SK-II, is a Procter & Gamble Beauty brand, launched in 1980 in Japan. SK-II is often considered one of the most expensive beauty brands in the world.

History[link]

The history of SK-II goes back to the 1970s when a scientist in Japan noticed the very soft and youthful hands of women working in a Japanese saké brewery. After years of research the scientists were able to isolate the natural, nutrient-rich liquid which they called Pitera.^[1]

In 1980, the Japanese branch of Max Factor acquired rights to the ingredient, and launched the first cosmetic product containing the ingredient: Max Factor Secret Key with Pitera. Although only modestly successful, its customer base was very loyal, so Max Factor expanded the range, renaming it Max Factor SK-II.^{[citation needed]}

In the succeeding 15 years, Max Factor passed through the hands of five different owners, each of whom ignored the SK-II product, until 1995, when current owner Procter and Gamble executive and brand manager A.G. Lafley was sent to Japan to overhaul P&G's declining business in Asia. Lafley made several changes to the company, including several at Max Factor: Lafley discovered Japanese women disliked the brand, so he focused instead on the SK-II cream instead. Within five years, it became Japan's top prestige cosmetics brand, outselling Shiseido.^[2]

SK-II has since expanded into several markets. Products sold outside of Asia do not bear the Max Factor name, however; the brand is simply called "SK-II". In Japan and most of Asia, SK-II is a sub-brand of Max Factor and still bear its name.

Toxic Ingredients[link]

In September 2006, the People's Republic of China halted all imports of SK-II products, after a consumer found traces of neodymium and chromium. Both are banned in cosmetics, and can cause allergic dermatitis and eczema. P&G withdrew several of the affected products, however there was much confusion on P&G's initial status on the subject.

One employee was quoted as stating: "We believe only a small batch of products suffered the problem", however, P&G's official press release defended the amount of the heavy metals found in the products as being "safe" and "insignificant to human health". Nonetheless, P&G withdrew several affected products, but continued selling the rest of the line, requiring consumers to sign a "safe product" agreement, in which they recognize that the SK-II products they bought are safe and release P&G of liability.^[3]

However, by the end of that week, P&G had suspended sale of the brand altogether, shutting down its stores and pulling all products (including refund centers for affected items) from counters.

By December of the same year, the brand was back in stores, and in a joint statement between the Ministry of Health and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China agreed with P&G company officials that the product line posed no danger to human health.^[4]

Markets sold[link]

SK-II is sold in the following markets:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Colombia
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• People's Republic of China
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Spain
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• United Kingdom
• United States

References[link]

External links[link]

• SK-II Global Homepage

v t e Procter & Gamble Co. Corporate directors Norman Augustine · A. G. Lafley · Lynn M. Martin · W. James McNerney, Jr. · John F. Smith, Jr. · Ralph Snyderman · Margaret Whitman · Ernesto Zedillo Brands Always · Ambi Pur · Ariel · Aussie · Bold · Bounty · Braun · Camay · Charmin · Cheer · Clairol · CoverGirl · Crest · Dawn · DayQuil · Daz  · Downy · Dreft · Duracell · Eukanuba · Fairy · Febreze · Gain · Gillette · Head & Shoulders · Herbal Essences · Iams · Ivory · Joy · Luvs · Max Factor · Metamucil · Mr. Clean · Nice 'n Easy · NyQuil · Olay · Old Spice · Oral-B · Pampers · Pantene · Pepto-Bismol · Puffs · Pur · Safeguard · Secret  · SK-II · Scope · Swiffer · Tampax · Tide · Vicks · Wella Annual revenue: US$79.03 billion (10% FY 2009) · Employees: 127,000 · Stock symbol: NYSE: PG · Website: pg.com

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Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown backstage at The Heart Truth fashion show in 2009
Born	(1957-04-14) April 14, 1957 (age 55) Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Occupation	Make-up artist, CEO

Bobbi Brown (born April 14, 1957) is the founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.

