The LaBelle story began in the old country, with a young girl whose extraordinary ambition took her from the salons of Europe to the center of beauty, modern-day California. Bella Schneider entered the working world at age 14 to help support her struggling family. When stress took a toll on her complexion, her mother took her to a European salon. Seeing the girl had a gift for beauty, the proprietress took Bella under her wing as an apprentice, imparting the commitment to clinical knowledge, quality and innovation that underlies LaBelle’s philosophy to this day. After immigrating to the United States to attend university, the newly minted Economics graduate and skincare specialist saw an unfilled niche in the marketplace—a yearning for European-quality beauty services in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1976, Bella opened her flagship LaBelle Day Spa & Salon in a 700-square-foot space in San Francisco, offering leading-edge services found nowhere else in the Bay Area. Rising to the challenges of being a woman-run business, Bella successfully expanded her services menu and responded to demand for more LaBelle locations, opening two Peninsula salons in 1982 and 1987. Today, her thriving salon-spas offer a full range of clinical skincare and beauty services to a selective clientele, including such corporate clients as Google, Oracle and Sun. LaBelle is honored to fulfill the beauty needs of a number of high-profile patrons, including Carly Fiorina and Condoleezza Rice, and has served Silicon Valley visitors including Michelle Pfeiffer, Paris Hilton, Chelsea Clinton, Maria Shriver, Gayle King, Daryl Hannah, Michelle Gayle and Audrey Hepburn.