Celebrity fragrances help boost sales at Elizabeth Arden.

By Karen-Janine Cohen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 23--One can only imagine what Elizabeth Arden, who founded the beauty company that bears her name, would think of Britney Spears, the pop princess whose perfume "Curious," is driving the company's sales this holiday season.

Arden, born in 1878, changed her name from Florence Nightingale Graham to the tonier moniker and built an empire on salons, creams, cosmetics and style -- while Spears is known for her provocative dancing and songs that skirt the edge of innuendo.

Still, Spears and celebrities such as Catherine Zeta-Jones are helping rejuvenate a company that has been handed around like a stale fruitcake in the decades since Arden's death.

It passed through both Eli Lilly and Co. and Unilever. Arden finally found a home when Miami Lakes-based French …