'The captivating story of the first global cosmetics empire, the fascinating woman who built it, and the past she preferred to leave behind
'This meticulously researched and wryly entertaining portrait of Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965) focuses on the years she spent in Australia as a young woman, recovering a 'lost' chapter in the grand narrative of the woman who created one of the first global cosmetics corporations. At its height, Rubinstein's brand was synonymous with elegance and employed 30,000 women around the world.
'Rubinstein arrived in Australia from Poland when she was twenty-three years old. She lived in Australia for the next eleven years, working first as a governess and then as a waitress, before opening her first beauty salon in Melbourne.
'In later years, owing to the degree of control she exercised over her glamorous image, many details of her early life in Australia were suppressed. But the events she airbrushed out of her own myth reveal the surprising origins of her extraordinary rise. In this absorbing book, we see her laying the foundations for a global empire.
'With a foreword by Sarah Krasnostein' (Publication summary)
'Angus Trumble, who died suddenly last October, was a towering figure with a slight sideways tilt to his head. In his famously dandyish attire he might have stepped out of a Max Beerbohm cartoon, and appropriately so given his expertise in Victorian and Edwardian art. Trumble’s latest, and last, subject also chimes with one of Beerbohm’s earliest literary ventures, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, published in 1894.' (Introduction)
Helena Rubinstein, born to modest shopkeepers in Kraków in 1872, grew up to found an international cosmetics empire that bore her name. Most biographical sources list her as Polish and American or a Polish-born American entrepreneur. They pay lip-service to her opening her first shop in Melbourne but fail to give full credit to the formative experience of her 12 years in Australia. It was here that she was first inspired to found the business that would make her famous worldwide. (Introduction)
Helena Rubinstein, born to modest shopkeepers in Kraków in 1872, grew up to found an international cosmetics empire that bore her name. Most biographical sources list her as Polish and American or a Polish-born American entrepreneur. They pay lip-service to her opening her first shop in Melbourne but fail to give full credit to the formative experience of her 12 years in Australia. It was here that she was first inspired to found the business that would make her famous worldwide. (Introduction)
'Angus Trumble, who died suddenly last October, was a towering figure with a slight sideways tilt to his head. In his famously dandyish attire he might have stepped out of a Max Beerbohm cartoon, and appropriately so given his expertise in Victorian and Edwardian art. Trumble’s latest, and last, subject also chimes with one of Beerbohm’s earliest literary ventures, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, published in 1894.' (Introduction)
