[2] The company once maintained separate US and European headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York City and on the Rue de la Paix in Paris, respectively.

[3] After graduating from Princeton University, Richard Hudnut toured France and returned with the idea of introducing French-style perfumes and cosmetics to American women.

Early Richard Hudnut fragrances included Queen Anne Cologne (1880), Violet Sec (1896), Aimée (1902), DuBarry (1903), Vanity (1910), and Three Flowers (1915).

[8] Hudnut's beauty products were sold in department stores, an indication of their appeal to a more affluent and sophisticated clientele.

[citation needed] The firm also introduced the Du Barry Success Course which ran from 1940 until the early 1950s[9] which Mary Brooks Picken helped design.

[10][11] In 1922, the government charged Richard Hudnut Inc. with conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act as a result of its price-control activities.

[14] In 1901, the U.S. Customs Service sent an officer to his house to inquire about certain imports that Hudnut was receiving at a particularly low cost, as no duty was being paid.

The steward was arrested for smuggling violet essence and musk into the United States, some of which was traced to Hudnut's pharmacy.

[17] In March 1903, Richard Hudnut bought a suite of Louis Quinze chairs for $220 at an auction of actress Ada Rehan's personal property.

[22][Note 1] In 1922, after he had retired from business, Hudnut's stepdaughter, Natacha Rambova, married Rudolph Valentino,[23] who had not completed his divorce from his first wife.