Color, Culture, and the Future of Sustainable Beauty with Nour Tayara of AORA Makeup

0:00Hey guys, real quick. Have you checked out Droplet? It is by far the most revolutionary skincare device on the market. Basically, it takes those harder to penetrate ingredients and pushes them deeper into the skin layers. They're actually getting to the cells that can utilize those ingredients. Recently, they just launched their ExoSome Serum Mist, which is a phenomenal product because it's using real exosomes that are shipped to you on ice. So you don't have to worry about them being degraded by the time you use them. And so when you put the capsule of exosomes into your Droplet device, it creates a fine mist.

0:25That mist is allowing those exosomes to be pushed into the layers where they're going to actually be able to interact with the cells. that can use them for signaling. If you want to check out the device, go to droplet.io, use our code ANARCHY, A-N-A-R-C-H-Y, to get a very special bundle deal on this exosome and droplet device duo. Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. This is a very special episode because this is a launch day episode and I'm so excited to be helping in the launch of this brand because this is where beauty pushes forward. We push innovation forward, we push all of the boundaries and I'm so excited to host our guest today because he is really kind of paving a road, I think for all of the brands in the space to kind of have a blueprint as we move forward into true sustainability.

1:05So without further ado, please welcome Noor Tayyara, who's the co-founder and CEO of Aora Makeup. Welcome, Noor. I'm so honored to host you. Thank you so much. Hi, everyone. I'm very honored to be on this podcast. I'm very honored to be with you. I'm a fan of what you do. I also feel like you've done this with so many experts in their field, so many people that are paving the way, whether it's with ingredients, whether it's with everything that's happened with CEW and with the Innovators Awards. So to be alongside everyone you've interviewed is something I truly cherish. Well, we're so happy to have you here.

1:41And I want to dive in because your background is really, really impressive, Nora. And I want our audience to really get to know your body of work because you were with L 'Oreal for 13 years behind the Time 100 Innovation Award. I mean, this is huge stuff. And I want you to kind of tell your story. I don't want to miss anything. So can you kind of walk us down memory lane and tell us what got you into the beauty industry, your experience at L 'Oreal and everything that followed? Okay, let's start from the beginning. I did not grow up thinking or knowing that I will work in beauty one day. I would say I was an overachieving brown young boy that thought that I can only do mathematics or be in medicine because that's what I guess society or my parents expected from me back in high school, in orientation.

2:28I didn't even know marketing was a job or really, really, I thought you had to become an engineer. So I became an engineer. So I studied in Montreal. I studied electrical engineering and that was really where I thought I would end up being. And then I needed more money in school. So I started doing jobs, what you called back in the day, guerrilla marketing. So I'd be the guy in a movie theater, in a bathrobe, selling you an axe, deodorant, or sun silk, what's your color for shampoo, or ING, giving a dollar on the street to people to get them to think about saving a dollar with a bank. And suddenly, I got really, really excited about marketing.

3:14I'm like, that's what I want to do. I want to do something super creative to bring either innovations or cool new ideas to people. And life took me quite randomly to Paris, where I started an MBA at a school in Paris. And the first class in that MBA was a marketing class where L 'Oreal was invited to do Brandstorm, which is a big competition that L 'Oreal does every year until now with students around the world. And back then it was with Maybelline. And my group won the competition that year in France for creating a perfume for Maybelline. And that was it. That was my in. And suddenly I had won an internship with L 'Oreal.

3:55So fast forward 13 years, I had spent my career in L 'Oreal. And I started with L 'Oreal on hair back then, on innovation, on a brand called Shoumura Art of Hair, which was super cool. And it was immediately like same, lots of jumped in into creating really cool products, different things. And I did really well my first year. And part of that became, again, like the reward was, it was the first year that the old heads of Havas Media Worldwide had created a new conference called One Young World. And One Young World was for leaders, young leaders under 30 years old that want to change the world.

4:36So big companies were meant to send like top performing young employees. And you get to go and listen to Mohammed Yunus and Ariana Huffington and Kofi Anan and people changing the world and young innovators from different countries also doing really, really, really weird, cool, disruptive innovations. And I remember after three days there, you're like crying, laughing, looking. I realized, oh, my God, this is what I want to do. And I want to do sustainability because one, you quickly realize that the world needs us to do that. And number two, that if you're truly into innovation, that's where disruptive innovation is.

