Before Fenty. Before Kylie Cosmetics. Before a single beauty influencer went live on Instagram — there was Revlon.For nine decades, Revlon was the most powerful name in beauty. It was the brand that taught America what to put on its lips, its nails, its face. It launched celebrities. It sponsored the most-watched television show in the country. It conquered 150 nations. It hired a corporate raider to run it, survived a hostile takeover, and bet nearly a billion dollars on a single acquisition. Then, on June 15, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy with $3.7 billion in debt — and the world barely blinked.Fire and Debt is the definitive, character-driven account of the company that defined American beauty — and destroyed itself in slow motion. This is the story of three men and the empire they built, leveraged, and burned.

Before Fenty. Before Kylie Cosmetics. Before a single beauty influencer went live on Instagram — there was Revlon.For nine decades, Revlon was the most powerful name in beauty. It was the brand that taught America what to put on its lips, its nails, its face. It launched celebrities. It sponsored the most-watched television show in the country. It conquered 150 nations. It hired a corporate raider to run it, survived a hostile takeover, and bet nearly a billion dollars on a single acquisition. Then, on June 15, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy with $3.7 billion in debt — and the world barely blinked.Fire and Debt is the definitive, character-driven account of the company that defined American beauty — and destroyed itself in slow motion. This is the story of three men and the empire they built, leveraged, and burned.

Before Fenty. Before Kylie Cosmetics. Before a single beauty influencer went live on Instagram — there was Revlon.For nine decades, Revlon was the most powerful name in beauty. It was the brand that taught America what to put on its lips, its nails, its face. It launched celebrities. It sponsored the most-watched television show in the country. It conquered 150 nations. It hired a corporate raider to run it, survived a hostile takeover, and bet nearly a billion dollars on a single acquisition. Then, on June 15, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy with $3.7 billion in debt — and the world barely blinked.Fire and Debt is the definitive, character-driven account of the company that defined American beauty — and destroyed itself in slow motion. This is the story of three men and the empire they built, leveraged, and burned.