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

I'm Nicole Lappin, 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 Soire, the founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills.

And if you're wondering to yourself, can brows really be big business? Well, Anastasia scaled her company to 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 Barish, 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. All this after a word from our sponsors. I am so excited you head up to Big Sur with my husband this fall. We are celebrating our anniversary, and And while I will miss the little mush so much, we are also really excited to have a little parents time.

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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 happy wives, happy husband. Amen. My mother was able to have this business. She had few people working for her. And my father passed away when I was 12. To be able to keep the business, she pulled me one evening. We sat together at the table and she said, Well, I can do this by myself. You have to help me. I looked at her 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 I will do my homework between the sewing machines. I have my little table. And this is how I learn everything about how she market 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. I feel that from you. You are so confident.

I had to become confident and independent because I 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. It never truly goes away. And some stuff that comes up can still trigger old wounds. For sure. Do you feel like there's a day that you wouldn't have enough again? Or have you gotten over that?

When you come from darkness, when you 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. Financial independent woman is a woman that calls her shots. Whatever she wants. She could do it. You don't I don't have money 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 here. I had it, too. My goal was to find a way to not have that worry anymore.

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 sides of not having or having.

Having is better.

Absolutely.

When you first came to the US, you started working at a salon. 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.

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. I've done jobs that were not on my job description list, but I wanted to learn. By doing, you learn. Making 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.

Unusual, very unusual.

Incredible. Then coming here, did you even know what a credit card was or a credit score?

No, I didn't know how to write a check. A friend, one day, I invite 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. He said, You have to get a credit card. What is credit card? Well, you go to the bank. He walked me through the process. I went to the bank, Wells Fargo Bank in Beverly Hills. This was in 1990 when you couldn't get credit cards that easily. They didn't want to give me a credit card because I didn't have history. My parents didn't have a credit history. I wasn't qualified. 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 start working with a lot of celebrities. He 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 credit, $500 credit card.

And I prove 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. You should sponsor you. 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 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 this celebrity client list.

That time, there were cover of magazines. There were the supermodels: Cindy Crawfer, Stephanie Samer, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum. Yes, those were the covers of magazine. Then I was working with Michelle Pfeiffer, Faye Dunaway. I was the best kept secret in Hollywood. I have to say. This is what Marina Ross, that wrote an article in 1994 in Vogue magazine.

Then how did you get that word of When somebody is starting a business, that's so important.

Very important. 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. Because in my mind was, this is my advertising. It's a walking advertising. In early In '90s, nobody was doing eyebrows as a service. Of course, we didn't have social media. As well, I was on TV. I was on every beauty editor start 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... 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 in my house. We their 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 was in 1992 when she started the Selena movie, if you can believe. And through this day, 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 of, do you send birthday presents, text?

How do you cultivate that? I used to work the salon from 8: 30 in the morning until sometimes 8, 9: 00 at night. And then I will go home, take a shower, change, and go out. I used to go out with a stylist 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 nonstop, not only during the day, creating the most beautiful eyebrows and the client will walk and she will send you. When somebody loves their eyebrows, they will send their best friend, their mother, their sister. So this is how it is. Eyebrow is one of the most important feature on our face and brings balance and proportion. So that 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 entrepreneur before you were an entrepreneur. But they said no, and that was a blessing in disguise.

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? Yes.

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 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. Why? Thinking about my own eyebrows and my own ratio.

You have beautiful eyebrows. Thank you. You are doing great. Thank you so much. You have beautiful face, gorgeous cheeks. You always need thick eyebrows.

Yes. I really was browerexic. What do you call it? Oh, anorexic. For a long time. But I... Yeah. Thank you so much. I've been nervous the whole I'm wondering what you think about my eyebrows.

So you have- It's Anastasia approved.

Oh, yes. Dream come true. Hold on to your wallet. Money Rehab will be right back. And now for some more money rehab. So you saved about $5,000 at the time to start your own business? Yes. That was a lot of money at the time.

Yes, a lot of money.

In cash? Or now you had a bank account, and you also had a problem getting rent.

When I saved 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 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. I drove my Ford that I spent $200 when I came here for probably until '95, I should say.

Was it a Ford Pinto?

You know those long station wagons with the wood on the side? Totally.

