Page 76 - PROTAGONIST-131

A series of photos follows a client who ‘shoots the works’ in the Fifth
Avenue salon of Helena Rubinstein. Ultraviolet light is one of the

“Ugly women don’t exist, only lazy women do.” sleep to the importance of protection from the sun’s powerful rays. healthful aids to beauty in 1935. ©Orlando/Three Lions/Getty Images
It was Helena Rubinstein, the Polish entrepreneur and She opened her first store in Coleraine, then settled in Melbourne,
founder of the eponymous company that is now part of L’Oréal, later in Sydney. She then returned to the Old Continent, first to
the world’s leading cosmetics brand of make–up, beauty, hair care London in 1908, where she married journalist Edward William
and fragrance lines, who uttered this phrase, which has become a Titus that same year. Together they had two sons, Roy Valentine
beauty motto over the years. and Horace. Then to Paris, where she switched from producing
Rubinstein, on the other hand, never knew what laziness facial creams to also creating make–up products, with mattifying
was: born in Krakow in the mid–19th century – in 1872, to be blushes and powders. Now very wealthy, she crossed the ocean
exact – she was the eldest of eight children of a Jewish couple, again to land in New York City, where she opened a store on 715
grocers by profession; a modest family that nevertheless gave her Fifth Avenue at the outbreak of World War II.
the opportunity to study Medicine. To her father’s wishes, who One anecdote that testifies to her verve: when they told her in
at the end of her studies imposed an arranged marriage on her 1941 that she could not buy an apartment on Park Avenue because
to a wealthy, widowed old man, she reacted with a refusal and a she was Jewish, she decided to buy the entire building. But her
gesture that would change her life forever: in 1896 she bought a status and wealth did not take her away from reality; on the
ticket to Australia – and to freedom – where her aunt and uncle contrary: she used her fortune for charitable purposes, supporting
were waiting for her, ready to take her in. charitable organisations in education, art and health.
Here, on the other side of (her) world, Chaja – her real name In 1953, for example, she created a foundation to provide
– changed her life completely, starting precisely with her name: high–level education even to young women from the less affluent
she chose Helena, more modern, elegant, cosmopolitan. And in backgrounds, remaining firm in the belief that culture, as well
Australia she discovers that “there are not only sheep,” but that as beauty, should be democratic and within the reach of all. She
those very animals, raised by her uncles, would be her fortune. was also a great lover of contemporary art and, during her years
From their fleece, in fact, came lanolin, which was the basis for in France, used to frequent the big names in the painting world of
the Valaze formula – from the Hungarian “gift from heaven” – the the time, including Picasso, Matisse, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera,
first Helena Rubinstein face cream with a restorative effect that Dali and Braque.
was popular among Australian women, whose skin was often At age 55, in 1938, she even married a young prince, Artchil
challenged by sun and wind. Gourielli–Tchkonia, 23 years her junior. In New York, however,
She specialized more and more in beauty and was the first a rivalry began with another great figure in the beauty world:
to succeed in putting scientific rigor at the service of beauty, Elizabeth Arden, also founder of one of the first major cosmetic
introducing techniques that were innovative and almost futuristic houses. The two were great rivals: they met in the same clubs and
for the time, such as electrostimulation, peeling, hormone mask, restaurants as well as at the most mundane events. And when
the first facelift treatment and sophisticated vitamin C creams. Rubinstein was asked what she thought of Arden, she always
In Australia, she soon became a beauty guru: she taught replied, “We never met.” In her life she always helped all women,
women the importance of taking care of their skin, from hours of she could afford to leave one out.

74 Portrait Protagonist