An innovator and entrepreneur, Elizabeth Arden opened the first Red Door salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910. Elizabeth Arden’s fundamental belief was that beauty should not be a veneer of makeup, but an intelligent cooperation between science and nature in order to develop a woman’s finest natural assets. She lived by her mantra, "To be beautiful is the birthright of every woman."

According to the company, she was the first to introduce eye makeup to the women of America and pioneered the creation of the “makeover." With the launch of Arden Skin Tonic, the company became the first to incorporate its founder’s name into a product name. Arden developed the first travel-size beauty products, and was the first in the cosmetics business to train and send out a team of traveling demonstrators and saleswomen.

By the 1930s, Arden had opened Red Door salons in the majority of the fashion capitals around the globe, and proudly acknowledged her accomplishments by proclaiming that there were only three American names known in every corner of the globe: Singer Sewing Machines, Coca-Cola, and Elizabeth Arden.