1930 HERE DWELLS YOUTH PRIMROSE HOUSE cosmetics book face skin care salon beauty

Description

Very rare little book. While there is no publication date in the book, it was advertised in the January 1927 issue of Vogue. The only allusion to this book I found was in a book titled Cold Modernism: Literature, Fashion, Art where the author obtained use of this book from the University of Washington special collections. Her comments were based on (photo 4) here which provided the reader with a "scientific chart of the face... showing muscle lines to be followed in face molding".
ACCORDING TO ONLINE SOURCES, THE COMPANY MOVED TO THE ADDRESS LISTED IN THIS BOOK IN 1929, WHERE THEY STAYED FOR TEN YEARS.I also found reference to Janet Morgan, the Consultant-Expert, in advertising for 1928, so I am comfortable with placing the book in the 1928-1930 date.
Book measures 4.5" x 6" and is a softcover advertisement of 39 numbered pages for a New York City salon located at 595 5th Avenue. This book describes types of treatments and products as well as including a price list at the rear. The forward is written by Janet Morgan and no other author information is provided.
There is a small spot and light mark on front cover but the book is otherwise immaculate.
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PRIMROSE HOUSE:
Primrose House
Around 1920, a group of businessmen from Lowell, Massachusetts approached the advertising copywriter Helen Rosen Woodward about setting up a cosmetic business. This meeting would lead to the establishment of a new name in American beauty, Primrose House.
Lowell investors
The businessmen had no specific interest in, or knowledge of, cosmetics. Their aim was to repeat the financial success of fellow Lowell residents – such as James Cook Ayer (Ayer’s Sarsaparilla) and Humphrey O’Sullivan (O’Sullivan’s Rubber Heels) – who had made fortunes selling products through national advertising campaigns. They were looking to invest in a consumer product that could be sold in bulk nationwide. In the early 1920s, cosmetics looked to be a good bet.
Helen Rosen Woodward
Helen Woodward was persuaded to develop the idea in return for common stock in the new company.
Her research into the cosmetics business suggested that establishing a mass-marketed line would required a prohibitively expensive advertising campaign but a luxury, salon-based line could be developed at a more reasonable price.
When I examined the cosmetics business for them, I found that there are two ways of going about it. There are concerns which sell one or two cold creams of face powders at a low price, in enormous quantities, through drug and department stores. These are direct, commercial enterprises, advertising widely and selling at a moderate price. The other way is much more subtle and indirect. The companies which employ the second method deal in large numbers of creams, powders, rouges, lotions—each for its own little purpose—and all very high priced. These companies operate in an atmosphere of elegance and illusion, which enables them to charge fantastic prices—to add from five hundred to a thousand per cent to their costs.
I learned that it would cost about three hundred thousand dollars to put on the market a low priced set of cold creams, while the more luxurious array could be started on its road for about sixty thousand dollars.
(Woodward, 1926, pp. 304-305)
Woodward developed a plan and put this to the Lowell investors. It had three main components: the cosmetic company would sell a wide range of luxurious cosmetics; it would be centred around a salon situated in New York at a place that would attract national attention; and a woman with high social standing would be engaged as the nominal head of the company (Woodward, 1926, p. 305). The Lowell businessmen were delighted with the outline, raised the money to put it into action – including some from Helen Woodward – and, in 1921, founded The Lowell Company to develop the new concern.
The Lowell Company
Most of the seed money for the company (0,000) was raised in Lowell so the company was based there. The president, Robert F. Marden, was a banker whose primary interests were in the Morris Plan Company, a bank in Lowell. Vice-presidents were Frank B. Kenney, a Lowell cotton manufacturer; William E. Woodward, the husband of Helen Woodward; and Elsie Waterbury Morris, a New York socialite who had the necessary social credentials Helen Woodard was looking for. The treasurer and clerk was John H. Murphy, also from the Morris Plan Company.
Elsie Waterbury Morris was to head the salon established in New York. As well as her good social standing she was the wife of Gouveneur Morris IV, a well-known author and playwright, so was likely to generate a lot of free publicity if she went into business. A booklet – ‘Beauty for Every Woman’ – supposedly written by her, was published by McCall’s Magazine to give her credentials to being a beauty authority.
Mrs. Morris believes in beauty as a science. – “I believe that woman should give the impression of beauty, both spiritual and physical, and that her success will depend largely on her ability to keep fit,” says Mrs. Morris. “The love of her husband and the adoration of her children are to a great extent dependent upon the picture she creates. “Because we have been slow to realize the Importance of this factor, beauty, we have two types, both run riot: The girl on the street her face slathered with paint and the type of woman who seems to fancy that any individuality in the form of physical beauty must necessarily be wrong, or who, in a spirit of egotistic self-sacrifice, endeavors to make herself look as much like an Eskimo as she can! “I know from personal observation,“ continues Mrs. Morris, “that to look fit, happy, cleanly, beautiful, gives to a woman the necessary courage to face the everyday practical problems of life. “I am sure that preaching of the right sort of thinking, physical fitness, courage, Christianity is not confined solely to the pulpit but can be taught even from the lowly beauty parlor.
