Turning Brows Into a Billion-Dollar Business: Anastasia Soare on Building Anastasia Beverly Hills

I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab.

Today I sit down with the woman that Oprah called the queen of brows, Anastasia Soare, the founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills.

And if you're wondering to yourself, can browse really be big business?

Well, Anastasia scaled her company to a reported $3 billion valuation.

And today, she tells me how she did it.

From growing up in communist Romania to building one of the most successful beauty brands in the world, Anastasia shares the negotiation tactics that she used early on to get partners to take a chance on her and what financial moves she made before taking a bet on herself.

We also talk about the time she fired her own daughter, whether romantic relationships are a distraction in business, and how the heck she cultivated such an amazing celebrity client list that features names like Chris Jenner, Jennifer Lopez, Haley Bieber, and more.

Plus, we do a very special edition of Bullish or Bearish, where I ask Anastasia to rate beauty trends today.

So, whether you're interested in the beauty industry or just profitable businesses, this conversation has something for everyone.

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Anastasia Soare, welcome to Money Rehab.

Thank you so much for having me.

So excited.

So excited to talk about money because you are the brow queen, but also the money queen and love talking about business and money.

And I think that's so important to open up about because you came from nothing nothing zero that's right in Romania communist society what was your idea about money growing up well my mother was an entrepreneur living in a communist regime was quite difficult to own your own business for some reason my mother was able to own her own business she was making clothes for the elite the wives and you know happy wives happy husband

And then my mother was able to have this business.

She had few people working for her.

And my father passed away when I was 12.

So to be able to keep the business, she pulled me one evening.

We sat together at the table.

And she said, well, I can't do this by myself.

You have to help me.

And I looked at her and I'm like, mom, I'm 12.

I don't know anything about business.

And very nonchalant, she said, no, you are so smart, I will teach you everything.

And after school, every day I will go in the atelier, I will do my homework between the sewing machines, I have my little table.

And this is how I learned everything about how she marketed herself, how she was able to do all her finance.

She was very savvy, and I was lucky enough to learn everything from her.

What stood out to me about that story is that at 12 years old, she said, You can do it.

And I feel that from you.

Like you are so confident.

I had to become confident and independent because it was no other way.

And do you still worry about money from growing up, seeing a communist society, coming here?

I'm first-generation American and also lost everything in the fire in Los Angeles.

So still

feeling financial trauma is real.

Like it never truly goes away.

And some stuff that comes up can still trigger old wounds.

For sure.

Do you feel like there's there's a day that you wouldn't have enough again?

Or have you gotten over that?

You know, when you come from darkness, when you see the light you are happy about, and if it's going to be dark again, you will try to find ways to survive.

Of course, I still want to enjoy my life and being independent because to me, having money means being independent and being able to do things that you want and you love.

To me, this is what gives you that freedom.

Financially independent woman is is a woman that calls her shots wherever she wants, she could do it.

You don't need to worry, oh my god, I don't have money to pay my electrical bill, I don't have money to pay my rent, my car broke down, I don't have money to fix it.

I had that.

I came back.

And my goal was to find a way to not have that worry anymore.

And you did.

But you've had no money and you've had a lot of money.

Which one is better?

Which one brings you more happiness?

Of course, a lot of money brings you happiness.

When people said money don't bring happiness, I don't know, I don't think they experience the both side of not having or having.

Having is better.

Absolutely.

When you first came to the U.S., you started working at a salon and I love this because the owners benefited from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Women's Business Ownership Act.

I don't think people realized because before that you couldn't get credit without a male relative.

It was even hard for me to get credit in 1990.

People don't understand.

Today it's so much easier to get that.

You worked for two female entrepreneurs at the time.

Yes.

That was revolutionary.

Very revolutionary, yes.

And what did that teach you about getting credit, starting a business?

Well, every day I was learning.

I was like a sponge.

I wanted to learn everything from them.

