Helena Rubinstein: The Woman Who Invented Beauty by Michele Fitoussi HarperCollins Australia, $35
Flawless as Helena Rubinstein’s skin, and as captivating as the Polish born Jewish beauty magnate’s 70 year reign, this brilliant biography stands as a fascinating history of “make-up”, which, when HR sailed for Australia in 1896 — with pots of the skin cream her mother doused her eight daughters with — was taboo, only used by prostitutes and actresses!
In a white scientist’s coat over silk taffeta, HR defined dry, oily and normal skins and preached the ritual of soap, astringent and cleanser to Melbournites; and seduced Parisians with a body beneficial cocktail of low-fat diet and exercise, all in the early 1900s.
A trail blazing self-marketer, “Madame” was at the forefront of sun protection creams, products for men, and invented the revolutionary “mascara-matic” tube refill, which replaced spitting on a mascara cake.
She outlived both her husbands and her youngest son; counted Colette, Picasso, Matisse, Chanel and Chagall among her circle, and waged a famous war against her arch US rival Elizabeth Arden.
But waiting in the wings was the newest beauty queen, Hungarian/Czech Jew from Queens, New York, Estee (Esther) Lauder, whose latest innovation in the 1940s — the free miniature sample — would take the world by storm and out shadow them both in time.
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