Biography[link]

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Brown graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a degree in theatrical makeup. Afterwards, she moved to New York City to work as a professional makeup artist. In 1991, she and a chemist released a line of new lipsticks under the brand Bobbi Brown Essentials, which debuted at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Today, the line is available at few fine retailers such as Lord & Taylor. The success of that makeup line led Estee Lauder to buy the company in 1995.^[1][2]

In addition to creating cover looks for magazines and make-up for fashion shows, Brown is the exclusive beauty editor of The Today Show and a frequent guest on the E! and Style channels. She is the author of Bobbi Brown Beauty, Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual, Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty, Beauty Rules and Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution. On 2006-10-24, Brown joined the Emerson College Board of Trustees.^[3]

Brown is partners with a charity called Dress for Success where she gives underprivileged women attractive clothes to wear to job interviews. Also, the women receive the basic makeup by Bobbi Brown Essentials. When they receive the makeup, they get their makeup done by volunteer Bobbi Brown makeup artists.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Brown lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband Steven Plofker and three sons.^[5]

Books[link]

• Bobbi Brown Beauty: The Ultimate Beauty Resource (1997) ISBN 0-06-270167-3
• Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy & Awesome (2001) ISBN 0-06-095724-7
• Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution : A Guide to a Lifetime of Beauty (2002) ISBN 0-06-008881-8
• Bobbi Brown Living Beauty (2007) ISBN 0-8212-5834-6
• Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone from Beginner to Pro (2008) ISBN 0-446-58134-8
• Bobbi Brown Beauty Rules (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bobbi Brown

• Official website
• Brown's blog
• Profile at IMDb
• Bobbi Brown, Top 7 Make-up artist on iFashion Network

Shu Uemura Store at Rockwell Center, Makati City, Philippines

Shu Uemura (植村 秀, Uemura Shū^?, June 19, 1928 – December 29, 2007) was a Japanese make-up artist and founder of the Shu Uemura international cosmetics line which bears his name.^[1][2]

Career[link]

A native of Tokyo, Shu Uemura reportedly first became interested in hairstyling and make up as a teenager while recovering from a severe illness which left him bedridden. He enrolled at the Tokyo Beauty Academy, becoming the only male student in a class of 130 pupils.^[2][3]

His first experience in film make-up occurred during the filming of 1957's Joe Butterfly, which was partially shot in Japan.^[3] Uemura left Japan in the late 1950s to try to break into the film and television make-up business.

Uemura's big break came on the set of the 1962 film, My Geisha.^[1] The film's regular make up artist fell ill and Uemura, who was working as a Hollywood beautician at the time, was called in to fill in for the sick artist.^[1] Uemura gained critical acclaim for transforming actress Shirley MacLaine, a Caucasian, into a Japanese woman.^[1] He received praise from both My Geisha's filmmakers and its cast, including MacLaine.^[3] He soon became one of Hollywood's favorite artists. He began working with well known Hollywood personalities, usually as a make-up artist apprentice, including Edward G. Robinson, Frank Sinatra, and Lucille Ball.^[3] Among his notable early work was on Frank Sinatra's 1965 film, None But the Brave.^[3]

Uemura developed and launched his first cosmetics product in 1960.^[1] His product was a cleansing oil, which left the skin cleaner than soap and also acted as a moisturizer.^[4] His cleansing oil remains popular in Japan today.^[1] Uemura developed a make-up philosophy that the health of his customers' skin should be the most important aspect of cosmetics.^[4] He also believed in enhancing a subject's natural beauty, not artificially creating it using cosmetic products.^[4]

Uemura returned to Japan in 1964 and opened the Shu Uemura makeup school, which taught make-up techniques which he learned in Hollywood.^[4] He founded a cosmetics company called Japan Makeup in 1967 and opened its first boutique store in Tokyo's trendy Omotesando district.^[4] He officially changed the name of his company to Shu Uemura Cosmetics in 1983.^[4] Uemura's company was able to take advantage of Japan's booming economy and taste for Western products during the 1980s.^[4] In the process, Shu Uemura Cosmetics became a major force in the domestic Japanese and international beauty market.

Shu Uemura sold his controlling interest in his company to French cosmetics maker L'Oréal in 2004 for an undisclosed amount of money.^[1] However, he remained the creative force behind Shu Uemura Cosmetics after the sale.^[4] It is estimated that as of early 2008, Shu Uemura Cosmetics now makes approximately $100 million dollars a year in global sales at its stores worldwide.^[4] The company now has stores in Paris, New York City, London and Hong Kong, as well as outlets throughout Japan.^[1] The company's product line has expanded over the years to include hair and lifestyle products, perfume, fake eyelashes and handmade makeup brushes.^[1] In the process, the Uemura's company became a cultural force in some circles. Shu Uemura's eyelash curlers were even mentioned in the 2006 film, The Devil Wears Prada.^[1]

