Charles Revson

Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, together with chemist Charles Lachman (whose marriage into the Dresden Chemical Company family gave him nail-polish manufacturing expertise), formed the Revlon Nail Enamel Corporation on March 1, 1932, with a combined investment of just $300. The company took its name partly from Lachman -- the 'L' in Revlon -- and began manufacturing out of a $25-a-month room on Manhattan's West Side. Their key innovation was an opaque, pigmented nail enamel, a significant improvement over the sheer, dye-based polishes then on the market, which also allowed a far wider range of colors; by 1938 the line had grown to 21 shades. Charles Revson served as president and drove the company's expansion from a single nail-polish product into drug and department stores nationwide.

Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, together with chemist Charles Lachman (whose marriage into the Dresden Chemical Company family gave him nail-polish manufacturing expertise), formed the Revlon Nail Enamel Corporation on March 1, 1932, with a combined investment of just $300. The company took its name partly from Lachman -- the 'L' in Revlon -- and began manufacturing out of a $25-a-month room on Manhattan's West Side. Their key innovation was an opaque, pigmented nail enamel, a significant improvement over the sheer, dye-based polishes then on the market, which also allowed a far wider range of colors; by 1938 the line had grown to 21 shades. Charles Revson served as president and drove the company's expansion from a single nail-polish product into drug and department stores nationwide.