Helena Rubinstein

Rubinstein left Kraków for Australia, where she began selling a face cream in Melbourne in the early 1900s, and went on to open salons in London, Paris and New York. Her model mixed treatment salons, which gave the products scientific authority, with department store distribution. Her rivalry with Elizabeth Arden shaped the American beauty industry, and she sold the US business to Lehman Brothers in 1928 before buying it back cheaply after the crash.