And I've done jobs that were not on my job description list, but I wanted to learn.

So by doing, you learn.

You know, making mistakes, you learn.

I think people, when they come here for the first time, it's amazing that your mother was able to be an entrepreneur in a communist society.

Super rare.

Very unusual.

Incredible.

And then coming here, did you even know what a credit card was or a credit score?

I didn't know how to write a check.

So a friend, one day I invited him to dinner.

I'm like, you need to teach me.

You need to teach me how to write a check.

You need to teach me what is important.

And he said, you have to get a credit card.

What is a credit card?

Well, you go to the bank.

And so he walked me through the process.

I went to the bank, Wells Fargo Bank in Beverly Hills.

And this was in 1990, when you couldn't get credit cards that easily.

And they didn't want to give me a credit card because I didn't have history.

My parents didn't have a history, a credit history.

I wasn't qualified.

And I said to the teller, can I talk with the manager?

A gentleman came and I used

everything

that came in my mind to convince him.

I said, well, I work hard, I am successful, because at that time, it was 1992, I already started working with a lot of celebrities.

I rented a room in a salon in Beverly Hills.

So he still didn't want to give me a credit card.

And I said, look, I have $2,000 in my checking account.

Can you give me a $500 credit card?

And I proved that I'm going to pay every month and I'm going to be such a great customer.

And I'm going to be a Wells Fargo customer forever.

To these days, I'm still banking.

Yes.

I think people don't realize, especially immigrant families, that you need a good credit history to get a credit card, but you need a credit card to get a good

history history because it's like a catch-22.

Correct, exactly.

So you became hugely popular at the salon where you rented the room.

You started building out the celebrity client list.

At that time, there were covers of magazines, there were the supermodels.

Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Samer, Naomi Campbell,

Heidi Klume.

Yes, those were the covers of magazine.

And then I was working with Michelle Pfeiffer, Faye Dunaway.

I was kind of the best kept secret in Hollywood, I have to say.

This is what Martin Martina Rostett wrote an article in 1994 in Vogue magazine.

Then how did you get that word of mouth?

You know, when somebody is starting a business, that's so important.

Very important.

So my goal when I started was to do the best job.

I wanted to master my craft.

I wanted to do the best eyebrow ever.

It didn't matter if you were a celebrity or you were, I don't know, a student or

because in my mind was

this is my advertising.

It's a walking advertising.

And in early 90, nobody was doing eyebrows for as a service.

Of course, we didn't have social media.

As well, I was on TV.

I was on every beauty editor start kind of coming and getting their eyebrows done.

So that was my way of promoting myself, my service.

But in the same time, I wanted to be the best

in shaping eyebrows.

Yeah, because that's how people ask for a referral.

They look at your eyebrows if you have terrible eyebrows.

No one's asking

who did your eyebrows.

So over the years, you grew.

So from the supermodels to Jessica Alba and Jennifer Lopez and Chris Jenner and Oprah.

And I think you were at Haley Bieber's house yesterday.

No, she was at my house.

Oh,

we are neighbors.

She's such a wonderful and supportive, wonderful young woman.

I really admire her a lot and Justin.

They are so beautiful together.

You just continue to build out your client list, it sounds like.

I started working with Jennifer Lopez in 1992 when she started the Selena movie, if you can't believe.

And through these days, she's still my client.

So, how did you figure out how to maintain relationships or continue to get that word of mouth from these high-end clients?

I think when people are starting a business, they want tips and tricks: do you send birthday

presents, texts?

If so, how do you cultivate that?

I used to work at the salon from 8:30 in the morning until sometimes 8-9 o'clock at night.

And then I will go home, take a shower, change, and go out.

I used to go out with the hairstylist that was working with me.

Her room was next to my room.

And we used to promote our business.

We had a business card.

At that time, you used to hand your business card.

And this is how we used to promote our business.

So it was non-stop, not only during the day, creating the most beautiful eyebrows.

And the client will walk, and she will send you.

You know, when somebody loves their eyebrows, they will send their best friend, their mother, their sisters.

So, this is how it is.

Eyebrow is one of the most important features on our face and kind of brings balance and proportion.

So, that is makes you feel so good about yourself.

Absolutely, but nobody made it such an empire until you came around.

So you started building this amazing client list and then you asked the salon basically to do your own thing.

So you were an intrapreneur before you were an entrepreneur, but they said no.

And that was kind of a blessing in disguise.

Yeah, I mean, I was in America for two years.

I barely spoke the language.

I didn't have a credit card.

I didn't know how to write a check.

So you were just buying everything in cash?

Like all the supplies.

And it was quite difficult for me to even think that I could open my own business.

And when they said no, after a month or two, I thought, I really believe in this eyebrow.

This is science combined with beauty.

I can't believe nobody even talked about how important eyebrows are.

In my art school, my teacher really emphasized, if you want to draw a portrait and you want to change an emotion, you change the eyebrow shape on the portrait.

I've been nervous this entire time,

thinking about my own eyebrows and my own ratio.

Beautiful eyebrows.

Thank you.

You are doing great.

Thank you so much.

Gorgeous cheeks.

Thank you.

You always need thick eyebrows.

Yes.

I really was broworexic.

What do you call it?

Oh, anorexic

for a long time.

But I, yeah, thank you so much.

I've been nervous the whole time, wondering what you think about my eyebrows.

So you have.

Anastasia approved.

Yes.

Dream come true.

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And now for some more money rehab.

So you saved about $5,000 at the time to start your own business.

That was a lot of money at the time.

Yes.

And cash.

Now you had a bank account.

And you also had a problem getting rent.

When I say $5,000, I rented the room in a salon, the first step in 1990.

And from 1992 to 1997,

I worked and created an incredible clientele.

And I saved $60,000.

But remember, I used to, I didn't have a cleaning lady.

I clean, I wash my clothes and my family.

I cooked.

I never went to a restaurant because I couldn't afford.

I had to save every penny.

And I drove my Ford that I spent $200 when I came here for probably until 95.

Can you afford Pinto?

You know, those long station wagons.

Yeah.

The wood on the side.

Totally.

And so when you started to go out on your own, you also were rejected, right, from renting a store.

Yes, the owner didn't want to rent me the space because.

But again, you convinced him.

I convinced him I couldn't leave that place without getting an yes from the owner.

And how'd you do it?

I use every trick.

I went there with the article in magazines.

I went there, still wasn't impressed.

I went there and again I pulled that trick.

John,

I am an emigrant.

I am sure somebody in your family was an emigrant.

Somebody gave them a chance to do something.

You have to do this for me.

I am passionate about my work.

I work really hard.

And by the way, this place was empty for two years.

Give it to me for six months.

If it's not going to happen, if I cannot pay the rent, then I will leave anyway and I will go and rent a room.

What do you have to lose?

And he said, yes.

Like, okay.

Six months.

Because I think people don't just invest in businesses.

They invest in people.

And you are so contagious, sister.

Like, I want to

give you my wallet, right?

For two hours, trust me, he could.

He was like,

but broken that I went there.

This guy is not going to give a like, no, we are not leaving this place until I get the

success.

I don't take no as an answer.

He doesn't seem like it.

What can I do to change your mind, John?

Tell me, please tell me, what do you want me to do?

I will come and clean your office.

What do you want me to do?

He started laughing, but I didn't leave that room until I got a yes.

Incredible.

And then you decided you wanted to go into products?

Well, there were no products for eyebrows.

So I was mixing in my kitchen some aloe vera with the eyeshadow and Vaseline and create this pomade.

And I went to art store and I got the brush and I cut it to be angle cut.

And I start using that to create the perfect arch because, of course, there were a lot of women that they over-tweez their eyebrows.

