Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein

By Tom Kirvan

A renowned entrepreneur, art collector, and philanthropist, Helena Rubinstein began her eponymous cosmetics empire in Australia at the turn of the 20th century after emigrating from Poland in 1896 with little money and virtually no command of the English language.

Despite those seemingly insurmountable odds, Rubinstein soon opened a beauty salon in Melbourne, selling the fashionable idea of glamour to women longing to be noticed. In 1908, she parlayed her success in Australia to international advantage, eventually opening salons in London, Paris, and New York, building a massive business enterprise that she sold to Lehman Brothers in 1928 for the then worldly sum of $7.3 million (approximately $130 million today).

When the Great Depression rocked the U.S. in 1929, Rubinstein bought back her former company for pennies on the dollar, increasing its value more than a hundred-fold over the course of the next two decades. In the process, she engaged in a highly-publicized rivalry with Elizabeth Arden, a Canadian-American businesswoman who also founded a cosmetics company bearing her name. Their battle for cosmetics supremacy was dramatized in the 2016 musical “War Paint” that opened on Broadway the following year.

Helena Rubinstein*

One of eight daughters, Rubinstein in her prime was among the wealthiest women in the world, establishing a foundation in 1953 that distributed nearly $130 million over the span of six decades. Most of the money was designated for education, the arts, and community-based youth programs.

Born in Poland on Christmas Day in 1870, Rubinstein died on another noteworthy day, April 1, 1965 at the age of 94. Twice married, Rubinstein was known for her dry wit, noting late in her career that “I fell in love with beauty a long, long time ago, but what I wanted was to create beauty – not to be blinded by it.”

Among her other notable quotes:

“There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.”
“Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.”
“I have never had my face lifted. I prefer to have my spirits lifted. In my opinion, the effect is nearly the same.”
“I am more than ever convinced that what we eat today is what we are tomorrow.”
“Listen! Say less rather than more. If you want to be smart, play stupid!”

*George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons