Helena Rubinstein

Rubinstein was the eldest of eight daughters born to Polish Jews, Gitel Scheindel "Augusta" Rubinstein née Silberfeld and Naftali Herz "Horace" Rubinstein, a shopkeeper in Kraków, Lesser Poland. Helena was born into the Kazimierz district of Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary following the partitions of Poland. She was the cousin of the existentialist philosopher Martin Buber and of Ruth Rappaport's mother.

In 1908, Helena married the Polish-born American journalist Edward William Titus in London. They had two sons, Roy Valentine Titus (London, December 12, 1909 – New York, June 18, 1989) and Horace Titus (London, April 23, 1912 – New York, May 18, 1958). The family eventually moved to Paris where she opened a salon in 1912. Her husband helped with the salon's publicity material and set up a small publishing house, subsequently publishing Lady Chatterley's Lover and hiring Samuel Putnam to translate famous model Alice Prin's (Kiki de Montparnasse) memoirs, Kiki's Memoirs.

Divorce and remarriage

Following her divorce from Titus in 1938, Helena married Prince Artchil Gourielli-Tchkonia (sometimes spelled Courielli-Tchkonia; born in Georgia, February 18, 1895, died in New York City, November 21, 1955) who was therefore 23 years younger than his new wife. His claim to the Gourielli title from Georgian nobility derived from his grandmother's side of the family.

Rubinstein later named a male cosmetics line after her second husband.

Rubinstein founded the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion of Contemporary Art at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and in 1957 she established the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship in Australia. In 1953, she established the philanthropic Helena Rubinstein Foundation to provide funds to organizations specializing in health, medical research and rehabilitation.

In 1959, Rubinstein represented the US cosmetics industry at the American National Exhibition in Moscow.