b. July 15, 1941
by Sara Alpern, updated by JWA Staff
851 Fast Beauty Fixes and Facts by Adrien Arpel.
In Brief
Adrien Arpel is a pioneering entrepreneur in the skincare industry who launched her women’s skin care business in 1959 with $400 she had earned from baby-sitting. She concluded from her own experience with the cosmetics business that cosmetics saleswomen did not have sufficient knowledge about their products. Arpel realized there was a need in the cosmetics marketplace for a business that would educate the consumer. She subsequently began offering her salon facials in major department stores and selling her own brand of skin-care products and makeup. Arpel’s business model was explosively successful and in 1987 Bloomingdale’s honored her as a legend in the cosmetics industry. She was president and CEO of Adrien Arpel, Inc., an enterprise with approximately 500 salons across the United States and Canada.
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Development of Business Philosophy
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Industry Success
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Relationship to Judaism
5Bibliography
Early Life & Family
Adrien Arpel, a pioneering entrepreneur in the skin-care industry, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on July 15, 1941. She believes that “when you’re happy with yourself you make those around you happy,” and “when you’re honest with yourself first you are honest with everyone.” This philosophy has served her well in her life and in her work. Launching a business devoted to women’s skin care in 1959 with $400 she had earned from baby-sitting, Arpel is now president and CEO of Adrien Arpel, Inc., an enterprise with approximately 500 salons across the United States and Canada. Her mother, Ada Stark, of Polish extraction, was born in Montreal, Canada, and her father, Samuel Joachin, of Russian heritage, was born in the United States. Her parents met and married in the United States. Arpel has an older sister, Marilyn.
Arpel graduated from high school in 1959 and attended Pace University. She married Ronald Monroe Newman in New York City in 1960. The couple has one child, Lauren, who later worked in both of her parents’ businesses.
Development of Business Philosophy
Arpel describes herself as becoming an entrepreneur as soon as she left high school. When she was very young, she regarded cosmetics as a kind of magic. She decided to venture into the facial and cosmetics business after receiving conflicting advice from staff selling cosmetics in department stores. None of the salespeople could detail the ingredients in their products or could explain how these products might improve the customer’s skin. Arpel concluded that these saleswomen were selling cosmetics without being sufficiently knowledgeable about their products. She realized that there was a need in the cosmetics marketplace for a business that would educate the consumer, helping her understand how to care for her skin and what products she needed to use at home. She decided to provide customers with a licensed cosmetologist who understood the most beneficial ingredients in skin-care products. A licensed cosmetologist could counsel women in nature-based products in a comfortable setting. Adrien Arpel also pioneered the concept of the makeover, now widely available in the cosmetics and skin-care business.
Arpel felt her busy clients would best be served in a convenient, private salon in a department store. Thus, she began offering her salon facials in major department stores, such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, where she was also the first to provide a place for her clients to sit in a cosmetics department.
Industry Success
A clever marketer and a creative product developer, Arpel developed a niche market for the professional skin-care expert. She sold her own brand of skin-care products and makeup, which were used during the salon treatments. Arpel’s marketing strategy was to encourage customers to try her products before they buy them and to educate them in their own skin care.
From age eighteen, Arpel was determined to succeed in business. She was part of a large informal network of female executives who were friends as well as colleagues. She also had a true partnership with her husband, who ran a successful display business.
Arpel wrote several beauty books and won many professional industry awards. Bloomingdale’s honored her in 1987 as a legend in the cosmetics industry. On November 17, 1988, Pace University praised her “high level of professional success and concern for the well-being and advancement of the community and the exemplary representation of the ideals and mission of Pace University.”
In 1992 Arpel became a popular HSN shopping network vendor, marketing beauty and jewelry products under the brand name Signature Club A by Adrienne.
Relationship to Judaism
Although Arpel is not a formally observant woman, she is very conscious of her Jewish heritage. She cherishes the value of a close family and considers the emphasis on the centrality of family as part of her Jewishness. She and her husband, who died in 2015, were close to their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. They see each other often, take trips together, and celebrate the major Jewish holidays as a family.
Bibliography
Allen, Margaret.Selling Dreams: Inside the Beauty Business. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981.
Arpel, Adrien. Interview by author. NYC, July 20, 1995.
“Adrien Arpel—A Legend in Aesthetics.”Dermascope(July/August 1986): 3–4.
Bergman, Joan. “Bloomie’s Loves Arpel.”Stores69 (May 1987): 116–117.
Gallani, Bess. “Salons Treat Clients to Feel of Luxury.”Advertising Age56 (February 21, 1985): 18+.
Yaverbaum, Eric. “82. Addrien Arpel, CEO, Signature Club A, Ltd.” Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publications, 2004.
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