The Chemist

Chapter 16

April 20th, 8:30 p.m. Midtown, New York City

There has always been a fine line between an acolyte and sycophant. One absorbs what she can from her superiors in order to learn the ropes of her job and the business, while the other learns the ropes in order to surpass the superior. Neither of them are mindless, but the acolyte, looking upon the superior with starry eyed naïveté, has yet to learn how to use treachery to her advantage. So it was with Vanessa's latest class of three up-and-coming Frugeré hopefuls who surrounded her like bodyguards sans the dark sunglasses, wearing sheath dresses of varying designs.

Tonight, the cosmetic trade association was holding their annual Spring industry awards event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Vanessa was to be one of its recipients this evening. All the key industry players were in attendance and many of the up-and-comers, too. Vanessa had grown to detest these events in light of her current position. What she loathed most was the press and especially, those fashion groupies; the pasty faced Eurotrash reporters who seemed to succeed every year in crashing the event. But they've never actually created anything in their pathetic lives!

CEO Vanessa Joy Carrie had proven, as others before her, that people will pay for that special look or scent that will distinguish them from others. After all, her company had been the height of "chic" a mere twenty years ago. Styles had changed, yet Frugeré hadn't, at least not in step with current trends enough to maintain its heretofore meteoric rise in the industry.

What's a woman to do if she wants to transform her life? To Vanessa Carrie, the answer was simple—run like hell to the cosmetics counter. Be it lotions, mascara, rouge, fragrances, creams, you name it, beauty business is armed and ready to help anyone make any life changing transition at any time.

To satisfy that need, Vanessa Carrie had been there for over the past thirty years. Following in the steps of Elizabeth Arden, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubenstein and Bobbie Brown, Vanessa Carrie had started Frugeré from nothing. All a woman need to do was take a trip to any department store make-up counter, ground zero for the beauty industry. In fact, anyone can start a cosmetics company on a shoe string. Anyone, that is, with samples and a song. But it takes a skilled and talented marketer to grow the business and Vanessa had proven many times over that she was both. What you didn't know could be made up along the way. Because of her, eyeliner pencils were now 'cosmetic writing instruments'.

"Sell the story the customer wants to hear," Vanessa was once quoted as saying. "That's what women get when they visit the make-up counter."

Vanessa didn't come from money, but she learned quickly how to create her own license. As if taken right out of a Horatio Alger novel, her humble beginning began in relative obscurity in Brooklyn, back when she was Vanessa Cohen. Working behind the fragrance counters of Kossoff's and Bloomingdales, she honed her ability to sell. And sell she did. Though she had no formal college education to speak of, she read voraciously and paid attention to the latest trends. She endured the biannual jaunts to the much anticipated Premiere Vision textile trade show in Villepinte, just outside of Paris, where industry trendsetters learn about what people would be wearing, applying and spraying on them the following spring and fall.

Vanessa was unabashedly honest about her secret to success. "A woman is attracted to cosmetics by stories, promises and possibilities. Just create the illusion that this season's hottest color will be sold out soon, so rush to your nearest cosmetics counter to snatch up the product before it's too late." In other words, customers will buy something no one actually needs, but everybody wants.

Continued success meant throwing more parties, acquiring more couture and art, and donating to more charities. Her reputation was well earned—an aggressive marketer and perfectionist who answered to no one. Although tyrannical towards her employees, she knew how to charm all the industry high fliers and even the press. She became an industry leader and role model for women in the business community, ascending to the industry throne through unapologetic determination.