And then after a while they said, well, after I take my shower, my eyebrow disappears.

We need that product.

So...

And you couldn't name it Anastasia at the time.

Well, I name it first Anastasia and I realized that it's so hard to trademark.

That was one lesson for me.

And I tell everyone, pick a name that is easy to trademark.

Because Anastasia, there are so many Anastasia.

It's a name.

When you have a name, I don't know anything.

It's very difficult to trademark.

So that's why I had to put Bever Hills.

And you also invented the brush that you talked about, making it the.

It was the first brush because I used to have like probably 100 clients a day sometimes.

And

I designed the caddy where my wax was there.

I had to minimize every single move to do eyebrows.

I had to master this in five minutes.

And I had the brush from the art store cut it, angle cut, and then I will put the brush down and I will take the spoolie to blend the color.

So I will waste time by doing that movement.

So I went to a manufacturer and I said, can you put this together?

It was so much easier for me to move fast.

Yeah, because you have to scale yourself.

You're one person.

I want your business.

You have to get it down to science.

Exactly.

And so you invented this brush that didn't exist, but you didn't patent it?

No, I didn't because I didn't know you could patent that.

I know that I inspire so many other brands that they have the brush.

So if you could go back to your former self.

Yeah, I would say hire a lawyer.

Rule number one, when you start the business, hire a smart lawyer, not only for trademark, if you have inventions, but a lawyer to make any contract to help you to...

sign anything.

But you were hell-bent on having Anastasia as the name.

There was no other option.

You added Beverly Hills, but did you think of any?

Now, I will never put a name,

my name, on a company.

I will definitely put,

I don't know, the money news or whatever.

Wait a minute.

How to make money.

No, I will not steal your trademark.

If you were to start another business,

you wouldn't go by the name.

No, because I spent so much money to protect

it.

So now there's so many dupes with the brushes.

how do you feel about that i mean it hurts you get annoying

yeah of course i mean i made the brow freeze wax

i love it thank you

great with the brush that we patent the spatula with the spoolie

and

eight months later

somebody of course looks clear looks the same but it's not performing the same but it kind of hurts because I spend a lot of time on creating, innovating products.

I'm all about innovating products.

Even all my eyebrow products, when I started it, I had to start from nothing.

I will create a product based on the need of a client, what challenges she had.

She had curly hair, she had overtweeze, she never tweeze.

You know, every product was specifically for a challenge that one of my clients had, and I had to offer her a product.

But copying is like the best way of

flattering.

Yeah, but sometimes.

But I want people to acknowledge that I started, I was the OG of

the

current.

We are all acknowledging.

We bow down to the OG for sure.

What worries me now, though, too, is that a lot of these dupes are coming from China.

Yes, they're dangerous.

Yes.

And they have weird chemicals.

For instance, when we create a product, for six months, they go to the lab to stability to make sure

people are putting in their face, on their lips.

And as you know, the skin is the biggest organ, so you absorb everything in your body.

So be careful.

Yes.

So when you

started, and it sounds like to now, you've said that your favorite hobby is work.

You work and you work some more.

By the way, I say the same thing.

Have you ever felt burnt out?

No, I've never.

Because I love what I do.

For me, it's not work.

This is my life.

I don't even know what to to do if I will not work.

If you ask me, Anastasia, take a break for a month

and go on vacation, I will really

I don't know what to do with myself.

And don't get me wrong, I like vacation, but for me a vacation is I have to combine with work and I will take three days for myself as a vacation.

But in a way, I will have dinners related to business or I will have a lunch relate or somebody with somebody that I do business.

But me and my daughter, we in the last

myself, because she's way younger, for so many years, this is what we did and we don't feel we work.

And that's the key.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to love what you do.

Otherwise, it will be hard.

If you don't love it, you will give up because it's hard.

I struggle with the work-life balance because I think that there's not such a clear delineation.

Yes.

Work is life, life is work.

