"All products are certified Made Safe™️": Co founder, Belora Cosmetics
Ainara Kaur, co founder, Belora cosmetics, speaks to Urvi Shrivastav, Editorial Lead, BE ESG, BW Businessworld about cosmetic industry and sustainability as well as the steps Bellora Cosmetics is taking to make an impact
How is Belora different from the other players in the field?
Belora is the first Made Safe certified makeup brand across Europe & Asia and uniquely combines high performance to clean formulas. Offering both at an affordable price with international quality gives us a unique edge which has resulted in deep consumer love, apparent with high organic reviews and repeat purchases that are higher than average industry rate. All products are certified Made Safe™️ by an international certifying authority, which literally means they are made with safe ingredients. In fact, there are only a handful of makeup brands across the world to bag this certification. The brand has launched lip, eyes & face makeup collections and recently made foray in skincare too by launching moisturisers, serums and masks. The brand sells both online and offline.
Ainara Kaur
Can you tell us more about the High Performance Natural Goodness' philosophy that Belora uses?
Simply put, it means we create products that are powered with high benefit natural ingredients to improve skin quality while delivering great makeup performance. For instance our BB cream has multi vitamins clean formula, has great coverage and is good for skin too. Most importantly, our product formulation policy is as per European Union norms & Made Safe™️ guidelines. Europe follows one of the most stringent guidelines and bans close to 1500 ingredients which are not safe for usage.
We have created a BS (Bad Stuff) list of 2000 harmful ingredients which we will never use. All products are always formulated without Paraben, Siloxanes, Sulfates, Mineral oils, SLS, Petroleum & synthetic fragrances/perfumes.
Our product formulation policy is as per European Union norms & Made Safe™️ guidelines. Europe follows one of the most stringent guidelines and bans close to 1500 ingredients which are not safe for usage. The company has created a BS (Bad Stuff) list of 2000 harmful ingredients that they promise to never use. All products of Belora are always formulated without Paraben, Siloxanes, Sulfates, Mineral oils, SLS, Petroleum & synthetic fragrances/perfumes.
How are the ingredients which are used in Belora sourced?
Our sourcing is global. We source ingredients from all across the world with a basic objective to offer the best quality to our consumers.
What are the advantages for a clean/cruelty free inclined customer?
We create products that are good for skin while being good to our furry friends. We are 100 percent vegan and cruelty free.
Today the customer has become more discerning and wants products that are healthier and good towards the environment & other species. Therefore, there is a growing trend of patronising brands that are clean & kind (vegan & cruelty free)
Moreover it helps us to create a very distinct brand communication that no other makeup brand can come close to. This has helped us a lot to stand out in a cluttered market and is proving to be a more efficient brand building route.
What are the challenges in running a clean cosmetics brand?
There were two key challenges for us -
1. Since our formulas are unique, it took us two years of research and development to launch the brand. We have and continue to spend time and money to create better products for our customers. It adds more time and cost to our go-to-market strategy however we are already seeing it reap rewards in form to higher growth and customer stickiness. So for us it is a worthwhile trade off. Moreover, we have already set up a R&D Center in Europe that has helped us to considerably reduce the development time and work ahead of our launch strategy.
2. India is still evolving as a beauty market and there is low understanding of clean labels & some trust deficit. To overcome this, we took third party certification - Made Safe. We further sacrificed our logo to use their logo on all our products. It has helped us on two levels - a. It brings instant credibility being certified by a top international organisation and b. It also helps people to understand that they offer products that are made with safe ingredients.