(Vancouver Daily World, November 7, 1921, p. 7)
The company also engaged the services of Lucille Buhl Bonanno. Lucille had been working for Elizabeth Arden but given Arden’s micromanagement style and famous temper it probably did not require much persuading to get her to jump ship. Lucille provided technical advice for the new company and also assigned to it a patent for a Face Molder (US: 1443725) widely used in early advertising for Primrose House.
Salon
It was hoped to set up the New York salon on Fifth Avenue but a site at 3 East 52nd Street was selected instead. As well as being near to Fifth Avenue, the building had an architectural style taylor-made to attract attention.
The salon was reached through a red lacquered door situated at street level. It opened to a private stairway that led up one flight to a reception room filled with soft comfortable chairs where clients could relax, sip tea and read fashion magazines while waiting for their appointment.
A beauty expert would analyse the client’s skin and then pass her to a nurse who would carry out the required treatment.
The manner of the nurse and the reclining chair soothe you at once. At your right stands a little table filled with delicious jars and bottles, with little bowls of hot water and other bowls of ice.
The nurse dips a little sack of almond meal, orris, and oatmeal into hot water, and passes it swiftly over your face. Over the bowl of ice she pours a lotion smelling of roses and violets. Into this icy odorous mixture, pungent with alcohol, she dips white balls of cotton batting. And then in precise, swift, and calm succession creams and liquids, oils and medicinal salves—all icy cool—are applied to your face. The nurse does not talk, except to say at just the right moment, “This cream I am now using is heavier; your skin needs food.” Or, “This tonic is very stimulating to a tired skin.” Then the light is turned off and the nurse disappears, while you relax in complete sleepy nothingness.
(Woodward, 1926, pp. 310-311)
Face moulding
The signature procedure for Primrose House was ‘Face Molding’. This treatment helped generate interest and also distinguished Primrose House from companies, like Elizabeth Arden and Dorothy Gray, that used patters, or others, such as Helena Rubinstein and Richard Hudnut, that relied primarily on massage.
Despite its claims not to be massage, which was liable to ‘stretch the skin’ and ‘break down tissue’, the Primrose House Face Molding Treatment included a light facial massage routine. After applying the Face Molding Cream, which provided nourishment, fingers were used to apply pressure to the muscles of the face in an upward direction. This was said to strengthen the facial muscles and improved their elasticity, which banished flabbiness and the wrinkles that lax facial muscles caused. To make sure the facial muscles were strengthened, moulding was followed with astringents, a common muscle firming treatment.
Clients could also do face moulding at home using the Primrose House Face Molding Set, which included a muscle chart and the Face Molder, a device developed by Lucille Buhl to press Balsam Astringent to the skin over the Face Molding Cream.
The Face Molder: “[T]o be used in home treatment, in an ingenious device for exercising and firming the muscles thus restoring their youthful elasticity. It fits every angle of the face and neck and when using it there is no danger of stretching the skin or breaking down tissue.”
If deep wrinkles and hollows were present then the stronger Balsam Tissue Stimulant was used instead.
Face molding cosmetics
Above: Primrose House Face Molding Set.
Product development
Elsie Waterbury provided the press with a fanciful story about how the Primrose House preparations were conceived:
You know I have worked over the ideas Primrose house is carrying out for a long time. I have collected beauty preparations from all over the world and put them into use here. My fiends and I had many favorited preparations of our own—recipes we’d found in Paris or the East; something a skin specialist had prescribed, something grandmother had used when she was a girl in Virginia or something an English maid had brought from Surrey. Now we have pooled all these, our favourite beauty secrets. We have had specialists work on them, test them and here they are.
(The Sunday Oregonian, 1921, p. 5)
These snobbish values were also used in company advertising.
Of course, you know how Primrose House came to be. A group of women, led by Elsie Waterbury Morris, who have spent years and thousands of dollars in acquiring in formation in regard to beauty—for their own use—decided to go into business with this information as their capital.
(Primrose House advertisement, 1922)
Leaving this marketing blurb to one side, the fifty or so cosmetics in the original line must have been created in a relatively short period of time, something that reflects well on the unknown New England private label company that developed them.
Skin-care
The skin-care principles followed by Primrose House were fairly standard for the time. They relied on the idea that the face and skin were a good deal more plastic than we would credit today, so manual therapies could improve circulation, skin foods could build up tissues, astringents could firm and tighten muscles, and chin straps could correct sagging throats.
See also: Straps, Bandages and Tapes, Skin Foods and Skin Tonics, Astringents and Toners
The Primrose House skin-care line in the 1920s covers most of the important areas. It made allowances for dry, normal and oily skin, had day and night treatments, and included special preparations for common skin problems such as freckles, blackheads and acne. The treatments follow the standard pattern of cleansing and toning the skin followed by applying a skin food. There are also all the usual muscle oils, bleaches, pore refining and foundation/vanishing creams.