Okay, I'm cutting, and after five o'clock, I don't do, and I will stop doing business.

It didn't work for me.

I mean, if you are able to do it, good for you.

But I couldn't do it.

But you hired your daughter.

Yes.

I hire and I fire her.

Tell me.

Tell me why.

Well, she started working at the salon.

She was in school and of course, like any teenager, she wanted to have fun.

This is what she used to say.

I want to have fun.

I don't want to work like you that much.

And I said well life is not like that.

If you are able to manage you could have fun as well.

Or love what you do and you will have fun.

So she's supposed to be at work at 8.30 before the client will arrive at 9 o'clock.

And she was late one day because she will go with her friends out and she was late one day.

The second time I warned her and I said, if you you are late one more time, I'm going to fire you.

I don't think she believed me.

And the third time, pack your bags, you're fired.

So she went and she got the job, I think, at the insurance company.

I never asked her.

And after three weeks, four weeks, she came to the salon.

and asking me for some money.

She wants to borrow some money because she didn't have enough money after taxes to pay her bills and rent, especially.

And I said, I'm sorry, I can't do that for you.

And mom, I'm going to lose the apartment.

He's going to kick me out.

It's like, Claudia, I came here without speaking the language with a little baby.

You speak the language.

You don't have a kid.

It's like, you should get another job or something else.

Even so, she was so good at the front desk.

My daughter used to do three jobs at the front desk, maybe four.

Now we have four people at the front desk.

She used to cover everything.

Very efficient, very good, and very good with the clients.

And I wanted to give her the job back, but I wanted her to ask me, to beg me for the job.

So she did, and I

did hire her, yes.

What did she say?

She learned from the best.

I certainly not.

You are very good in what you do, but we have rules here.

I'm not your mother when you come to work.

Number one, number two,

I'm going to be harder on you than all the other employees because I will set an example.

Everybody will think, well, she's so tough with her daughter.

Imagine what she will say to me.

So, yeah, she came back.

She was perfect.

Never late again.

Today, to these days, now I have to reverse and say, I think it's time for you to take a vacation.

I mean, until last year, she never took vacation.

And yeah, she works, she loves to work.

My daughter is a workaholic, but she loves what she does.

So it's the best thing.

You have to have a purpose in life.

And if you are able to do that, you will be the happiest person.

We often say money without meaning is just paper.

Yes.

And so it sounds like you both have found significant meaning.

During that process, what have you learned about working?

with family.

What would you suggest to other people about working with their child or another family?

really have to have strict rules with the kid because

number one other people will feel like if you give different treatment to your kid they will feel well it's her daughter or I'm sure my daughter worked twice as hard everybody else in her position just to prove that she earned that

I remember we had an interview together and somebody asked her, do you feel like you are an imposter because your mother is the owner?

No way, I work twice as hard as everybody else

and when you started your journey you were married yes and you were divorced after four years we got divorced because my husband couldn't adjust and he went back to Romania

we have another podcast on our network where there was an interview that a founder said there's an advantage to being unmarried in business.

Do you think that's true?

You have more time, less distraction?

Absolutely.

Unfortunately, I wish now, at

this time in my life, I wish I had more kids.

I wish my husband, we came here to build something.

I wish we were together and he could help me to build this company

probably sooner than I did.

And maybe we could have more kids.

But it didn't work that way.

Being not married is not the answer at the end of the day.

I think if you have a husband that could help you and support you, you are definitely a winner.

To in business.

To doing, yes.

What's the bigger advantage?

Having a partner?

Well,

you could do twice as many things.

I mean, I am a partner with my daughter, but imagine if my husband was working with us, we'll have three people.

We'll be three people that could do even more.

You know, it's a lot to do in the company.

so everybody will have a different role.

Hold on to your wallets.

Money rehab will be right back.

And now for some more money rehab.

It sounds like you rely a lot on your daughter and you would potentially rely on a spouse if you had one.

