One of the world’s most revered eyebrow experts has revealed the celebrity she’s most keen to get her tweezers on; none other than Kate Middleton.
Anastasia Soare, who ignited a beauty revolution when she arrived in the US from Romania almost 20 years ago and has been dubbed the ‘queen of brows’, counts Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Victoria Beckham and Oprah Winfrey among her regular clients.
Now Soare, who has gone so far as to patent her much-admired ‘golden ratio’ eyebrow shaping method, has said she would give the Duchess of Cambridge dramatically different brows.
The beauty mogul, who is set to launch her make-up range in the UK, told the Sunday Times: ‘She has incredible brows, but I would do them very differently.’
Anastasia Soare, 60, arrived from Romania to the US in her thirties before she set up her own salon business solely plucking the brows of LA locals
Although she says Kate Middleton’s eyebrows are ‘incredible’ Anastasia confesses she is keen to pluck and shape them using her own method
Soare did not elaborate further on the exact changes she would make to Kate’s brows, but she did let slip what she believes is the key to a perfect arch – ensuring brows start directly above the middle of the nostrils, and end directly above the outer corner of the eyes.
She is also famous for her ‘golden ratio’ shaping method – inspired by the approach used by artists including Leonardo Da Vinci to achieve balance and beauty in Renaissance paintings.
But it is also Anastasia’s tough work ethic that has helped her launch her beauty empire, which began as brow products before expanding to an entire make-up range – including a contour palette that sold out within hours and a wildly popular eyeshadow kit.
Anastasia’s already launched her make-up range on UK beauty site FeelUnique and according to the Sunday Times she may be stocking it in Selfridges department store in the near future.
The beauty entrepreneur, who opened her first salon, Anastasia Beverley Hills, in 1997 now has 300 employees working for her company and an estimated net worth of $150m (£112m).
One of her employees is her daughter Claudia Soare, 30, who is now the company’s president – but only made it to her lofty perch after previously being fired by her mother.
‘She was late all the time,’ Anastasia said of Claudia’s early days with the business.
‘When she asked me for one more chance I gave it to her, but I said, “Remember I’m not your mother, I’m your boss”.’
The beauty mogul, dubbed the ‘queen of brows’ counts Kim Kardashian, Oprah and Michelle Obama as her regular clients
Anastasia counts Michelle Obama (left) and Oprah Winfrey (right) as her regular clients and one of her first customers was supermodel Cindy Crawford
Anastasia has a tough work ethic and she even fired her own daughter in the beginning for her tardy behaviour
Anastasia studied architecture and art in Romania, and it was this that inspired her idea of using Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘golden ratio’ to establish the shape of brow that would best suit a client’s face shape.
In a previous interview with Into the Gloss, she recalled that it was her first boss’ resistance against working on customers that spurred her on to launch her own salon.
‘I explained to my boss that when [you want] to change an emotion of someone you’re drawing in a portrait, you change the eyebrows.
‘My boss refused to allow me to do clients’ eyebrows, so I decided to rent a room at a salon and start my own business.’
Now she presides over her own beauty empire and an enormous social media following of 15 million on the Anastasia Instagram account, which she manages with her daughter.