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Hazel Bishop

From: William S. Hammack
Series: Stories of Technology
Length: 02:52

Hazel Bishop, a chemist, build a multi-million dollar cosmetics company based on smear-proof lipstick. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Hazel Bishop
From: William S. Hammack

Default-piece-image-1 Chemist Hazel Bishop found work in traditional male-dominated areas because of World War II. She worked as a chemist at Standard Oil developing a special gasoline for aircraft engines. Like all good entrepreneurs Bishop drew strongly on her personal experience: She knew the trials of being a professional women in the work place. This brought her to lipstick. Bishop spent two years doing over three hundred experiments in her kitchen to develop smear-proof lipstick.An investor bought out the other shareholders to become majority owner, and then forced Hazel Bishop out of Hazel Bishop, Incorporated giving her a cash settlement of $250,000, but keeping her name. Bishop started other companies until settled into being a highly valued stock analysts for cosmetic stocks. She also offered advice to women: "Women should use make-up," she said, "to accentuate their most attractive feature. After the age of 25 or thereabouts, personality becomes an increasingly more attractive feature." Hazel Bishop died with plenty of personality at the age of 92.

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Piece Description

Chemist Hazel Bishop found work in traditional male-dominated areas because of World War II. She worked as a chemist at Standard Oil developing a special gasoline for aircraft engines. Like all good entrepreneurs Bishop drew strongly on her personal experience: She knew the trials of being a professional women in the work place. This brought her to lipstick. Bishop spent two years doing over three hundred experiments in her kitchen to develop smear-proof lipstick.An investor bought out the other shareholders to become majority owner, and then forced Hazel Bishop out of Hazel Bishop, Incorporated giving her a cash settlement of $250,000, but keeping her name. Bishop started other companies until settled into being a highly valued stock analysts for cosmetic stocks. She also offered advice to women: "Women should use make-up," she said, "to accentuate their most attractive feature. After the age of 25 or thereabouts, personality becomes an increasingly more attractive feature." Hazel Bishop died with plenty of personality at the age of 92.

Broadcast History

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Transcript

There is nothing more feminine than lipstick - nor as ancient, it dates to the Sumerians in 7000 B.C. - yet the chemistry of today's cosmetics owes their origin to what was exclusively a man's world - the World of Business.
The first modern cosmetic was smear-proof lipstick. It was invented by the chemist Hazel Bishop. Like many women of her time, Bishop found work in traditional male-dominated areas because of World War II. She worked as a chemist at Standard Oil developing a special gasoline for aircraft engines. After the war she followed advice from her mother, who told her to "Open your own business even if it's a peanut stand."

Like all good entrepreneurs Bishop drew strongly on her personal experience: She knew the trials of being a professional women in the work place. This brought her to lipstick. She knew first hand the embarrassment of lipstick on coffee cups and cigarette bu...
Read the full transcript