Anastasia Soare | |
---|---|
Born | Anastasia Bălămaci 28 December 1957 [1]
Constanța, Romania |
Nationality | Romanian American |
Occupation | Businesswoman |
Known for | CEO and founder, Anastasia Beverly Hills |
Spouse |
Victor Soare
(
m. 1978;
div. 1994) |
Children | 1 |
Anastasia Soare ( née Bălămaci) (born 28 December 1957) [1] is a Romanian-American businesswoman, and the CEO and founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills, known as the "Eyebrow Queen". [2] [3]
Soare was born in Constanța, Romania. [4] [2] [5] She is the child of Dumitru Bălămaci (who died when she was 12) and Victoria Babu, who owned a tailoring shop. [6] She studied art history and architecture in Romania. [5] [7]
Soare spoke very little English in 1989 when she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as an aesthetician at a beauty salon and soon realized that eyebrows were an under-explored area. "I developed a technique for how to shape eyebrows according to people's bone structure and natural eyebrow shape". [2] As her manager did not think there was enough of a market, she rented a room in a Beverly Hills salon, providing facials, body waxing, and eyebrow sculpting. [2] By 1997, she was running her own salon on Beverly Hills' Bedford Drive. [2] As a beautician, she has stated that her first two clients for an eyebrow treatment were Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. [7] Other clients have included Faye Dunaway and Jennifer Lopez. [2]
Soare is the CEO and founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills beauty brand, available in almost 2,000 stores internationally. [2] In 2018, Soare sold a minority stake in the business to portion to a private equity firm. [8]
In 2023, Forbes estimated the value of all of Anastasia Beverly Hills at approximately $500 million. [8]
In 1978, she married Victor Soare, a ship's captain. [6] The couple has a daughter, Claudia (known professionally as Norvina), who is also active in the makeup business. [7]
In 1986, while his ship was docked in Italy, Victor Soare visited the American embassy and asked for asylum. He reached the United States six months later. [9] However, Soare and her daughter were not allowed to leave Romania to join him in the United States until 1989. [5] [9] Victor and Anastasia divorced in 1994. [6] [9]
She lives in Beverly Hills, California, US. [10]