Was Sally Hansen a Real Person? A Look Inside the Life of One of the Most Powerful (and Enigmatic) Forces in Beauty

It’s fairly safe to say that you most likely have a bottle or two of Sally Hansen nail polish in your collection. With thousands of products that have hit the market, the nail polish brand is much more than a household name — it’s a staple on the vanities of women everywhere and has been for years. But while you’ve been coating your nails with the brand’s polish for as long as you can remember, you’ve probably never stopped to think: Who is Sally Hansen?

For decades, there was no solid answer to that. After the beauty icon and founder of the namesake brand passed away in 1963, she left no real trace of her identity — or her story. Then, in 2014, executives at Coty, the brand’s parent company, decided to launch an investigation into her life, researching 49,120 women whose names might have tied them to the brand, in order to learn about the woman who once paved the way for women in the beauty industry.

Through cold calls and endless research, the team narrowed the names down to 14,000. Then, miraculously, they landed on an obituary of a factory worker who was employed by “Sally Hansen Cosmetics.” They tracked down members of her family and traveled to meet them in California, where researchers were able to undercover photos of the beauty mogul, along with marriage certificates and the story of her legacy.

And to no surprise, what they discovered was a powerful, self-made entrepreneur who had a passion for cosmetics — and, yes, really loved nail polish.

Before starting one of the most well-known nail polish brands in history, Hansen was born Sally Genevieve Finney in 1908 in Kansas City, and moved to Los Angeles in 1922. She was described as a “popular member of artistic and social centers in LA,” owned a dance studio and became a choreographer in her 20’s, and married her second husband, Adolph M. Hansen, in 1933.

Her family, however, was already a name in the beauty industry, with a cosmetics store called La Finné. Hansen worked for her family’s business, and in 1935, she finally acquired the company.

A Look Inside the Life of a Beauty Pioneer: Sally Hansen

Alongside her brother, a pharmacist, the entrepreneur changed the name of the business from La Finné to House of Hollywood, and transformed the company into a range of “medically formulated cosmetics.” The company then grew to be one of the largest of it’s kind during time, and became the parent company to three ranges of products, from high-end to low, with hair, fragrance and cosmetics. A true beauty expert, she even wrote her own beauty column, “Your Candid Mirror” in the Los Angeles Times.

Finally, more than 20 years after entering the beauty world, Hansen created her namesake line, and in 1957 launched the first product under the Sally Hansen name: Hard As Nails, which is still one of the brand’s signature products today.

With the growth of her company, Hansen moved to New York, which led to a divorce between her and her husband in 1945. She then married Jack Newton, a graphic designer who designed her logo.

Hansen passed away in 1963, reportedly of lung cancer. Her name at her passing was Sally Hansen Newton — making it nearly impossible to track down the true Sally Hansen — until now.

Are you surprised by Hansen’s story? Sound off in the comments below.