Uemura personally demonstrated his make-up techniques to the public twice a year.^[4] He used these demonstrations to introduce his customers to his last Mode Makeup lines.^[4] These demonstrations usually took place in Tokyo, London or New York City.^[4]

Death[link]

Shu Uemura died of pneumonia in Tokyo on December 29, 2007.^[3][4] Uemura was 79 years old and was survived by his wife and son.^[4] His funeral was held on January 4, 2008.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Uemura Cosmetics (U.S. Site)
• Shu Uemura at the Internet Movie Database
• Time Magazine: Shu Uemura, Makeup Pioneer, Dies
• Vogue.com: Shu Uemura Remembered
• Shu Uemura at WN
• AFP: Japanese makeup guru Shu Uemura dies: spokeswoman

Sheila Beryl Grant Attenborough, Lady Attenborough^[1] (born 5 June 1922 in Liverpool, Lancashire), known professionally by her maiden name Sheila Sim, is an English film and theatre actress and the wife of actor and director Richard Attenborough.

Career[link]

Sim was mainly active as an actress in the 1940s and 1950s: amongst her credits are the role in the Powell and Pressburger 1944 film, A Canterbury Tale; she starred alongside her husband in the Boulting brothers' The Guinea Pig of 1948; and opposite Anthony Steel in 1954's West of Zanzibar.

In theatre, she notably co-starred with her husband, Richard Attenborough, in the first production of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, which opened in London in 1952 (creating the role of Mollie Ralston). This thriller has since become the world's longest-running production of a play.

After recruitment by Noël Coward, Sim has actively served the Actors' Charitable Trust for more than 60 years. She was instrumental in the success of two redevelopments of the actors' care home, Denville Hall, in the 1960s and 2000s, and is currently a Trustee and Vice President of the charities.

More recently, Sim has been a significant benefactor to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she originally trained; her husband has been RADA's president since 2003.

Family[link]

Sim married Richard Attenborough on 22 January 1945 and they have lived in a house on Richmond Green in London since 1956.

The couple had three children, Michael, Jane, and Charlotte. Jane, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami as it struck their villa on the coast of Thailand on 26 December 2004. Michael and Charlotte are both involved, like their parents, in the dramatic professions: he as a director, she as an actress. Sim's brother, Gerald, is also an actor.

Selected filmography[link]

• A Canterbury Tale (1944)
• Great Day (1945)
• Dancing with Crime (1947)
• The Guinea Pig (1948)
• Dear Mr. Prohack (1949)
• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
• The Magic Box (1952)
• West of Zanzibar (1954)
• The Night My Number Came Up (1955)

External links[link]

• Sheila Sim at the Internet Movie Database

Notes[link]

Cate Blanchett
Blanchett at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival
Born	Catherine Élise Blanchett (1969-05-14) 14 May 1969 (age 43) Melbourne, Australia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Andrew Upton (1997–present; 3 children)
Parents	Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr. June Gamble

Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (/ˈblɑːntʃ.ət/; born 14 May 1969) is an Academy Award–winning Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett appeared as the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003. In 2004, Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator brought her numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett's other films include Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Blanchett's work has earned her several accolades, including a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, and an Academy Award. Due to her success and character variety, critics have often called her "the new Meryl Streep" or "the Meryl Streep of the next generation".^[1][2][3]

Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.^[4][5]

Early life and education[link]

Blanchett was born in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe.^{[citation needed]} Her mother, June (née Gamble), was an Australian property developer and teacher, and her father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., was a Texas native who was a US Navy Petty Officer and later worked as an advertising executive.^[6][7] The two met while Blanchett's father's ship, USS Arneb, was in Melbourne. When Blanchett was ten, she lost her father to a heart attack.^[8] She has two siblings; her older brother, Bob, is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister, Genevieve, worked as a theatrical designer and received her Bachelor of Design in Architecture in April 2008.^[9]

Blanchett has described herself as being "part extrovert, part wallflower" during childhood.^[9] She attended a primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School. For her secondary education, she attended Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies' College, from which she graduated, where she explored her passion for acting.^[10] She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas.

When she was eighteen, Blanchett went on a vacation to Egypt. A fellow guest at a hotel in Cairo asked if she wanted to be an extra in a movie, and the next day she found herself in a crowd scene cheering for an American boxer losing to an Egyptian in the film Kaboria, starring the Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki. Blanchett returned to Australia and later moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the theatre.^[8]

Career[link]

Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award.^[11] She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh.

