Our Story

Established 1974 · Austin, Texas

She was meant to be a doctor.

Halina Prądyński survived World War II in Poland as a young member of the underground, nursing the wounded in a field hospital. She planned a career in medicine. When family life interrupted her studies, she turned to skin care instead, training at the Warsaw College of Skin Care and later in Paris under Helena Rubinstein.

She built the opposite of a beauty counter.

Paris shaped her philosophy, but not in the way you'd expect.

"I thought if I have the chance to do something on my own, it will be diametrically different. It will serve individuals, not push to sell product."

In her Austin treatment room, every client began with a hands-on skin analysis and left with an education. "This is a craft," she said. "You can give so much if you treat it seriously." No miracles, no shortcuts: clean, professionally cultivated skin, maintained with consistency.

Her clients proved it.

• A second salon opened in San Antonio in 1979.
• Within fifteen years, her files recorded 5,000 active clients.
• Her client list included some of Texas's best-known public figures.

Formulas made to match her method.

Her husband, Andrzej, a research chemist, developed and produced the formulas her treatments required. In 1974, they became the Halina André line: botanical, results-driven, and designed to support the skin, never stress it. Estheticians have trusted it for five decades since.

The standard hasn't changed.

Today's formulas are refined to modern standards, but they follow the same principle Halina built her practice on: skin care is a craft, and professionals deserve products that respect it.

Quotes from "Halina pushes gentle art of skin care," Austin American-Statesman.