The Queen of Brows looks back on 25 years of Anastasia Beverly Hills.
She’s explaining the Golden Ratio, the brow shape she developed and patented. “I want to find a way of explaining to you,” Soare tells me over Zoom as she scribbles in her notebook. She says the face is divided into several main sections—more on that later—and holds up her drawing, complete with angles, graphs, and fractions.
“It took me years and years to simplify this,” she says.There aren’t many people who can claim to be synonymous with an entire body part. But Anastasia Soare, the woman and name behind Anastasia Beverly Hills,eyebrows. Her story is almost mythical: Born in Romania, Soare immigrated to the United States without speaking English, and without financial means. She settled in Los Angeles and started working at a salon before focusing on brows. Little did she know a celeb-frequented brow destination, beloved product line, and billion-dollar valuation were in her future. As Anastasia Beverly Hills celebrates its 25th anniversary, the mogul and Queen of Brows sits down withSoare at the original Anastasia Beverly Hills salon in 1997.It was the early ’90s, and Soare had already made a name for herself as a waxer to the stars. “I was doing bikini wax, leg wax, facials, and all that,” she recalls. It wasn’t long before the press got wind of her talents. “One magazine asked if I could [speak about] one of my celebrity clients. I said, ‘Of course. Let me ask Michelle Pfeiffer.’" But in contrast to today’s overshare-prone celebs, A-listers at the time were a bit more discreet about their body care. “She said, ‘Well, I cannot tell them you do my bikini wax,’” Soare says. Soare then had an epiphany. “I was thinking, Maybe I should focus on eyebrows, because it’s a walking advertisement.” Simple as it seems, she says the concept was revolutionary at the time. “Before that, I realized that nobody paid attention to eyebrows,” she says. Through word of mouth, her business grew at high speed, especially when makeup artists realized they could save time by having their clients’ brows done ahead of time.In the age of the skinny brow, part of what set Soare’s technique apart—and had all of Beverly Hills banging down her door—was her patented Golden Ratio. Based on a visual concept that dates back to the ancient Greeks, the Golden Ratio, or the divine proportion, is a mathematical principle usually applied to art and architecture. But it was Soare who believed eyebrows could be considered both. “I realized that in every picture that I had from Romania, I looked very surprised, because my eyebrow was very thin and round,” Soare says. “I remember my art teacher talking about how important eyebrows are and how if we need to draw a portrait, just that change in emotion, we could just change the eyebrow shape.” She recalls learning about Leonardo da Vinci and his use of the Golden Ratio in some of his most famous works. “He did several studies of the face. He never did eyebrows though,” she says.Naturally, she picked up where da Vinci left off. She learned that the face is split into invisible “zones”: three horizontal and five vertical, with the brow helping to separate them and keep them equally spaced. And by creating three key points on the brow, it would be, in her mind, not only spatially correct but also the most aesthetically pleasing. Soare practiced the technique on herself first, and the compliments rolled in. “I started doing the service to the clients without even charging them, because it wasn’t considered a service,” she shares.In 1992, the high demand for Soare’s services led to her own space, a room across from Neiman Marcus in, yes, Beverly Hills. But Soare’s signature style was in direct contrast to what was popular. “Remember, it was the Pamela Anderson age where everybody wanted pencil-thin eyebrows,” she says. Because brow products didn’t really exist yet, Soare developed a homemade solution for clients who had over-tweezed. “I used to mix eye shadow with aloe vera and some Vaseline to create this pomade and fill in the client’s eyebrows,” she says. Of course, clients couldn’t duplicate the look at home, and a product line was the next logical step. Then came expansion: In 1997, she found a larger salon space to offer her brow, waxing, and facial services, plus her brand-new makeup line. Anastasia Beverly Hills was officially in business.Selling the line in the salon was a big first step, but as Soare’s name recognition grew, the demand reached far outside the 90210 zip code. “I was working, at that time, with every celebrity possible,” she says. That’s when Nordstrom came calling. The department store was interested in stocking the brand, but Soare had a big caveat: “I said, ‘It’s great, and I’m flattered, but we have to do [brow] services.’ At that time, people didn’t know that you have to put powder in your eyebrows or how to do it. It was very important from the beginning to have a service to train the customer.” Nordstrom agreed, and Anastasia Beverly Hills launched in 20 stores, with aestheticians stationed in each one. Soare herself would travel to the stores on weekends to train the staff and support the brand . Nordstrom’s support was invaluable, but not everyone was immediately on board with a line exclusively devoted to brows. “Everybody thought, ‘What, eyebrows? No, this is not going to work.’” Part of the reason was the wide variety of shades and textures she wanted to offer. “I have clients from all over the world. I cannot say, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a color for you,’” she says. But Soare was laying the groundwork—or etching the stencil, as it were—for a previously untapped category in the beauty industry. According to
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
California Looks to Make EV Charging Suppliers More AccountableApart from Tesla, fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles has a downside. Some policy makers want to improve the experience for California EV owners.
Read more »
Apple Martin Looks Just Like Mom Gwyneth Paltrow While Sitting Front Row at ChanelIntroducing the newest Chanel girl.
Read more »
Finland looks at joining NATO without Sweden amid pushback from TurkeyFinland's foreign minister suggested that Helsinki may look to join NATO without Sweden as Stockholm faces pushback from Turkey.
Read more »
My 23-year-old date looks 8-years-old — I’m not a creepA hunky travel blogger has hit back at claims he is “creepy” for dating a 23-year-old woman who looks like an 8-year-old girl.
Read more »