A Beautiful Rival

 
Two highly successful and enterprising business women dominated the world-wide beauty business throughout the 20th Century. One was Canadian-born Elizabeth Arden, the other, Helena Rubinstein, who was from Poland and with Jewish heritage. Their names are still synonymous with luxurious beauty products today.
 
This is the fictionalised tale of their famous rivalry that often went to extraordinary lengths of one-upmanship with few limits and stretched to character assassination, spying, deliberate obfuscation and even poaching one another’s managers and staff.
 
Elizabeth came from an impoverished background and did everything to hide that fact from the famous and high society women she catered to. She was a ruthless employer who had fixed ideas on a traditional style of presentation for her products. She believed that was what women wanted and this reflected in how her packaging was designed and displayed and how her salons must be run. She’d regularly “bounce” (sack) any staff member who crossed her, even for minor infringements. Yet her personal life was her Achilles’ heel and she was surprisingly naïve when she left herself open to exploitation by those she trusted. It was only her love of horses that sustained her when things went wrong.
 
Helena was equally forceful, having left Poland for Australia when her father refused permission for her to marry outside of the Jewish faith. With some experience in chemistry, in Australia she began experimenting with lanolin from sheep in order to produce the creams for which she would become famous. In time, she established salons elsewhere, in Europe and North America, and also counted on high society women to buy her products. Known for her passion for avante garde art, she took a different approach to that of Elizabeth, bringing 20th Century modernity to her salons. She married twice, but also had issues with personal relationships. Although she had two sons, she displayed little maternal affection towards them.
 
Helena’s Jewish background had often caused prejudicial issues for her long before the world teetered towards World War II. Elizabeth’s questionable anti-Semitic connections would escalate the rivalry to new heights.
 
This is an entertaining read and the author has skilfully negotiated through the inevitable commercial aspects of the two businesses in a concise way so that it doesn’t slow down the outrageous competitive strategies of both women. The reader will no doubt come to favour one character over the other. Both had their faults, but they do stand as role models with their dynamism and fierce belief that, with the right attitude, women can succeed in business in spite of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.
 
(With many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.)
 
Four stars
 
 
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