So when you started to go out on your own, you also were rejected 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 a yes from the owner. How did you do 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 immigrant. I'm sure Somebody in your family was an immigrant. Somebody gave them a chance to do something. You have to do this for me. I am passionate for my work. I work really hard. By the way, this place was empty Give it to me 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.

Okay, six months.

Because I think people don't just invest in businesses. They invest in people. And you are so contagious, sister. I want to give you my wallet right now.

For two hours, trust me, he could. He was like, enough. The broker that I went there This guy's not going to give a like. No, we are not leaving this place until I get the everything. I don't take no as an answer.

It 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 there. 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 eye shadow 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 tweeze their eyebrows. And then after a while, they said, Well, after I take my shower, my eyebrow disappears. We need that product.

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

Well, I named 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, it's very difficult to trademark.

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

And you also invented the brush that you talked about making at the- Yes, it was the first brush because I used to have probably 100 clients a day, sometimes.

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. I had the brush from the art store, angle cut, and then I will put the brush down and I will take the spooly to blend the color. 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. To grow your business, you have to get it down to a 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 a 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 the 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, Yes. You wouldn't go by the name?

No, because I spend so much money to protect the trademark.

Defend it. So now there's so many dupes with the brushes. How do you feel about that?

I mean, it hurts. Do you get annoyed? Yeah, of course. I mean, I They made the brow freeze wax.

I love it. Thank you.

It was great with the brush that we patented, the spatula with the spooly. And eight months later, somebody Of course, looks clear, looks the same, but it's not performing the same. But it 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 over tweeze, she never tweeze. Every product was specifically for a challenge that one of my client had, and I had to offer her a product. But copying is the best way of- Flattering? Flattering. Yeah, but sometimes- I want people to acknowledge that I I started. I was the O-G of-You are the OGO. I invented the eyebrows.

We are all acknowledging. We bow down to the OGO for sure. What worries me now, though, too, is that a lot of these dupes are coming from China, and they're dangerous, 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'm never... Because I love what I do. For me, it's not work. This is my life. I don't even know what to do if I will not work. If you ask me, Anastasia, take a break for a month, then go on 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 related with somebody that I do business. But me and my daughter, 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, it's not. Work is life, life is work.

Okay, I'm cutting. 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 hired and I fired her. 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. 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 nine o'clock She was late one day because she will go with her friends out. She was late one day. The second time I warned her and I said, If you are late one more time, I'm going to fire you. I don't think she believed me. The third time, pack your bags, you're fired. She went and she got the job, I think, at the insurance company. I never asked her. 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.

I said, I'm sorry, I can't do that for you. 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. I wanted to give her the job back, but I wanted her to ask me, to beg me for the job. She did, and I re-hired her. She beg you? Yes.

What did she say? She learned from the best, clearly, not to take no for granted.

I said, 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 she came back. She was perfect.

Never late again.

Today, to this day, 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 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 You have to have a purpose in life. If you are able to do that, you will be the happiest person.

We often say money without meaning is just paper. Yes. It sounds like you both have found significant meaning. Totally. 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 member?

You really have to have strict rules with the kid because number one, other people They will feel like if you give different treatment to your kid, they will feel, Well, it's her daughter. 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.

When you started your journey, you were married.

Yes.

Then you're 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, now, 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. So 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.

So in business? To doing... Yes. What's the bigger advantage? Having a partner?

Well, you could do twice as many things. 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. It's a lot to do in the company, so everybody will have a different role.

Hold on to your wallet. 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, a 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?

I hired a company that evaluated the business. 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 was very difficult for me to expand internationally. 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. I wanted I wanted to get the partner to help me to do that expansion in Asia, the same, and Latin America.

What was the partner?

Tpg. I hired a company and they evaluated the business.

Like a banker?

A banker, yes. 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 because 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. We wanted really to offer things that What people didn't even know exist or products that are so high quality. That was our goal.

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

Because I wanted to expand internationally, so 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, but- Like one of the makeup companies?

Yes. Strategics? Yes.

Then we partner with TPG.

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 would ask exactly what I want. I want help with the HR. 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. 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. 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. They have to do their homework.

Yeah. What would you go back and tell yourself? Would you do it again? What do you think you would have done differently?

I would sell the company to a strategic when it was worth 1 billion, 3 billion. So way earlier. But at that time, I didn't think I wanted to... We were 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.

