You know her name, you know her brand, but do you know the story behind the Queen of Brows?
In Ep. 141 of Earned, Conor Begley sits down (in the iconic flagship location) with Anastasia Soare—legendary founder and CEO of iconic beauty powerhouse, Anastasia Beverly Hills—to discuss her journey to creating a beauty (and brow) empire.
To start, we discuss Anastasia’s journey from arriving in the U.S. in 1989 without knowing English, to transforming her passion for beauty into a billion-dollar empire. Anastasia shares the remarkable story behind building ABH from scratch, highlighting the importance of resilience, hard work, and family bonds. An influencer marketing pioneer in the early days of social media, Anastasia reveals how ABH’s authenticity and digital savvy fostered a loyal community of fans that took the brand—and consumers’ brows—to new heights. Switching gears, we dive into Anastasia’s artistic background, and she pulls back the curtain on how principles of light, shadow, and proportion from her art school days have influenced her makeup techniques, before emphasizing the brand’s commitment to solving customer problems with innovative products. To close the show, Anastasia shares her tips for managing a global enterprise while staying true to your brand’s core values.
We’ve included a couple of highlights from the episode below, but be sure to check out the full video above, or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
“Nobody believed in eyebrows. It was like I was speaking another language”: Anastasia Soare on Creating Her Eyebrow Empire
Conor Begley: Everybody sees this incredible run you've had over the last couple of decades, but I know from being in business that there are downs as well as ups. What were some of the hardest times for you since ABH has gotten started?
Anastasia Soare: First of all, nobody believed in eyebrows. It was like I was speaking another language. I started creating products and people didn't think that they should use the powder on their eyebrows. Social media helped us because we could do tutorials. We could teach you how to use products. The whole concept of [ABH] was that we created the products, then we tell you how to use them, and why you have to use them to create that perfect balance and proportion.
I know there are many beautiful brands, and they launch products. The way I wanted to launch my brand was, “This is the product, and I'm going to tell you from an artistic point of view why you have to use it and where to create the perfect balance and proportion within your face.”
My question to my daughter and people that I worked with and to myself when I started was, “Why do we use makeup?” I didn't get an answer, and then I had to dig and give myself the answer. In art school, the teacher used to tell me, “If you want to draw a portrait, or you want to change an emotion, you change the eyebrows.” And I remember, on a piece of paper with the pencil, you start drawing, and with the white of the paper and darkness of the pencil, using more or less pressure, you are able to create cheekbones, nose bridge, eyes, eyebrows. So by using dark and light, you’re able to create a perfect balance and proportion. We use makeup to create that. If you become a good makeup artist, you know where to place the dark color and the light color. You are able to create an illusion of perfect balance and proportion. We wanted to match or to integrate science into beauty. That should be the foundation of my brand and this is how it was founded.
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