Rose Leaf Cleansing Cream: “This delightful cream, which liquifies readily, is invaluable for removing all surface impurities and cleaning the pores.”
Smoothskin Cream: “For the woman with an unusually dry and sensitive skin this is the perfect cream, light, non-fattening, with just a trace of perfume.”
Face Molding Cream: “It has exactly the right consistency for the molding process, and is rich in fine nourishing oils.”
Developing Cream: “This unusual cream is rich in fat producing and tissue building compounds.”
Primrose House Bleach Cream: “An excellent cream for toning snd clearing the skin … For discolouration, freckles and brown spots on the face.”
Porefiner Cream: “This astringent cream is extremely valuable in the treatment of enlarged pores.”
Primrose House Foundation Cream: “An ideal preparation for protecting the skin and providing a base for powder.”
Primrose House Skin Freshener: “A mild refreshing astringent for toning up the skin.”
Balsam Astringent: “A stronger astringent which keenly penetrates the pores, tightening the skin with amazing precision.”
Balsam Tissue Stimulant: “This stimulating oil sinks freely into the pores and reaches the undernourished tissue beneath.”
Acne lotion: “For irritations of the skin, pimples and eruptions, caused by neglect or ill-treatment.”
Other products included preparations for tired eyes; oils and lotions for the hands and feet; a nail polish and remover; depilatories; bathing salts, powders and oils; and assorted shampoos and tonics for the hair.
Make-up
The Primrose House make-up range from the 1920s included loose and compact face powders; a liquid powder; compact, cream and liquid rouge; lipstick; a cream kohl that could also be used as an eyeshadow; and an eyeliner. Each product came in a limited but serviceable range of shades.
Chiffon Face Powder: “The leading powder of Primrose House. It is quite unsurpassed in fines and delicacy.” Shades: White, Natural and Brunette.
Primrose House Face Powder: “An unusually fine powder.” Shades: Cream-White, Natural, Light Brunette, Dark Brunette and Suntan.
Evening Face Powder: “Brilliant artificial lights at night make a different shade of powder desirable.” Shade: Orchid.
Petal Bloom: “A dainty lotion to be used under powder to give the skin a soft and even smoothness. Or may be used as liquid powder, obviating the necessity of the powder puff.” Shades: Cream-White, Natural, Light Brunette and Dark Brunette.
Pomegranate Cream Rouge: “May be used on the lips as well as the cheeks.” Shades: Light and Dark.
Prim-Ora Rouge: “Practically indelible.” Shade: Orange.
Rose Petal Rouge: “This delightful liquid rouge imparts the radiant glow of health to the skin and no matter how strenuously one motors, golfs, or even swims Rose Petal Rouge will remain until it is removed with cream.”
Primrose House Spiral Lipstick: Shades: Light, Medium and Dark.
Ko-Hul: “An exotic and unusually effective preparation for making the lashes dark and luxuriant. This cream also darkens the lids to just the right extent.” Shades: Brown and Black.
Eyebrow Pencils: Shades: Brown and Black.
Also see the company booklet: Here Dwells Youth.
Friction and separation
Things went well at first, with The Lowell Company even paying its stockholders a dividend, but there was an underlying disconnect between the operation that the three women – Helen Woodward, Elsie Waterbury and Lucille Buhl – had established and the aims and objectives of the Lowell businessmen. The men were really interested in establishing a mass marketed business and did not understand the dynamics of maintaining a luxury salon-based line – a mistake also made by the Lehman Brothers when they bought the American business of Helena Rubinstein in 1928. Once the Primrose House salon and line were established, they began cost-cutting. These changes saw the replacement of Helen Woodward by the advertising agency Hewitt, Gannon & Company in 1922, the subsequent dismissal of both Elsie Waterbury and Lucille Buhl, and the reorganization of the business under new management in 1926.
Most of the disagreements arose because they wanted to take away from the business the subtle atmosphere which we had so painfully and carefully developed and without which our products would be worth no more than any other creams on the market. So friction grew until the situation became intolerable. Finally they took the advertising away from me while I was in Europe and unable to do anything about it. They gave the account to a little agency, which, whatever its qualifications, had not even a woman copywriter and no experience in selling any kind of beauty products. From that time on the advertising became merely a vulgar paraphrasing of what had been done before. A year later they discharges Mrs. Morris abruptly and rudely, and a few months afterward they also in equally rude fashion discharged Mrs. Buhl.
(Woodward, 1926, pp. 322-323)
The dismissal of Lucille Buhl may have been the reason why the Face Molder and Face Molding Cream were downplayed after 1928. The Primrose House skin-care routine for normal skin then became more like any other: cleansing, nourishing and toning (bracing) followed by the application of make-up.
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