Anastasia Soare

She escaped Communist Romania with nothing. Now she runs a $500M beauty company.

In 1989, Anastasia Soare stepped off a plane in Los Angeles with her 3-year-old daughter, no English, no money, and no idea what came next.

With no work experience in the U.S., she took the only job she could get… doing facials and body waxing at a small beauty salon.

But as she worked, she noticed something no one else was paying attention to: eyebrows.

In Romania, Anastasia had studied art and architecture, where she learned about the Golden Ratio.

A mathematical principle to create perfect symmetry and beauty.

She pondered: What if that same rule could shape the perfect brow?

She started experimenting on her clients, sculpting their brows to match their bone structure using the Golden Ratio.

But when she pitched the idea to her salon’s owner, she was shut down.

So Anastasia took a leap of faith.

1990: She rented a tiny room in a Beverly Hills salon to shape brows on her own.

1997: Opened her first Beverly Hills salon. Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Jennifer Lopez became regulars.

2000: Launched Anastasia Beverly Hills, creating the first-ever brow-focused makeup line.

2023: Anastasia Beverly Hills is still independently owned and sold in 2,000+ stores worldwide.

Her cult-favorite products (Brow Wiz, Dipbrow Pomade, and Clear Brow Gel) became essentials in every makeup bag.