Anastasia Soare of Anastasia Beverly Hills sat down with Pete Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer of Nordstrom, to discuss how she built her brow-focused brand for a special edition of the retailer’s podcast, the Nordy Pod.
Just like the Beauty CEO Summit, Soare recently celebrated 25 years in business. While today, Anastasia Beverly Hills is available at most beauty retailers, Soare started out small, relying on word of mouth and a customer-centric approach.
“I emigrated from Romania and I saw a void in the beauty industry of eyebrows. Nobody paid attention to eyebrows,” she said, which led her to create her own technique using an individual’s facial symmetry.
Katie Jones/WWD
With a small salon in Beverly Hills and no products at the start, Soare’s personalized technique enticed celebrity clients like Jennifer Lopez, who is still a regular today. With this and regular media coverage, the salon became synonymous with brow shaping and Soare knew expansion and product development were on the horizon.
However, brow shaping and brow makeup were still relatively new concepts, so in order to create a successful brand, education was key. Upon meeting with the Nordstrom team in 2000, the Anastasia Beverly Hills brow bars were born.
“It’s an entrepreneur’s story. You came in and and created something and then you partnered with us [Nordstrom] to amplify that,” Nordstrom said, explaining that the brow bars have also driven customers to their stores. “Once you get a customer hooked, it creates repeat business.”
Nordstrom would open 72 brow bars across their stores, a space where guests can not only receive services but learn about shaping and experience Soare’s products.
“Training was very important for me and the quality of the products. I wanted to create the best products and the best service. It’s the longevity of the relationship with your clients. I don’t want clients to be one-time clients,” Soare said, explaining that by training aestheticians and attending Nordstrom in-store events she was able to ensure the integrity of her technique.
For Nordstrom, implementing the brow bars was also a way to create a unique in-store experience for customers, a key focus for many retailers today.
“Whenever we get off track, it’s because we aren’t staying focused in terms of where the customer is and meeting them where they are and being relevant to their lives,” Nordstrom said. “If someone’s gonna go to a store, you really better make sure you create a good experience because they don’t have to go to a store.”
By working with Nordstrom, Soare was able to build brand recognition — ultimately entering major beauty retailers including Sephora and Ulta Beauty. However, even as the brand grew, its customer-centric approach was always at the forefront, leading the Anastasia Beverly Hills team to double down on social media.
“We were the first brand to have a presence on Instagram in 2012,” Soare said, noting her daughter has played an integral part in building the brand. Social media allowed Soare to connect with customers globally and understand what they were most interested in — ultimately leading to the brand’s makeup line, which launched in 2014.
Over the years, Anastasia Beverly Hills has remained synonymous with brows, and Soare herself has maintained major celeb clients over the past 25 years, including Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford, to name a few, which Nordstrom explained has amplified the brand. For Soare, the brand’s success relies heavily on its individualized, customer-centric approach and of course, addressing a gap in the industry with brow shaping.
“That’s the power of the eyebrow,” she said.