Avant-garde
Skincare Since 1902
HELENA RUBINSTEIN is a skincare brand of avant-garde luxury. At the meeting point of cutting-edge science and personalized service, its rich heritage is matched by its commitment to innovation. Under the uncompromising vision of Global Brand President Elisabeth Sandager, and in partnership with the leading scientists of our time, the brand’s objective remains as it was in 1902: to empower women through beauty.
HELENA RUBINSTEIN has and always will be a forward-thinking, innovative, and progressive brand that works with experts in their field, and showing audacity and vision in several other areas.
HELENA RUBINSTEIN is grounded by its history, its name synonymous with iconic products, scientific legitimacy and exceptional formulas. From Valaze, the first treatment cream, to waterproof mascara, its ambition is set on creating the beauty and skincare of the future. Through high-tech formulas, scents and specified packagings, avant-garde is in every detail inspired by science, the power of nature and the constant quest for ultimate efficacy.
HELENA RUBINSTEIN’s range of sensorial refined skincare is arranged into three main pillars, and benefits from scientific expert endorsements. Each range has seen clinically proven outcomes, thanks to their intense concentrations of active ingredients and the pioneering use of native vegetal cells.
Cellular Skin Science
Skincare efficacy at a cellular level: this is the avant-garde of HELENA RUBINSTEIN today. With the culmination of 117 years of research, HELENA RUBINSTEIN is harnessing the power of advanced skincare science for a new generation, in the pioneering spirit of its founder.
Power of Nature
HELENA RUBINSTEIN is one of the first brands to use native vegetal cells – hailed for their transformational properties at both surface and cellular level. These cells, sustainably harvested from natural and rare sources then multiplied in laboratories, are the most powerful cells in the plant world, and some have shown the ability to reconstruct a skin epidermis.
The use of native vegetal cells in HELENA RUBINSTEIN’s formulas has been clinically proven to boost the skin’s cellular activity, vital for rejuvenation, and lasting anti-ageing results. Compared with traditional active ingredients known in cosmetics, native vegetal cells combine the power of nature and science, creating new opportunities to visibly improve the skin like never before.
Cellular Reprogramming
The skin is programmed to renew itself throughout life. With age, and under the influence of daily oxidative stress, that program begins to change: senescent cells appear, secreting molecules that damage the cell environment. Clinical signs of ageing appear: loss of brightness and density, age spots, and cutaneous dryness.
HELENA RUBINSTEIN Laboratories signed an academic partnership and in this research program, tests showed success in inhibiting ageing messages released by old skin cells, and efficacy in activing the production of youth messages of younger cells. These discoveries in HELENA RUBINSTEIN formulas have clinically proven results of reprogramming aging cells to function like young ones.
A Scientific Approach
HELENA RUBINSTEIN’s rigorous evaluation of the efficacy of its products is unique within the industry. Scientific studies of new products are carried out upon a spectrum of subjects: individuals with similar environmental influences, mothers and daughters for comparative studies, partnerships with experts who developed a skin model for burn patients…
Over lengths in time: from 4 weeks up to 10 months.
Using breakthrough technologies : such as 3D imagery and biological research, therefore opening doors to meaningful data at a cellular level.
Scientific Endorsements
Madame Rubinstein worked with the leading scientists of her day to deepen her understanding of the skin and the art of healing its imperfections, and today the brand is proud to collaborate with a board of world-leading scientists.
Laclinic-Montreux was founded in 2002 by world-renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Michel Pfulg who is one of the most prestigious plastic and cosmetic surgeons in the world, with an unparalleled expertise on the minimally invasive facelift. Since 2008, HELENA RUBINSTEIN has collaborated with Dr Michel Pfulg to develop its Replasty skincare range, inspired by Laclinic-Montreux’s three-step clinical protocol – PREEL, TREAT and RECOVER. The idea behind Replasty was born out of the science of regenerative medicine, combined with Helena Rubinstein’s extensive background in anti-ageing skincare.
In 2012, a new partnership was forged with Dr Jean-Marc Lemaitre – Research Director at INSERM – Europe’s number one biomedical research institute, to explore a new territory in skincare: active cellular reprogramming. During his esteemed career, one of Dr Jean-Marc Lemaitre’s most exciting achievements was demonstrating for the first time: the concept of cellular downregulated ageing. Working with the HELENA RUBINSTEIN team, this knowledge has been used in the development of the Prodigy Cellglow range, containing a unique Edelweiss extract. To prove the effectiveness of this extract, HELENA RUBINSTEIN realized an unseen and very conclusive clinical test.
A Unique Legacy
A visionary in the purest sense of the word, Madame Rubinstein touched the worlds of beauty, modern art and women’s rights with her avant-garde spirit and sense of the exceptional. Her friend, the writer Jean Cocteau, regarded her as the “Empress of Beauty”. Around the globe, thousands of devotees knew her simply as “Madame”.
An Uncommon Destiny
Born in Krakow to a family of working class orthodox jews in 1872, she was expected to marry a rich widow and live out a modest life as a housewife. But Rubinstein would choose her own destiny.
At just 24 she emigrated to Australia, alone, with 12 vials of skin cream, blended by her mother to a secret recipe, tucked into her luggage. In Melbourne, local women were transfixed: what was the secret of her radiant complexion? Rubinstein sensed an opportunity, and with the help of a doctor, created Valaze. It was the first beauty cream, and an overnight sensation
A Trail of Innovation
This was the first of several business decisions, which would make Rubinstein one of the first female entrepreneurs. It also confirmed her intuition that science was the key to unlocking the compelling powers of beauty, and she would go on to work with some of the world’s leading medical experts in the creation of her skincare empire.
Never quelling her thirst for knowledge and scientific discovery, she blazed a trail of innovation which the house continues to this day. The first waterproof mascara; the definition of the three skin types; an understanding of the impact of nutrition on the skin; the first beauty salon.
Art Reflects Life
A supporter of Warhol, first in the order book of a young Yves Saint Laurent and an early collector of African art, she was a visionary in the arts as she was in skincare. Miro, Dufy and de Kooning decorated her advertising campaigns, while her beauty salons were adorned by works by Dali, Modigliani and Juan Gris. She understood beauty instinctively and from the heart.
Beauty is Power
For Rubinstein, beauty was more than appearance. Beauty was power. It was freedom to be yourself. She wanted to give all women the tools to take back control.
This was her true life’s work. Along the way, she defined the beauty industry as we know it.
