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INTERVIEW Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Magazine
COMBINING SCIENCE AND LUXURY
Audrey Gueniche is the international scientific director of historic L’Oréal luxury beauty brand Helena Rubinstein. In conversation with editor Tim Probert, Audrey, a Parisian with more than three decades of experience with L’Oréal, shares her insight on ‘hero’ ingredients and wider beauty trends
Tim Probert (TP): Tell me a little bit about your background in beauty and personal care with L’Oréal. Audrey Gueniche (AG): I am a doctor in pharmacy and I also have a PhD in skin biology. Even as a child, fascinated by biology, my dream was to take care of the skin. My studies allowed me to become a scientist, and then join L’Oréal in 1995. I now have over three decades
of research and innovation experience with L’Oréal over lots of different areas, not just in topical applications, but also in beauty supplements for skin, hair and scalp. I have extensive experience
in vitro and clinical trials. I have published more than 130 papers and given presentations at many international congresses. I’ve always wanted to innovate
when I was in L’Oréal advance research. I have an innovative mindset, and I am really passionate to develop new active formulas, new products, new territories. For the past two years, I have
been the international scientific director of Helena Rubinstein. It is truly an honour to lead avant-garde research and innovation at this long- lasting brand.
TP: Helena Rubinstein is a very high-end, well-known luxury brand. But perhaps not everyone knows the story behind
Helena Rubinstein herself. It’s fascinating, so I will explain a little for the benefit of our readers. Helena Rubinstein was born in 1872 in Krakow in what is now Poland, to become the world’s first self-made female millionaire and the creator of the first publicly-listed global cosmetics corporation. She left Krakow, alone, in 1896 to avoid an arranged marriage and live with an uncle in Melbourne, Australia. Rubinstein had no money and hardly any English, but what she did have was 12 jars of her mother’s face cream. The jars were intended for her own use, but local women in sun-bathed Melbourne admired Rubinstein’s milky complexion. So, Rubinstein started selling the cream, said to be made by a Hungarian chemist called Dr. Jacob Lykusky from a formula of herbs, essence of almonds, and an extract from the bark of Carpathian pine trees. Rubinstein eventually made
her own version, known as ‘Crème Valaze’, which was packaged with labelling in Polish but was likely made in Melbourne from lanolin, which was abundant in Australia. Rubinstein sold enough to open a beauty salon in Melbourne in 1902.
PERSONAL CARE MAGAZINE January 2026
at approximately $100 million - equivalent to over $1 billion in today’s money. AG: Yes, she was the Empress
of Beauty, as Jean Cocteau would say. She had a motto that beauty is a power is given to all women. She had another motto that beauty is nothing without science. This is incredible for me as a
From there, it was a virtually
never-ending story of growth for Helena Rubinstein Inc. Further salons opened in
Sydney (1907), Wellington, New Zealand (1908), London (1908) and Paris (1909) before she moved to New York City in 1915, where sales of her products accelerated to break-neck speed. When she died in New York
in 1965 aged 92, Rubinstein’s personal estate was estimated
scientific director, because Helena Rubinstein put science at the heart of her brand, and we are continuing her legacy of innovation, research and skin science.
TP: How are you continuing her legacy as a L’Oréal luxury brand? AG: Helena Rubinstein really pushed the science of skin care and our research and innovation is focused on cellular skin science. We work on five pillars of cellular skin science. Firstly, we have disruptive
scientific technology. Our Replasty anti-ageing range is in the territory of cellular repair.
www.personalcaremagazine.com
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