Florence Nightengale Graham was born in Ontario, Canada, and worked at a variety of jobs until 1908, when she went to work in a New York salon.

She learned about cosmetology and massage and took those skills with her when she opened her own salon a few years later.

She felt that the opening of her own business marked the perfect occasion to recreate herself. The first step was to choose an exotic new name. She chose "Elizabeth Arden." As the manager of a salon, and later, a chain of salons, Arden developed her own cosmetics.

Her signature product was a face cream with the consistency of whipped cream. Cream Amoretta was released in 1914.

A year later, Arden decided to market the cosmetics directly to the public instead of selling them only in her salons. It was a good decision. Elizabeth Arden cosmetics were a great success.

Arden once said: "Death not merely ends life, it also bestows upon it a silent completeness, snatched from the hazardous flux to which all things human are subject." Her life was silently completed in 1966 when Arden was 81, or maybe 82. Or maybe 88.