Helena Rubinstein: The Woman Who Invented Beauty

Long before SKII, La Prairie, or the coveted Creme de la Mer, there was Helena Rubinstein. Your mother or grandmother probably used Helena Rubinstein creams or cosmetics once upon a time. But not that many people know about Helena's Australian connections. She was little known and has been virtually forgotten, but her extraordinary life spanned nearly a century (she died in 1965 at the age of ninety-three) and three continents. She was banished by her family to Australia at age 24 for refusing to accept an arranged marriage and as a result, became a pioneer who reinvented beauty for modern times. Napoleon Perdis says that he is inspired by Helena. She really was a Polish modern day Scarlett O'Hara! This is the extraordinary story of the woman who created a cosmetic empire and gave it her name, of an entrepreneur who started with nothing except a belief in the strength of women. The eldest of eight girls in a poor Jewish Orthodox...