Helena Rubinstein: The Woman Who Invented Beauty - Softcover

Fitoussi, Michèle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908313463 ISBN 13: 9781908313461

Publisher: Gallic Books, 2014

Synopsis

"This vivid account pops with fascinating detail and reads like fiction. Wonderfully, it isn't."—Elle

She understood women. She understood beauty. And she started a revolution.

Helena Rubinstein was born into a poor Polish family at the end of the nineteenth century; by the time of her death in 1965 she had built a cosmetics empire that spanned the world.

Her scientific approach to beauty was an instant sensation. Women couldn't get enough of her innovative advice on skincare, and her beauty products were constantly sold out.

This is her amazing life story.

Michèle Fitoussi is a journalist and author.

About this title

About the Author:

Michèle Fitoussi: Michèle Fitoussi was born in Tunisia. She is a journalist and author.
Kate Bignold: Kate Bignold read French and German at Manchester University. She lives in southwest England with her two children.
Lakshmi Ramakrishnan Iyer: Lakshmi Ramakrishnan Iyer is a translator from French and Italian into English. She lives in southwest France.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Can wearing lipstick be a “brave political gesture” of independence? Absolutely, and no one knew this better than tenacious and courageous cosmetics pioneer Rubinstein (1872–1965). A prophetic innovator, glamorous dynamo, mercurial tyrant, and long-reigning empress of beauty, Rubinstein began life in Krakow as the eldest of eight daughters in a poor Jewish family. Longing for an education and appalled by her parents’ attempts to marry her off, she voyaged alone to Australia to start a new life with uncles she’d never met. They turned out to be brutes, and Rubinstein fled. Observing the weathered condition of Australian women’s skin, she decided, in spite of having no resources, to make and sell moisturizer. Fitoussi, a longtime editor at Elle in Paris, vividly describes how Rubinstein labored at menial jobs while teaching herself botany and chemistry, then prevailed over misogyny and anti-Semitism to produce her scientifically advanced beauty products and treatments. She built factories, managed an international chain of elegant salons, and employed thousands, spreading the gospel of personal care and well-being. With exhilarating fluency in Rubinstein’s dazzling yet cutthroat world and deep respect and sympathy for this visionary entrepreneurial genius and captivating celebrity, who persevered through war and personal traumas, Fitoussi proves that fact is more astounding then legend when it comes to this indomitable champion of beauty and freedom. --Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: Gallic Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1908313463
• ISBN 13: 9781908313461
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 404