In episode forty nine of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills, Anastasia Soare.

Anastasia Soare is a self-made billionaire in the truest sense- but her story is not just for beauty lovers, nor is it just for business lovers. It’s for everyone. 

I was granted this interview as an Australian podcast exclusive, an opportunity I’m so grateful for and one I can assure you I have not taken lightly. I had limited time with Anastasia but I really wanted to do her story justice and tell it properly, so we’ve started in mid-1950s Romania. 

Anastasia grew up under the communist regime, studying art history and assisting her mother on the weekends in the tailoring business she owned and operated. From her mother, she learnt attention to detail, she learnt passion, and she learnt how good it feels when your client walks away feeling beautiful. From her art teacher, she learnt the Golden Ratio- a mathematical concept of balance and proportion that guides what the human eye finds beautiful and, subsequently, a ratio that would change Anastasia’s life. 

In 1989 and without speaking a word of English, Anastasia immigrated to the United States where she found work as an esthetician. Anastasia recalled what her art teacher had taught her about eyebrows in portraiture, being that they can change an entire face, so Anastasia began offering brow sculpting during her facials. Prior to Anastasia arriving in Los Angeles, no one in America had cared about their eyebrows. By 1992 her clients included Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Stephanie Seymore, and Anastasia was one of the most in demand people in the beauty industry. 

In 1997, Anastasia opened her own salon in Beverly Hills. In 1998 she shaped Oprah’s eyebrows on national television, by 1999 she had developed her own collection of eyebrow products, the very first of its kind, and by 2000, Anastasia Beverly Hills products were stocked nationally. In 2018, Anastasia Beverly Hills received an investment from private equity firm TPG that valued it at US $3 billion. Today, Anastasia Soare is still the company’s CEO, selling more than 500 products in over 30 countries with 20.2 million Instagram followers after bootstrapping the company for nearly 20 years before taking on that external investment.

This episode was recorded remotely, myself in Melbourne and Anastasia, of course, in Beverly Hills, so if you would prefer to read the interview I have made the complete transcript available on glowjournal.com. 

In this conversation, Anastasia shares what happened when she had to pull half of her collection from Nordstrom and bear the losses herself within just days of launching, how to back yourself when your product is, globally, the very first of its kind and, of course, her all time top brow tips. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/interview-anastasia-beverly-hills

Follow Anastasia Beverly Hills on Instagram at @anastasiabeverlyhills

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.