmetic businesses began to wholesale their products with male-owned chain pharmacies and department stores. Women were usually not included in this new distribution method and their small businesses weren't able to compete. A small handful of companies controlled 40% of the cosmetic industry in the early 1930s. They released thousands of factory-produced powders, lipsticks, fragrances and other toiletries under various brand names.
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Advertisements from Poor, Apex and Dorothy Gray.
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When millions of women entered the workforce during WWII, the money spent on beauty products increased dramatically. Bold rouge, powder, lipstick and nail polish was popular among younger women. Working women cut their hair shorter, sporting a more "manly" look and makeup was used to assert their femininity. When nylon stockings became unavailable due to war-time shortages, women turned to leg make-up, painting on their hosiery gave them the illusion of wearing real nylons. Advertisements and armed forces recruiting campaigns emphasized that a women’s responsibility was to support the war effort and maintain their feminine identity through their make-up!
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Woman showing her perfectly painted stockings with seam lines.
Advertisement for Silktona, liquid silk stockings.
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The dozens of successful women who left their marks, made their fortunes and revolutionized the beauty industry are celebrated with displays of their perfumes, compacts and toiletries throughout the Galleries.
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Elizabeth Arden & Helena Rubinstein display window at Perfume Passage.
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Here are some statistics on the beauty industry:
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- The global cosmetics industry should be worth $438.38 billion by 2026.
- It is estimated that the global beauty market will have declined 20-30% due to the pandemic.
- Women in the US spend around $3,756 on cosmetics annually.
- 17% of women stopped wearing makeup completely on account of the coronavirus.
- 30% of the beauty industry market was closed due to the global pandemic.
- 82% of women believe that social media drives trends.
- The US beauty and personal care industry is valued at over $93 billion.
- The global perfume market was worth $30.6 billion in 2019.
- The sales of hair clippers skyrocketed by 362.6% during the pandemic.
- Elizabeth Taylor was the first celebrity to create her own line of perfume
- In 1938, Congress cemented the connection between cosmetics, drugs, and medicine when it passed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. This act provided the FDA with some oversight over the cosmetics industry.
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Treasure in our collection:
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A rare store countertop display bust of Josephine Baker "Bakerfix" is on display in the Deco gallery. This 12" x 11" bust dates from the early 20th century.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an American-born French entertainer and civil rights activist. Baker was a renowned dancer, and was a celebrated performer at the Folies Bergère in Paris.
In the 1920s, when the flapper woman emerged with her short skirt, short hair, liberal makeup and fun-loving attitude, Baker led the way with a hairstyle called the "Eton crop." It was a short shiny sleek hairstyle with curls pasted to the cheek and forehead. The style was so sleek that hair looked like it was painted on. It was new, dramatic and shocking!
Baker developed a hair product to help others emulate her look. It was a brilliantine called "Bakerfix" and is shown with the countertop display.
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We Look Forward to Seeing You Once We Safely Open Again
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Located in the Chicagoland area, the Perfume Passage Foundation is 38 miles northwest of downtown Chicago and 25 miles from O'Hare International Airport.
Types of tours include:
- Private docent-guided tours
- Group tours
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Symphony of Scents and Sounds
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