We were the first beauty brand on Instagram. Yes.

And you grew a lot through user-generated content. People were posting all this. Grew to, I think, your 18 million followers now. Yes.

A little more than 18. Yes. Sorry.

At least 18 million. Creating a community on social is so important for budding entrepreneurs. Is there something that you learn there about really creating an engaged audience?

I mean, when we started in 2012, and of course, give 100 I'll send credit to my daughter, she was the mastermind behind the Instagram, they were not influencer. We help each other with the people that we thought they have a talent. We start sending them products and they will post, will 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. We We help each other to grow and the influencers to become really big. Today, I think you have such a wide... Number one, the algorithm of 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 built a community that everybody loved makeup. Everybody go there and they start doing makeup. And I remember in 2012, they barely knew how to... A mother of two in her closet after she put the kids to sleep, she start applying makeup and talk about. Then you see the progression. She became more skilled, better and better every day. We organically grew together. Today, you have to pay to play. 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 that. Yes, 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 ignore it. I don't even think about it. You talk about, and then I'm thinking, Oh, yeah. But 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. And I bought it, okay? Yeah, you did. 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- That's what makes you-worth more than any money that How do you get it? I have in the bank account. Priceless. Priceless.

I would love to play a game, 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.

Bearish.

But hold on. You could do bleach eyebrow just one shade lighter Okay. One shade lighter. So it's hint? No, it's bleach because if you have dark hyper... I am a brunette, okay? My eyebrow is black. So because I am blonde, sometimes I bleach one shade lighter. 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.

You're bull-ish.

Bull-ish, yes. Okay.

Laminated eyebrows.

With the treatment? Yeah, I have that. I don't like that. I will tell you why, because our eyebrows hair It has to curl and move on a side a little bit. That 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 it's not completely straight. But if you like it, how do you like it?

So you're bearish?

I'm bearish, yeah.

I really like the laminated straight up, 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. During COVID, everybody wanted soap brow. So they will take water with the spooly 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 give you a little, I should say, a little wide cast- Flakes. 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? You like the look?

I mean bullish, but the Look, the first initial look, yes, but not after 5 minutes or 10 minutes.

And '90s thin.

That's definitely a no. A big bear.

A bear, totally. I I feel so lucky to be learning about eyebrows from you. Christie Yamaguchi taught me how to ice skate, and so now the queen is teaching me. So I look-I'll just do what you say.

Speaking of that, in the '90s, everybody wanted to have Pamela Anderson eyebrows, and I used to beg them, or I will never, I will 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. We 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.

Brook Shields had it right from the beginning. Botox.

I used to love Botox. I haven't done it in a long time because I 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. Here, I have wrinkles. I don't care. I don't want Botox because changes. I cannot even laugh.

I feel like we're breaking up with filler and Botox.

Don't you think? Yes.

So bearish. How 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 I love SkinCeuticals, and I love their vitamin C and so many other products from that brand. 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.

When I lost everything in the fire, the only things that I remembered were my pencil, my medium color, because I know any of my colors, and my soft glam eye palette.

Isn't the best? The best.

That's my palette. The brush is the best. Those were the first things that I replaced.

Thank you. Well, we'll send you some products. Thank you so much. Thank you. We could have it.

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 I'd love any advice for somebody who's here now.

It wasn't easy. After that earthquake, when I lost the home, I was ready to move back to Romania. I remember How devastating is because an earthquake could be anytime, and I couldn't sleep for a long time, probably a year. 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 any way 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 a 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, yes, from the fire, and just move on. And don't think of what it was because 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 said, a year? Yeah.

I was so busy with work that I immerse 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 6 and by 6, filled with China, with crystal, with everything. I couldn't take one. Thank God, I took my passport, 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 very traumatic.

Are you scared of earthquakes now?

I am, but I always believe when it's your time, it's your time. I can't live in fear. Do you know what I I mean?

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

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 It's amazing eyebrows. Literally, what more do I need?

Exactly.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network.

I'm your host, Nicole Lappin.

Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan LaVoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab?

And let's be honest, we all do.

So email us your moneyquestions, moneyrehab@moneynewsnetwork. Com, to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram @moneynews and TikTok @moneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content.

And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you.

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