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Beauty and the Boss: Helena Rubinstein

The art collector and pioneer of skincare

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Polish, Jewish and eldest of eight daughters, Helena Rubinstein was a tough girl.

She was a tough girl because as soon as she was twenty, after studying Medicine in Switzerland for a few years, she decided to give up the rich prizes and cotillon that she would receive by marrying a rich and elderly Jewish man to flee to Australia with a suitcase full of lightness, dreams and twelve jars of face cream.

Imagine a Polish woman with a diaphanous complexion in the midst of the tanned complexions of the Australians: the aim of Helena was to reformulate and re-propose her cream to those women with golden skin, so that they could cure it and preserve its natural beauty.

But where could she start?

Extracting the lanolin from the sheep and camouflaging the smell with lavender essence, pine bark and flowers.

Her cream was an incredible success!

In addition to becoming an entrepreneur, however, for Helena Rubinstein it was very important to show women their skin as a fundamental mirror of their health: for this reason in her laboratories she was often supported by experts and scientists with the aim of improving and diversifying the types creams according to the needs of each woman.

What was essential was to hydrate, protect yourself from the sun and wind and always allow yourself a restful sleep.

Helena Rubinstein later moved to Paris to get married to the American journalist Edward William Titus.

In the Ville Lumière Helena began to frequent the intellectual circles that introduced her to artists such as Dalì, Picasso, Braque, Eluard and Matisse, fueling more and more her interest in the art world until she became one of the greatest collectors of the century.

Within a couple of years Helena Rubinstein conquered the Parisian city and went to New York where she opened her first beauty salon, where there were certainly numerous references to her passion for art and fashion.

It was precisely her ambition and her talent to help her overcome the difficulties triggered by the first and second World War: with her dedication Helena continued tirelessly to develop and perfect her line of cosmetics, also giving importance to male beauty and to cutting-edge as electrostimulation, without neglecting the social causes to which she was very fond, such as beauty therapy for people with diseases.

Helena Rubinstein left behind a shining empire that today continues to have constant success, thanks to a woman who has always put science at the service of beauty, fighting for female emancipation and the achievement of her most daring dreams.

 
 
 
 
 
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What does success mean to you? Helena Rubinstein, our founder, was a force of nature and generations ahead of her time. From a young age she showed a strong will for independence and an entrepreneurial spirit. She quickly seized the opportunity to create her own cosmetics business, building her namesake brand by putting women at forefront of all that she did. From creation of the first beauty salon and pioneering categorisation by skin type, to using pure vitamin C, imagining a line of instant cosmetic interventions and harnessing the power of native vegetal cells, her powerful influence on the cosmetics industry remains today. Avant-garde by nature her trailblazing character continues to fuel the brand, which follows in her unstoppable footsteps of collaborating with leading scientists to push the boundaries of cellular skin science. #successstory #womensuccess #womensday #leadingwomen #womenforwomen

Un post condiviso da Helena Rubinstein (@helenarubinstein_international) in data:

I told you she was a real cool girl!