Helena Rubinstein

The captivating story of the first global cosmetics empire, the fascinating woman who built it, and the past she preferred to leave behind

‘Because of Trumble’s surgical precision, his empathy and self-awareness, his humour, his grace, his exquisite visual sense … in his hands the facts of Rubinstein’s life take on new and startling significance.’ -Sarah Krasnostein

Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965) is best known for creating the world’s first global cosmetics empire. At its height, her name was synonymous with glamour, with salons in Paris, London and New York, and beauty products sold at cosmetics counters around the world.

Much less well known are the years Rubinstein spent in Australia before she was famous. Recently arrived from Poland, aged twenty-three and speaking little English, she worked as a governess and waitress before opening her first salon in Melbourne in 1902. In this captivating and wryly entertaining portrait, Angus Trumble retraces Rubinstein’s forgotten Australian years. Later, Rubinstein worked hard to suppress key details of her early life, but they reveal the origins of her extraordinary rise. In the laneways of Melbourne and the dusty streets of Coleraine, we see her laying the foundations of a global empire.

This is the fascinating story of an enigmatic woman, the myth she carefully curated, and the past she preferred to leave behind.

With a foreword by Sarah Krasnostein

‘Angus Trumble, scoured records to chart Rubinstein’s progress to Sydney, New Zealand and on to a global empire … Rubinstein’s motto, “Beauty is power”, proved a shrewd prediction.’ -Robyn Douglass, The Herald Sun

Author Biography

Angus Trumble (1964-2022) was senior research fellow at the National Museum of Australia and a former director of the National Portrait Gallery. He was senior curator of paintings and sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn. until January 2014. His previous books include Love and Death- Art in the Age of Queen Victoria (2001), A Brief History of the Smile (2004), The Finger- A Handbook (2010) and Edwardian Opulence- British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, co-edited with Andrea Wolk Rager (2013). In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.