Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein was born in Krakow in 1872 and built one of the twentieth century's defining beauty empires, opening her first salon in Melbourne in 1902 with a face cream — Crème Valaze — formulated from a Polish recipe she carried with her. The business expanded through London, Paris and New York, and by the interwar years she sat alongside Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder as one of the three women who effectively invented the modern cosmetics industry. The perfume side of the house has been intermittent rather than central. Early launches like Heaven Sent gave way to a long quiet period, with later releases including Wanted, composed by Dominique Ropion and Carlos Benaim in 2009. L'Oréal acquired Helena Rubinstein in 1988 and has repositioned the brand as an ultra-premium skincare line, with fragrance now a minor adjacency to a catalogue dominated by serums and creams. Its tagline today reads simply: avant-garde skincare since 1902.