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Beauty Counselors of Canada fonds
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- Textual record
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Fonds
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6cm textual records
18 b&w photographs
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Administrative history
Headquartered in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, the Beauty Counselors corporation was founded in 1931 as a direct-sales cosmetics firm, in which individual saleswomen went door-to-door selling the company’s products on commission – likely basing its model on that of the successful Avon cosmetics line (established 1929) of the California Perfume Company. Competitor firm Mary Kay cosmetics would be founded in 1963 along similar lines. In each case, the sales model relied upon women’s ability to build non-threatening, personal relationships with other women, and thereby increase their direct-sales clientele over time. Unlike multi-level marketing schemes, Beauty Counselors did not require its saleswomen to recruit other saleswomen in order to profit off of their sales. At an unknown point prior to 1959 the firm set up a Canadian branch, known as Beauty Counselors of Canada, with its headquarters in Windsor, Ontario; David L. Gibson was President of the Canadian company ca. 1962-65, and was succeeded by Thomas Lyman. During this period, Gibson asked Sales Promotion Manager Doug Johnstone to get involved with the rose committee of the Greater Windsor Foundation. This resulted in a line of “Windsor Rose” products and support from the firm for rose-planting initiatives around the city.
In the USA, Rexall Drug & Chemical Company acquired Beauty Counselor in 1968, and in 1969 merged it with two other cosmetics companies to form Vanda Beauty Counselor. Vanda Beauty Counselor was still trademarking products in 1984, although it is unclear how long Beauty Counselor of Canada remained in business. Beauty Counselor saleswomen were provided with sales kits of samples, colour wheels and other information to help match products with customers, literature on improving their sales, and rewards (as sales incentives). Conventions brought together sales leaders, and long-serving saleswomen might accumulate charms for their Beauty Counselor charm bracelets through convention attendance or sales achievement. Beauty Counselor products included a variety of lipsticks, powders, mascaras, skin creams, and some non-cosmetic items such as teacups or spoons.
Sources: Contents of fonds; James Bennett, “Cosmetics and Skin – Timelines,” Cosmetic History and Makeup Studies Network, https://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/cosmetic-timeline.php ; paintedwomen Instagram post re: Beauty Counselor sales kit, 20 March 2019, https://www.instagram.com/paintedwomen/p/BvO-JrLAnUU/?img_index=1 ; Beauty Counselor of Canada and Beauty Counselor (US) items for sale on eBay, https://www.ebay.ca (all accessed 24 September 2024); Katina Manko, Ding Dong! Avon Calling! The Women and Men of Avon Products Incorporated (Oxford: Oxford Academic, 2021).
Scope and content
This fonds contains records from the mid-1960s depicting the involvement of cosmetic company Beauty Counselors of Canada and its Sales Promotion Manager Doug Johnstone in branding Windsor, Ontario as the “City of Roses” (or “Rose City”). Most of the records were originally kept in scrapbook form by the company, and include news clippings, photographs of people and products, newsletters, and promotional ephemera. The rose campaign took shape under the direction of the Greater Windsor Foundation, a cross-sector initiative that sought to change what was then perceived as Windsor’s negative reputation. A 2011 email from Johnstone and 1960s newspaper articles explain this wider context. Although the records are focused on the rose campaign, some of the photographs and ephemera provide insights into both women’s work (as salespeople for the company) and women’s beauty culture in the 1960s.
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good
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- English
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none
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Copyright retained by creator. Copyright law and principles of fair dealing apply.
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Name access points
- Johnstone, W. Douglas (Subject)