Speaker 1: Fantastic. That's it. It's the creamy new lipstick with extra
Speaker 1: length and extra strength, the one made longer to last
Speaker 1: and elegant enough to use any place. New Fantastic by
Speaker 1: Hazel Bishop.
Speaker 2: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 2: is Womanica. This month, we're talking about trendsetters, women whose vision,
Speaker 2: style and willingness to break barriers changed culture from what
Speaker 2: we wear to how we behave. Today, we're talking about
Speaker 2: a woman who went from designing jet fuel for airplanes
Speaker 2: to creating the first long lasting lipstick. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: the business mogul, Hazel Bishop. Hazel Bishop was born in Hoboken,
Speaker 2: New Jersey, on August seventeenth, nineteen oh six. Her father
Speaker 2: ran multiple small businesses in New Jersey, including a movie theater,
Speaker 2: a Happy dashery, and a candy store, so dinner at
Speaker 2: Hazel's house usually involved talk about business. Hazel's mother even
Speaker 2: encouraged her to start her own business, telling her it
Speaker 2: was the best way to achieve an independent life. Despite
Speaker 2: all that, Hazel decided she wanted to be a doctor.
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty nine, she graduated with a degree in
Speaker 2: chemistry from Barnard College, with plans to go to medical school,
Speaker 2: but those plans were put on hold when the stock
Speaker 2: market crashed and the Great Depression began. Instead of going
Speaker 2: to medical school, Hazel started working at a dermatology research
Speaker 2: lab where she helped create hypoallergenic cosmetics. The dermatologist she
Speaker 2: helped would later launch a line of hypoallergenic products under
Speaker 2: the name all May Cosmetics, a brand that still exists today.
Speaker 2: In nineteen forty two, she started working as an organic
Speaker 2: chemist for an oil Company's helped design fuel that made
Speaker 2: World War II aircraft engine safer and more efficient. At night,
Speaker 2: she was working on a business idea of her own,
Speaker 2: a new kind of lipstick. Hazel had noticed that most
Speaker 2: lipsticks on the market smudged easily and faded quickly. She
Speaker 2: wanted a lipstick that would last all day once she
Speaker 2: wouldn't have to worry about reapplying while at her job,
Speaker 2: So Hazel converted her tiny kitchen into a makeshift laboratory
Speaker 2: and got to work. Eventually, she landed on a solution
Speaker 2: bromo acids. Bromo Acids are a type of chemical that
Speaker 2: stained skin, meaning they leave your lips looking red and
Speaker 2: rosy all day. Without reapplication. Then she added molten wax
Speaker 2: and oil to the bromo acid mixture so that the
Speaker 2: color would stick to your lips and keep them moist.
Speaker 2: All that was left to do was pour the mixture
Speaker 2: into a tube and voila, the perfect smudge free lipstick.
Speaker 2: By nineteen fifty, Hazel had perfected her lipstick formula and
Speaker 2: founded Hazel Bishop Incorporated. She brought on an advertising expert
Speaker 2: named Raymond Spector, who agreed to market the lipstick in
Speaker 2: exchange for stock in the company. Soon women all across
Speaker 2: America were hearing about Hazel Bishop No Smear lipstick. It
Speaker 2: was marketed as the ultimate kissable lipstick. The slogan was
Speaker 2: stays on you, not on him. Hazel's lipstick was an
Speaker 2: instant hit. The department store Lord and Taylor sold out
Speaker 2: of every tube of Hazel Bishop lipstick they had in
Speaker 2: a single day. Companies like Revlon scrambled to make copycat products.
Speaker 2: By nineteen fifty three, Hazel's company was pulling in more
Speaker 2: than ten million dollars a year. But in the midst
Speaker 2: of all this success, Hazel was fighting for ownership of
Speaker 2: her company and her ideas. Raymond Spector had started to
Speaker 2: buy up stock in the company, gathering enough influence to
Speaker 2: push Hazel out entirely. By nineteen fifty one, Hazel was
Speaker 2: no longer president of Hazel Bishop, Inc. By nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 2: Raymond had pushed her out of the company entirely and
Speaker 2: prevented her from selling any product under her own name,
Speaker 2: But Hazel took the loss in stride. She started another
Speaker 2: company called Hazel Bishop Laboratories. There she developed a leather cleaner,
Speaker 2: solid stick, perfumes, and other chemical products, and in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty two, Hazel switched careers again, starting work as a stockbroker.
Speaker 2: She specialized in cosmetic and pharmaceutical stocks, the very same
Speaker 2: asset that Raymond had swindled her out of a decade earlier.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty, Hazel left finance and went into academia,
Speaker 2: becoming the Revlon Chair of Cosmetics Marketing at the Fashion
Speaker 2: Institute of Technology. She helped launch the school's Cosmetology, Fragrance
Speaker 2: and Toiletries program, teaching a new generation of students how
Speaker 2: to break into the cosmetics industry. Through all her career changes,
Speaker 2: Hazel still mixed her own lipstick, a red shade that
Speaker 2: lasted all day. Hazel died on December fifth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2: Her obituary in The New York Times contained some advice
Speaker 2: she had for women about beauty. Women should use makeup
Speaker 2: to accentuate their most attractive feature. She said, after the
Speaker 2: age of twenty five or thereabouts, personality becomes an increasingly
Speaker 2: more attractive feature. All month, we're talking about trendsetters. For
Speaker 2: more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica
Speaker 2: Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and
Speaker 2: co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.