La cara oculta de la belleza
Subtitle: Helena Rubinstein, L'Oréal y la historia turbia de la cosmética
By: Ruth Brandon ; traducción de Purificación Meseguer
Contributors: Meseguer, Purificación
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Tiempo de memoria TusQuets Editores; Tiempo de memoria
Publisher: Tusquets Editores México
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Mexico
Language: spa
Number of pages: 365
ISBN-13: 9786074214178
Subjects: Personal Beauty; Inc Helena Rubinstein; L'Oréal (Firm)
Work titles: Ugly beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L'Oréal and the blemished history of looking good
Description: Helena Rubinstein and L'Oreal's Eugene Schueller both started out in the beauty business during the first years of the twentieth century, and, by the time World War II broke out, had come to dominate it. However, their motivations could not have been more different. Rubinstein, a Polish Jew, claimed the world of paid work for women, and working women's enthusiasm for her products made her the first self-made female millionaire. Schueller, a French conservative in the Henry Ford mold, thought women belonged in the home, and during the Nazi Occupation he used his company as a source of cash to buy economic and political influence. Schueller eventually won the long fight for supremacy: in 1988 his company swallowed Rubinstein's. But the victory cost him his reputation when, in the wake of the takeover, he was exposed as a Nazi collaborator. Deepening the scandal, his wartime activities were shown to have been abetted and condoned by a cadre of young men who, by the time the news broke, had scaled the peaks of wealth and power in postwar France. By then Schueller and Rubinstein were both long dead. But cultural historian and biographer Ruth Brandon argues that the battle they began continues to this day. She examines their conflict to ask important contemporary questions about beauty standards and the often murky intersection of individual political aims and the role of business. Filled with remarkable twists, turns, and larger-than-life characters, Ugly Beauty is a riveting true story about what lies beneath the flawless exterior of the cosmetics industry.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

In Spanish. Translated from the original English.
Table of contents: title: Agradecimientos; title: Introducción; title: ¡La belleza es poder!; title: Un hombre autoritario; title: ¿Qué hiciste en la guerra, papi?; title: Asuntos de familia; title: Una adquisición y tres escándalos; title: ¿Consumidores o consumidos?; title: Epilogo: Dos ancianitas.