Is it hard for you to trust outsiders?

No, I have great people.

You can't reach greatness by yourself.

You have to have people that you trust and people that will work as hard as you do.

From

97 to 2018, you bootstrapped.

Yes.

And then you took on some private equity with TPG.

Yes.

You came to this country without knowing how to write a check.

How did you figure out how to take on private equity?

So I hired a company that evaluated the business.

and at that time we had incredible margin.

The business was doing incredible.

We wanted just to expand internationally because I was

so immersed in doing eyebrows and working here, it was very difficult for me to expand internationally and I didn't have the expertise because it's a totally different way of doing business when you go in every single country.

Different language, different rules, different financial rules.

So I wanted to get the partner to help me to do that expansion.

Asia, the same, and Latin America.

What was the partner?

TPG.

So I hired a company and they evaluated the business.

Like a banker.

A banker, yes.

So we realized that the company was evaluated at three billions, a lot of valuation.

What did you think when you saw that?

I couldn't believe it.

I never, you know, I never had investors.

I never sat down and, oh, let me see how much my company is worth.

I never cared for that.

What did you think it would come back at, approximately?

I never thought that I would sell the company.

So it didn't matter to me.

I wanted just to make amazing products, innovation, and to make the customer happy.

That was our goal.

You know, we wanted really to offer things that people didn't even know exist or products that are so high quality.

That was our goal.

So if you didn't want to sell, why did you decide to take on outside capital?

And

I wanted to expand internationally.

So we found we couldn't sell to a strategic because the evaluation was too high.

I thought that strategic would be good only because they already have an infrastructure, they know operation, so that was probably ideal for me.

Like one of the makeup companies?

Yes.

Strategics.

Yes.

And then we partner with TPG.

And what would you suggest to other entrepreneurs thinking about taking on private equity?

Well, private equity depends what do you want.

You see, I didn't know at that time because I didn't know what private equity was or what they are.

I mean, I would ask exactly what I want.

I want help with the HR.

I want, we didn't have a CFO, believe it or not.

So I needed a CFO.

I needed a lot of people, e-commerce, I needed people in very important position,

and as well to help me to expand internationally.

And a company that is a private equity is super smart.

I mean, people are very smart, but I personally don't think they have operational experience.

So I think that is the challenge that you have with private equity.

They will give you the funds, but

you have to find people that will help you operational.

But in some cases they'll try to cut.

to make a profit.

They'll try to cut areas of the business.

And I think some founders got really nervous about that.

Did you feel like you lost some of the control over the operations?

No, no, I didn't.

But again, I think

everybody that wants to get private equity or strategic, I think they need to understand

before they will make a decision what exactly they want.

You know, they have to do their homework.

Yeah.

And what would you go back and tell yourself?

Would you do it again?

And

what do you think you would have done differently?

I will sell the company to a strategic one, was worth one billion, not three billions.

So way earlier.

But at that time, I didn't think I wanted to, you know, we were like so hot.

The Instagram, we were on social media, the hottest brand.

I never thought of getting an investor or selling.

You were the hottest, for sure.

Maybe the first, if not,

one of the first to really explode on Instagram.

18 million followers.

The first.

First beauty brand on Instagram.

Yes.

And you grew a lot through user-generated content.

People were posting all of this.

Grew to, I think you're 18 million followers now.

A little more than 18 million.

Yes.

Sorry.

At least 18 million.

Creating a community on social is so important for...

budding entrepreneurs.

Is there something that you learned there about really creating an engaged audience?

I mean when we started

in 2012, and of course give 100% credit to my daughter, she was the mastermind behind the Instagram, they were not

influencers.

We kind of

help each other with the people that we thought they have a talent.

We start sending them products and they will post, we'll repost.

The camera on the iPhone wasn't that great.

We start discovering the ring light and then the Sony 6 camera to get the better pictures.

So we help each other to grow and the influencer to become really big.

