Eye on Poland: Cosmetic Queen; iReporter Shares Polish Road Trip
FOSTER: All this week, we have been turning our Eye on Poland and how the European country's making its mark on the global stage. Tonight, the lens is on the woman known as Poland's cosmetic queen. As Jim Boulden found, her company has had a stunning makeover since the fall of the Berlin Wall.</s>JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Irena Eris is often in the lab with her employees testing what could be the next big product for Poland's biggest cosmetic label, Dr. Irena Eris. It all began in 1983, just Eris on her own in a makeshift lab.</s>BOULDEN (on camera): When you started in 1983, could you imagine what you have today?</s>IRENA ERIS, FOUNDER, DR. IRENA ERIS COSMETICS: Never. Never. It was another time, it was not so easy to make business in those times.</s>BOULDEN (voice-over): Quality skincare products were not readily available in Communist Poland. But she guessed correctly, Polish women craved pampering. And at the time, Eris says, despite the confines of Communism, the government preached equality when it came to business. Before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Eris had some 15 employees. But she says she could no longer grow under Communism. Under capitalism, it all changed.</s>ERIS: After 89, I started to think with another way.</s>BOULDEN: Now, it's all about service and branding to go along with cosmetics.</s>ERIS: You have to be better and better because our customer trusts us. Which means good brand name, yes?</s>BOULDEN (on camera): But Irena Eris is not just about selling cosmetics. It's also about treatments.</s>BOULDEN (voice-over): One big way she wants to grow the business, get Polish men to walk through the treatment door. No better time, then, for me to have my first facial. Another talent, says Eris, selling a brand with "made in Poland" on the label. Though it's the homeland of Helena Rubinstein and Max Factor.</s>ERIS: We export now to seven countries, but it's not a big amount of our products. We want to be stronger and to export more.</s>BOULDEN (on camera): That's a big goal.</s>ERIS: Yes, it's a big goal. But to start, it's a very heavy job.</s>BOULDEN (voice-over): A hard sell outside Poland, a lot of competition at home.</s>ERIS: And now we have big competition on our market, all of the biggest players international contents are here. They have experience, they have money, they have tactic. And we are local -- local company.</s>BOULDEN (on camera): Yes. Right.</s>BOULDEN (voice-over): And choosing her products has made this woman's name one of the most recognizable brands inside Poland. Jim Boulden, CNN, Warsaw.</s>FOSTER: Now, an expert in facials as well as business. During our week-long Eye on Poland coverage, we've been asking you to share your images of the country with CNN's iReport. Before we go tonight, we'd like you -- to show you some photos that Christine Rabbitt took during a two-week road trip in Poland last month. She's from the US, but her boyfriend is from Poland. After being separated from him for two months, she says she used her college savings to book a trip to the country so she could finally see where he grew up. Christine sent the bulk of her time on a road trip from Warsaw to Smoldzino in the north, and these images were captured as she hiked and biked her way to the Baltic. If you have images you would like to share of Poland, do log onto CNN.com/eyeon and click on the iReport Poland. I'm Max Foster, thank you so much for watching. Have a great weekend. The world headlines and "BackStory" will follow this short break.