Ole Henriksen

A Danish sailor walked off a merchant ship in Los Angeles in 1975, apprenticed himself to a Beverly Hills esthetician and opened his own skin studio eight years later. The brand that grew out of it now sits inside the LVMH beauty portfolio. Ola Henriksen grew up in rural Denmark and worked at sea through his early 20s, developing severe adult acne that led him to research skincare obsessively. He moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and opened his own salon on Sunset Boulevard in 1983. His signature product, Truth Serum, was a vitamin C treatment developed in the salon for his own post acne skin and sold to clients initially as a clinic-only SKU. Ola kept the brand independent for more than two decades before selling to LVMH subsidiary Kendo Brands in 2011.