5:16And suddenly my thirst, my curiosity for innovation was quenched by realizing, oh, my God, I'm being given this opportunity on a silver plate. to go back to my company and propose ideas. So I went back to L 'Oreal and suddenly became a bit of a poster boy for doing sustainability because I was willing to push the envelope on doing the first bottle that was 100 % recycled plastic. And we had never done that before. Or doing the first shampoos and conditioners that had natural origin ingredients or were biodegradable. And then same fast forward a career until about five years ago, where I worked on so many fun projects in a big, big, big company like L 'Oreal, where honestly, the impact could be huge because you can do something on one brand.

6:05And then I'm sure you know that really well in those big groups, everything trickles. Right. Once an innovation is done, then Garnier can take it. L 'Oreal Paris can take it. Kiehl's can take it. Lancôme can take it. So I'm still a strong believer that impact can happen as an intrapreneur or as an entrepreneur in big companies. I agree. I think that's a really good point, though. I want to I want to kind of pause there because you made such an excellent point just now. I mean, I think we forget that, you know what I mean? That there is this like pyramid, you know, and there's this trickle down of of true science and innovation.

6:38And I when I just doing this podcast for almost six years, there have been so many times where I've talked to people such as yourself, you know, that are true innovators. And then your work, I see it, you know, like I'll see it down the road. And I'm like, I remember where that came from, you know, like and it's really cool to watch that. And I think as consumers, we forget that the beauty industry isn't just an industry about like vanity or anything. You know, it's an industry that has like it interfaces with so many disciplines, you know, and we have the potential to create like magic, literally magic and change the world.

7:10You know, it's a beautiful thing. What you said, I agree. magic. And we're all choosing to be in this industry and the consumers are choosing to buy our products. I think at the end of the day, this is also for me, that's what I remind myself every day of. And that's why my biggest motto when it comes to sustainability is that we need to create something that is flavorful. We need to create something that is sexy, desirable to people, because no one needs most of what we are offering. At the end of the day, most of us have gone on a camping trip or hiking or traveled and forgot a toiletry bag and life continues.

7:45Life goes on. So what we are offering, I think, is still our responsibility to offer an object that is beautiful, a performance that is spectacular, a brand story that is really, really great and compelling, because at the end of the day, no one needs a lot of what we are offering. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it makes sense. But at the same time, I think that's the beauty of it, right? Because we don't need it, but we learn from what we, because that's the interesting part about, I think this entire industry is that we are choosing to participate as consumers in it. And so we're choosing, you know, we're voting with our dollars, we're voting for every single bit and piece of it.

8:23And so when I look at sustainability, you know, I really want to actually ask you this question because it's been on my mind for many years, you know, where it's like, where do you think we were stuck for so long with sustainability? Or where do you think we're still stuck, you know, when it comes to bringing the true innovation forward? Do you think it's a cost problem or like brands just don't want to give up like the super nice aesthetic? What do you think it is? Okay, I think it's multiple things. I believe we've gotten an unlock on our Mexico on this topic is understanding a couple of things.

8:53I think one, the industry is stuck with fear. There is something where we need to have a lot of empathy for everyone that's working in beauty is because sustainability could be scary sometimes. One, because they're still lacking a lot of education out there. So a lot of the people who work in our beauty industry are sometimes afraid of messing up, of saying the wrong thing, of their legal team being upset because are you writing PCR or recycled components without the cap? There's been so many rules and regulations sometimes that people choose to do the most vague claim or sometimes to avoid something because they're afraid of messing up.

9:34So I think number one is we need to all like chill a bit about it and realize that the best kind of environmentalist is an imperfect one. And that we can really, if we embrace a bit of imperfection, we can move. We can move our world in a great direction without waiting for the perfect, perfect, perfect claim. I think that's number one. Number two, the biggest movers in the industry are still big, big, big, big, big box brands. There's still massive brands in the industry and those brands still have their cash cows. You still have L 'Oreal Paris with their number one hyaluronic acid or Maybelline with their number one mascara.

10:13And you're still going through those big quali and quanti tests with Nielsen where It seems like a little to us, but for a lot of big companies, if a consumer will walk down an island and not recognize their mascara, that's like a half a billion dollar loss. So the stakes are super high and we're still at the point where no one is willing to take that financial risk of switching something that is so big. And those little incremental innovations might actually be very disruptive in the P &L of a big, big, big company. And I think number three is there's a lot of misconceptions still about sustainability.

