The inspiring story of how Anastasia Soare started Anastasia Beverly Hills

Anastasia Soare, queen of eyebrows and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills has worked hard to get where she is. And, lucky for us, she’s shared exactly how she became the beauty boss she is today. Prepare to feel inspired, beauties!
RELATED: Female-founded beauty brands to try
RELATED: How to shape your eyebrows correctly at home
When Anastasia Soare was 32, she immigrated to the United States from Romania.
“When I was growing up in Romania, it was quite impossible to do anything, especially as a woman. In a communist regime, there can be no entrepreneurial spirit—they’ll kill the idea before you even start thinking it,” Anastasia told Allure.
“When I arrived in the U.S. in 1989, I couldn’t speak English. But we needed to pay the rent, so I got a job doing facials and waxing at a salon in Los Angeles.
Image via @abhsalon
“After a few months, I asked the salon’s owner why no one in America paid attention to their eyebrows. In Romania, an aesthetician would always tweeze the brows before a facial. But this woman didn’t want me to do clients’ brows.”
So Anastasia started hitting the library to study Leonardo Da Vinci’s work and the Golden Ratio. She then came up with a technique for shaping brows according to the natural brow shape and bone structure of her clients. This technique was later patented as the Golden Ratio Eyebrow Shaping Method. After doing this for a couple of years, Anastasia rented a room in a salon and started her own brow studio.
“Within six months, I had celebrity clients—Cindy, Naomi, Stephanie, the supermodels. Several years later I created my own products. Back then, brows were a category in beauty that really didn’t exist,” Anastasia continued.
Image via @abhsalon
Today, Anastasia Beverly Hills is an uber-successful cosmetics company known for its cult-favourite Brow Wiz pencil and liquid lipsticks.
“When I came to the U.S., I just knew that if I proved that I could do something, people would listen to me and pay attention to me and encourage me. And they did,” Anastasia told Allure. “In America, I’ve found that when people feel you have good intentions, they will support you—no matter what language you speak, what your religion is, what your political views are.”
To keep our brows in tip-top shape, beautyheaven loves PONi Brow Powder and Bobbi Brown Brow Kits.
What do you think of Anastasia Soare and her story? Are you inspired by any women in the beauty industry?
43 Member Comments
Thank you for this inspirational story! I hope that BH brings more articles out such as this one.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
So amazing! I've always admired her so much.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
I've never heard of her.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
This is an amazing story! Would love to hear more about it. Hard work always pays off!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Interesting to hear the story behind the brand!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
This is great. She saw an opening in the marketplace and created a niche, a trend and a brand. Good on her, I say. Girl power.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Wow! Really an inspiring story.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
What a wonderful story. She is an inspiration and shows we can all achieve our dreams. Learnt a lot about the eyebrow revolution too.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
That's a great story, fantastic that she was able to do all that. Good for her.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
What a great article on her life & success, I'm not much of a brow person I don't even touch them best left alone as I like my brows to be thick & not the thin type like everyone has these days.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
I love hearing the stories behind successful women! Awesome article bh's Ellie!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
A fascinating story. Would love to read more about the founders of beauty brands - especially when they are immigrants (would be fun to read some Au stories too).
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
What a nice feel good story to read, love knowing the her-story behind this famous brand! And I love the brow palette!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Definitely heartwarming and inspiring.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Great heartwarming and inspirational story!! I really need to try her brand sometime soon.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Wow, thats inspiring. It must have been hard at first when didnt speak any English.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
great story, all that hard work finally pays off well.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
What an inspiring woman! She really had the odds stacked against her but still triumphed.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
In the Russian classics, they're obsessed with black eyebrows as a symbol of beauty. I read Nobel prize winner, Herta Müller's "The Land of Green Plums," which was about living through the Romanian dictatorship. That book will be with me forever! (Highly recommended!)
I love the look of that eyeshadow palette.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 1
Wow, this sounds like an incredible and intense read!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Love her story! And how popular her goodies are now. =)
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
I'd love to read more inspirational stories like this about women succeeding.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
What an inspiring story of success, good on her!
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 0
Who? Haven't heard of her before but good on her for making her business a success.
- Log in or register to commentReply to comment
- Likes 1