Anastasia Soare

Anastasia Soare – Life, Career, and Legacy

Learn about Anastasia Soare, the Romanian-American entrepreneur known as the “Eyebrow Queen,” founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills. Discover her journey from Romania, her innovations in beauty, and her lasting influence.

Introduction

Anastasia Soare (née Anastasia Bălămaci) is a Romanian-born American businesswoman who revolutionized the beauty industry with her specialized eyebrow techniques and cosmetics brand, Anastasia Beverly Hills. Often dubbed the “Eyebrow Queen,” she turned a niche craft into a global beauty empire. As of 2025, her brand is sold in thousands of stores, and she is recognized among America’s richest self-made women.

Her story is one of resilience, vision, and transformation: from a Romanian immigrant with limited English to a beauty mogul who redefined how we perceive brows and facial framing.

Early Life & Background

Anastasia Soare was born on December 28, 1957 in Constanța, Romania.

Her parents, Dumitru Bălămaci and Victoria Babu, were tailors. Tragically, her father passed away when she was 12. art history and architecture, which later influenced her aesthetic sense in beauty.

In Romania, Soare also trained in beauty / aesthetics. After the fall of communism, she immigrated to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles in 1989 with limited English skills.

Career & Innovations

Early Steps & Identifying a Niche

When Soare arrived in Los Angeles, she worked as an esthetician in a salon, performing facials, waxing, and skincare treatments. eyebrow grooming was largely overlooked in American beauty salons. In her experience in Romania, eyebrows were routinely shaped before facials; here, not so much.

Drawing from her background in art and architecture, she studied classical proportions and used the Golden Ratio (or “sacred geometry”) to develop a method of shaping brows according to a person’s bone structure and natural brow line.

Despite skepticism (including from her salon manager), she persisted. She rented a room in a Beverly Hills salon to perform brow sculpting, facials, and waxing services.

Her breakthrough clients included supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. 1997, she opened her own salon on Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills.

Founding Anastasia Beverly Hills

In 2000, Soare expanded her services into a cosmetics product line under the brand Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH).

Her brand is known for innovations in brow products (such as Brow Wiz, Dipbrow, etc.), and claims to be rooted in the Golden Ratio Eyebrow Shaping Method, patented by ABH.

By 2018, ABH had attracted outside investment: the private equity firm TPG acquired a minority stake, valuing the company at about US$3 billion.

As of 2025, Forbes estimates Soare’s net worth at $740 million, while noting her inclusion among America’s richest self-made women.

In 2025, it was reported that she will publish a memoir titled Raising Brows: My Story of Building a Billion Dollar Beauty Empire.

Personality, Philosophy & Style

• Artistic Sensibility + Technical Precision: Soare’s background in architecture and art made her sensitive to proportion, lines, and balance. She applied that to beauty.

• Persistence & Resourcefulness: She often recounts how she had to convince landlords, clients, and the beauty industry of the value in brow shaping.

• Immigrant Mindset: Arriving with little English or financial resources, she leveraged humility, observation, and hard work.

• Vision for Niche: She saw an overlooked corner (eyebrows) and transformed it into a central aesthetic feature in makeup.

• Family Collaboration: Her daughter Claudia Soare, known professionally as Norvina, now serves as President and Creative Director of ABH.

She is also known to have had to beg for a $500 credit card when she first tried to get started in the U.S., because she lacked credit history.

Legacy & Influence

• Redefined Eyebrows in Beauty: Before Soare, brows were often afterthoughts; she made them a defining facial feature and beauty category.

• Global Beauty Brand: ABH is a major name in cosmetics, with presence in top-tier retailers (Sephora, Nordstrom, etc.).

• Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs & Immigrants: Her story of coming from communist Romania to building a beauty empire resonates widely.

• Cultural Impact: She has influenced trends in sculpted brows, microblading, brow products, social media beauty standards, etc.

• Upcoming Memoir & Storytelling: Her memoir Raising Brows will extend her voice and story into the cultural record.

Notable Remarks & Anecdotes

• She has recalled learning English by watching The Oprah Winfrey Show, one of her inspirations.

• She described doing Oprah’s eyebrows on TV as her “Oscar moment.”

• She once said she “unlocked something combining science with beauty” when she applied the Golden Ratio technique to brows.

Lessons from Anastasia Soare’s Journey

1. See gaps others overlook
   A niche like eyebrows had been neglected—she made it central.

2. Blend art and measurement
   Her use of geometry and aesthetic judgment made her method rigorous and compelling.

3. Persevere through doubt
   Many resisted her ideas early on, yet she persisted.

4. Start small, scale strategically
   From renting a room to building a global brand over decades.

5. Elevate your craft into a product ecosystem
   She didn’t stop at service; she built products to reach mass audiences.

6. Let new generations contribute
   Her daughter’s leadership helps carry forward innovation and legacy.