Blanchett appeared in the TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries Bordertown, with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie of Police Rescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits, and in the 50-minute drama Parklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas. Also in 1994, she played a non-reoccurring role in an episode of the long-running Australian TV series GP, as Janie Morris, a woman living with her brother (Daniel Lapaine as Sean Morris) in a consensual incestuous relationship. Their relationship is torn apart when their mother comes to visit, and notices that only one bed appears to be slept in regularly.^[12]

Blanchett made her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during World War II, in Bruce Beresford's 1997 film Paradise Road, which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.^[8] Her first leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier, in Gillian Armstrong's production of Oscar and Lucinda, opposite Ralph Fiennes.^[8] Blanchett was nominated for her first Australian Film Institute Award as Best Leading Actress for this role, and lost out to Pamela Rabe in The Well. She did, however, win an AFI Award as Supporting Actress in the same year for her role as Lizzie in the romantic-comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor.

Her first high-profile international role was as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.^[8] Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role in Shakespeare in Love, but won a British Academy Award (BAFTA) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. The following year, Blanchett was nominated for another BAFTA Award, for her supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.^[8]

Already an acclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. She played the role of Galadriel in all three films.^[8] The trilogy holds the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time.^[13] In 2005, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. This made Blanchett the first person to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress.^{[citation needed]} That same year, Blanchett won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her role as Tracy Heart, a recovering heroin addict in the Australian film Little Fish. Though lesser known globally than some of her other films, Little Fish received tremendous critical acclaim in Blanchett's native Australia.

Blanchett at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2007.

In 2006, she starred in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, The Good German with George Clooney and Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film.^[14]

In 2007, Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The World and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.^[15]

In 2007, she won the Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm Not There and reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age.^[16] At the 80th Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations; Best Actress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There, becoming the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another nomination for the reprisal of a role.^[17]

She next starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as the villainous KGB agent Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, appearing on screen with Brad Pitt for a second time.

On 5 December 2008, Blanchett was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre.^[18]

As of 2011, Blanchett has been featured in seven films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002 and 2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Blanchett provided a voice for the film Ponyo,^[19] and appeared opposite Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, released on 14 May 2010. She attended the premiere of her film Hanna directed by Joe Wright at the Sydney Film Festival.^[20]

It was announced that Blanchett will reprise her role as Galadriel in Jackson's upcoming films of The Hobbit in 2012 and 2013, filmed in New Zealand.^[21]

Blanchett is set to appear in two films directed by Terrence Malick, Lawless and Knight of Cups. Both are scheduled to be filmed in 2012.^[22] She is also confirmed to star in Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, set to shoot in February 2013 in London and New York.^[23]

In 2012, Blanchett voiced the role of "Penelope" in the Family Guy episode, "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie".

Personal life[link]

Blanchett at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2005

Blanchett's husband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. They were married on 29 December 1997 and have three sons: Dashiell John (born 3 December 2001), Roman Robert (born 23 April 2004), and Ignatius Martin (born 13 April 2008).^{[citation needed]}

After making Brighton, England, their main family home for much of the early 2000s, she and her husband returned to their native Australia. In November 2006, Blanchett stated that this was due to a desire to decide on a permanent home for her children, and to be closer to her family as well as a sense of belonging to the Australian (theatrical) community.^[24] She and her family live in "Bulwarra", an 1877 sandstone mansion in the harbourside Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill. It was purchased for A$10.2 million in 2004 and underwent extensive renovations in 2007 in order to be made more "eco-friendly".^[25][26]

In 2006, a portrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist in the Archibald Prize.^[27]

Blanchett is a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival.^{[citation needed]} She works as the face of SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, Blanchett became the ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation's online campaign  – trying to persuade Australians to express their concerns about climate change.^{[citation needed]} She is also the Patron of the development charity SolarAid.^{[citation needed]} Opening the 2008 9th World Congress of Metropolis in Sydney, Blanchett said: "The one thing that all great cities have in common is that they are all different."^[28]

In early 2009, Blanchett appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Australian Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors acknowledged for the "outstanding contribution they have made to Australian entertainment and culture".^[29] She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once in character; Blanchett is depicted in character from Elizabeth: The Golden Age.^[29]

At the beginning of 2011, Blanchett lent her support for a Carbon Tax.^[30] She received some criticism for this, especially from conservatives.^[31]

Filmography[link]