With a background in chemical engineering, #beautyboss, Tanisha Varalwar quickly learned how toxic chemicals can be. She decided to launch her own makeup brand, Tsara Cosmetics, which was completely natural and nontoxic without trading off the color or texture. Read on more to find out about her new brand and her journey:
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and why you started Tsara?
When I was 21 and studying Chemical engineering at BITS Pilani, Dubai – when I knew I wanted to start my own beauty brand, and being in a place like Dubai made me more passionate about making this dream a reality.
With first-hand experience of handling chemicals and knowing how toxic they can be, I always looked deeper into every label of beauty products that I ever used.
During vacations, I was interning at a natural ingredients factory where I learned a lot about how natural ingredients are extracted and used in various products.
That’s when it struck me that in a world where there were so many young women passionate about makeup, there weren’t many makeup brands taking this path. At that time the market was already cluttered with organic or natural haircare and skincare brands, but organic makeup was still very uncapped and niche.
I couldn’t find nontoxic makeup that didn’t involve some sort of trade-off in terms of color or texture and natural products were always perceived to not work as good as conventional, synthetic products. Hence from day 1 we wanted our products to be able to give the same or better finish compared to conventional makeup products.
After graduation, I got in touch with a team of amazing formulators who helped me find clean and green ingredients and we spent 2.5 years researching how to make our products as natural and organic as possible as it is not easy formulating color cosmetics with these ingredients. It was time taking, we had our own share of ups and downs but we never gave up, and finally here we are!
What are your products formulated with and what are the benefits of those ingredients?
We have introduced a range of 10 shades of Liquid lip colors, to begin with.
These are formulated with ingredients that are certified organic or natural by ECOCERT-which is one of the largest certifying bodies. All the ingredients were also approved by PETA to be cruelty-free and vegan.
It was difficult to formulate a lipstick without silicones – as that is one of the major texture-contributing ingredients to most lipsticks. But with the right blend of waxes and oils – we were able to achieve that and it only made our formula more velvety and super moisturizing.
We use natural Vitamin E which boosts circulation and helps generate new skin cells, making lips softer.
Jojoba oil – has anti-inflammatory properties that help lips from chapping.
And a blend of sunflower wax and soybean oil acts as major contributing factors for the texture and retain the lips natural moisture.
There are so many beauty brands entering the Indian beauty market. How do you differentiate your brand/marketing techniques?
The color cosmetic industry or beauty industry as a whole is constantly growing in India being one of the driving forces for economic growth. At Tsara we are already trying to enter a niche space by producing organic and natural makeup – at the same time, our main target being able to create awareness for clean beauty among the younger audience – we have kept our branding very youthful and colorful to be able to communicate better and we aim at creating a community who truly believe our values.
Picture Courtesy: Tsara Cosmetics
Some advice for other budding #beautybosses looking to launch their own beauty brand?
I strongly believe almost everyone has had a million-dollar idea at least once in their life, but what differentiates is who among these has been fearless enough to execute their dream and make it a reality. You don’t always need to come from a space of prior experience or knowledge and I strongly urge all the young beauty entrepreneurs to just start, when you start you automatically tend to figure things out and create a path for yourself and knowledge follows.
What does it mean to be a #beautyboss?
As a #beautyboss I want to constantly stay true to my brand values and prioritize quality over anything else. And to make products that ultimately make you feel good not only outside but inside too.