Today I think you have such a wide number one the algorithm Instagram changed so everything changed but you have so much more you have TikTok you have so many other platforms that of course will spread your way of influencing and capturing more people that you want to capture.

And what did you learn about owning that customer?

Because I think some people worry that the platform owns the person.

When we started, it was totally very authentic.

Nobody was paid.

We kind of built a community that everybody loved makeup.

You know, everybody go there and they start doing makeup.

And I remember in 2012, they barely kind of knew how to a mother of two in her closet after she put the kids to sleep she started applying makeup and talk about and then you see the progression she became more skilled better and better every day so we kind of organically grew together today it's you have to pay to play so it's a different game right now

It sounds like regardless of the valuation in the billions and the millions of followers, you are a worker do you work the same now that you did when you first started i work like i can pay my rent next month okay i feel i do i work exactly nothing has changed with me and my daughter we work exactly the same no matter what's in your bank account now i think we kind of ignore that i don't even think about you you talk about and then i'm thinking oh yeah

but i don't

it's not like i don't pay attention of course I like my clothes.

Of course, I like my house or beautiful things that I work for it and I bought it.

Okay.

But that's not everything.

It's my passion and that power and purpose to wake up every morning and do the things that I love.

To me, that's

worth more than any money that I have in the bank account.

Priceless.

Priceless.

I would love to play a game.

Yes.

If you don't mind.

Of course.

Bullish or bearish on different trends in the beauty world okay so if you're into it you're bullish and if you hate it you're bearish okay ready yeah okay for brows bleached eyebrows

i don't like it

bearish

but hold on you could do bleach eyebrow

just one shade lighter

one shade lighter that could that's what no it's bleach because if you have dark eyebrow like i am a brunette okay my eyebrow is black.

So because I am blonde, sometimes I bleach one shade light.

I put the when I do my hair, I put a little bit of bleach on my eyebrows, but I take it immediately out and I put some cream because the bleach still works.

Otherwise, I will end up being like my hair.

It doesn't look good.

So you could do that.

So I don't know how I could answer that.

You're bull-ish.

Bull-ish.

Okay.

Laminated eyebrows.

With the treatment?

Yeah, I have that.

I don't like that.

I will tell you why, because our eyebrows hair has to curl and move on aside a little bit.

That gives covers the hair and gives you a beautiful arch.

If you laminate it, it's going to stay straight.

And the eyebrow, I don't know.

Personally, I'm not a big fan.

If you use the brow freeze wax, you could still create that heaviness and gives you a fuller eyebrows, but is not completely straight.

But if you like it,

you like it.

So you're bearish.

I'm bearish, yeah.

I really like the laminated straight eyebrows.

But now I'm questioning my life choices.

Look, at the end of the day, you should do whatever you like.

for yourself.

But really, listen to you.

Okay, soap brows.

So soap brows, the reason why I created the brow freeze wax was because was the trend with the soap brow.

Everywhere during COVID,

everybody, everybody wanted soap brow.

So they will take water with the spooli and mix into the soap and put it.

So for a second, the eyebrow looked good, laminated.

Once the water will evaporate, the soap will not hold on and will kind of give you little, I should say,

little white cast flakes.

Yes.

So that's why I created the brow freeze wax.

The look was great, but it didn't work at the end.

After a few hours, it was performing when you applied.

So still bullish?

So you like the look?

I mean bullish, but the look, the first initial look, yes, but not after five minutes or ten minutes.

And 90s thin.

that's definitely a no big bear

totally i feel so lucky to be learning about eyebrows from you christyamaguchi taught me how to ice skate and so now the queen is teaching me so i look just doing speaking of that in the 90s everybody wanted to have pamelanders on eyebrows and i used to beg them or i will never I would say, I'm sorry, this is not the service I could offer you.

I can't do that.

I will refuse taking their money because I knew that the eyebrow doesn't grow.

