Jewish innovators behind iconic beauty brands
The origins of some of the most iconic beauty inventions and brands actually go much deeper than skin deep. They are rooted in heritage and identity – and Judaism.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The real beauty is inside. Beauty is a state of mind.
It’s true, we shouldn’t focus on outward beauty. There are so many more important things to concern ourselves with in life, and true beauty does indeed come from within.
But the origins of some of the most iconic beauty inventions and brands actually go much deeper than skin deep. They are rooted in heritage and identity – and Judaism.
Estee Lauder? Born Josephine Esther Mentzer.
Bobbi Brown? A Jewish girl from Illinois.
OPI and Essie nail polish? Both created by Jewish families – Suzi Weiss-Fischmann and George Schaeffer for OPI and Essie Weingarten for Essie.
And also … Maurice Levy who made wearing lipstick a whole lot easier, with the patenting of the tube.
Lipstick had been around for decades before Levy came into the picture – thousands of decades really, having been in use in some form since around 3000 BCE.
Ancient Sumerian men and women would crush up gemstones to decorate their faces.
Since then, there have been all sorts of different ways people have used what’s around them for lip decoration. Cleopatra was known to paint her lips a deep red by using beeswax, crushed ants and carmine, and then she would add a layer of fish scales for a frosty effect.
Lipstick had gone in and out of favour for many years prior to the tube being invented.
At times, women were praised for wearing it; at others shamed. It was even deemed impolite by Queen Victoria.
And then came the women’s suffrage movement in the US, where women dabbed on bright red lipstick to symbolise their independence.
Maurice Levy’s innovative metal tube, capable of mass production, allowed women the freedom to apply lipstick on the go.
From then on, almost every beauty company created their own versions of lipsticks – all in tubes.
Elizabeth Arden even went so far as to create a particular shade of red for the American Marine Corps Women’s Reserves that matched their uniforms perfectly.
Since then, lipstick has come to symbolise power – particularly that red that was so often associated with “sordid women”.
And while yes, it’s so much more important to recognise the beauty on the inside, sometimes, a little pop of colour helps.