And you look at Pamela Anderson, I think she's so gorgeous.

Her skin is beautiful, gorgeous cheeks, beautiful, but the eyebrows, it's so thin.

I wish she will have thicker eyebrows.

Will change completely her look.

She will look so young.

She looks already so young and beautiful.

But I think a thicker eyebrow will be amazing on her.

Brooke Shields had it right

from the beginning.

Yes.

Botox.

I used to love Botox.

I haven't done it in a long time because, I don't know, I don't like it anymore.

I don't like the fillers anymore and the Botox.

But if I will have a frowning area here, I will do it maybe.

But I try to do it at least.

Like here, I have wrinkles.

I don't care.

I don't want Botox because changes, like I cannot even laugh or

yeah.

I feel like we were breaking up with filler and botox as don't you think

yes

so bearish uh about dark lip liner and light lip gloss like in the 90s like in the 90s well if you do the lip liner dark and you blend that lip liner why not okay

everything works what's a skincare practice that you think everybody should be doing now first of all you need to take your makeup at night don't go to bed with makeup on and especially mascara when i was in my 20s.

That is very important.

Second,

I

love skin cuticals and I love their vitamin C

and so many other products from that brand and I like as well some other

research biologique and so many other brands and I like to

alternate.

I don't use all the time one.

But the vitamin I use only from SkinCeutical.

Well, when I lost everything in the fire, the only things that I remembered were my pencil, my medium color, because I didn't know any of my colors, and my soft glam

palette.

Isn't the best?

The best.

Absolutely.

The brush is the best.

So those were the first things that I replaced.

Thank you.

Well, we'll send you some products.

Thank you.

Good hand.

We end all of our episodes by asking for a tip that listeners can take straight to the bank, as you know.

But I wanted to ask you

something personal for me if you have advice you lost your home in the north ridge quake yes

at what point do you stop thinking about it every day i've struggled to move on and you know i'd love any advice for somebody who's suicide wasn't easy you know after that earthquake when i lost the home i was ready to move back to romania i remember

how devastating it's because an airquake could be anytime.

And I couldn't sleep for a long time, probably a year and you had a baby I cannot even believe what you went through but I believe

find something else to think that is positive did you find a new house yes don't put energy on what it was because anyway you cannot change it so what's the point this is how I live my life I'm not looking back

because you know what I will think for a moment, I will learn something from, and I will close that, write a letter, by the way, write a letter, start the candle, write a letter, and

say everything you want to.

It's like I'm angry because I lost that and I want to release myself from this and I don't ever want to think again.

And burn it, put it in whatever, fireplace.

Take back the power from the fire.

Take back the power

from the fire.

And just move on.

And don't think of what it was because you you can't change that.

It's so traumatic, though.

Thank you.

At what point did you feel like you stopped thinking about it?

Did it take you to a year?

Yeah, I was so busy with work that I immersed myself in work and I will not think about it.

But I lost everything.

I brought from Romania, seriously, a box that was

maybe

nine feet by

six and by six,

filled with china, with crystal, with uh everything.

I couldn't take one.

Thank God I took my passports and I had some cash and that's it.

The bag and my mom and my daughter, because my mom just visited me.

But it was it is very traumatic.

Are you scared of earthquakes now?

I am, but you know

I always believe when it's your time, it's your time.

I can't live in fear.

Do you know what I mean?

I think I still have a lot to learn, so it's not my time because we're here to learn.

Absolutely.

Still learning.

Absolutely.

Be positive.

Live a life that you could enjoy every day.

You have a husband, you have a baby.

I mean, what do you want?

And amazing eyebrows.

Literally, what more do I need?

Exactly.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network.

I'm your host, Nicole Lapin.

Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie.

Our researcher is Emily Holmes.

Do you need some Money Rehab?

And let's be honest, we all do.

So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com, to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me.

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And lastly, thank you.

No, seriously, seriously, thank you.

Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.