10:53One, that is it is not desirable, that it will never look exciting and sexy and cool and fun. Number two, that it's expensive, that it's going to cost you more to do something sustainable. And number three is that it is boring as a topic and actually very technical. and that's something that the CSO team is going to take care of on the side. And I think once we get over those three big misconceptions, it's really where the magic can start. I agree with you. And I think it makes sense to me as well, you know, just hearing you say it out loud. I think for a long time, I'm not going to lie, Nora, I thought sustainability became a trend for so long, you know?

11:35And I felt like there were people that were shopping products that almost looked like they were in like paper packaging, you know, to be the cool kid on the block, You know what I mean? Like, I'm cool. Look at my paper, you know, whatever bottle. Like, and it was almost like, I feel like we were pushing the whole thing backwards when we did that, you know, because it created like a silo in the sustainability consumer side. So, I mean, that's why I asked you that question is like, what is holding us back? Because at this point, it's like, there are solutions, you know, and there are ways that we can get around it.

12:03And I just keep seeing huge, huge companies that, I mean, it makes sense what you said, where it's like, you can't change the look. You're not going to recognize it when you walk down the aisle. That makes more sense to me. I've just never heard someone say that out loud, you know. So very cool. But I want to talk about Aura because it's an amazing brand. I want to learn about your brand vision. Like, where did you first conceptualize the brand? Like, did you know this while you were at L 'Oreal or when did this come to life for you? Definitely started at L 'Oreal. It started at L 'Oreal for a couple of reasons is because one, I got to really understand the waste problem of the beauty industry when I was at L 'Oreal.

12:39It is the biggest beauty conglomerate in the world. So you get to understand the scale and the volume of things. And I learned very quickly that almost absolutely everything we create in makeup is designed, engineered, destined to become trash. From inception, from the moment it's on a PowerPoint presentation in an office. So once you see the level of waste and trash that is created and you know that, hey, we can maybe engineer this and design it differently, it gave me quite a passion for it. Number two is I was tasked, actually, when I was at L 'Oreal, one of my jobs in my last two years at L 'Oreal was I was taken away from brands.

13:20I was given a budget, an office, and I was tasked by the CEO of L 'Oreal USA at the time to create a clean and sustainable makeup brand, which I did. So I started creating for a while and it wasn't 100 % plastic free. The technology wasn't available back then, or at least it wasn't available when you're 10 middlemen away from every manufacturer because you're in a big, big company. And we got far with that brand. And in the end, it had to stop. It was canceled. And it was my biggest like dagger to the heart, honestly, because it was canceled for different reasons. One, because L 'Oreal isn't great at creating brands.

13:57We buy brands, which is true, fair. that we can't do plastic free or talk that bad about plastic because all of the other brands is plastic. Unfortunately, true, fair, but also like you're going to have to start somewhere one day because we're going to all have to face the plastic problem one day or another. And number three, then I was told that brands like this that are very activistic need an angry founder. And at real we cannot have angry leaders and this is where honestly about two months after that I quit and I left to not necessarily create my brand immediately I think at the point it was COVID it was the great resignation period I was also rethinking what do I want to do with my life and I hung out for a long time at a beach in Mexico that I've been going to for the past 20 years it was my happy place and that's where I met my co-founder and he asked me what I want to do And I said, I want to create a plastic free brand.

14:56And he's like, well, I'm also working on creating a beauty brand. And we got together and started Aura with all of our frustrations, really putting them into one place. It was one. Why does the world have so many brands that end with the word Paris or L 'Anne? Like, think about it. I'm like Chanel Paris, Hermes Paris, Lancôme Paris, Dior Paris. And why can't we have something with the word Mexico behind it? or with other countries or with the global South a bit more represented. And it's not just about representation, by the way. I think it is not just for a way of affirmative action or because we need to balance out the top 10 of brands or what's on the shelf.

15:40It's also because I believe in curiosity and innovation and creativity and inspiration. Why are brands still doing Andy Warhol collections? He's dead. And there are thousands of alive artists around the world that are doing really cool things and that we could be supporting and we could be getting inspired from so many other point of views and beautiful things. So that's where for us it was important to like frustration number one. It's time for something new from somewhere else and not from the same places and tell new stories. And the second one was about clean beauty, because whether we like the word clean or not, because it says so many things and nothing at the same time.

16:19But when it comes to beauty that is, let's say, respectful, that is educational, that is actually checking, are we using the right ingredients for the right things? Are we checking our supply chain? Are we really looking what's in the bottle and what are we doing to make sure we are delivering the right actives and the right products? That for me is what clean beauty is right now. it is pretty boring. Unfortunately, it is very much like my skin, but better. 10 shades of beige. I'm a 38 year old woman that has children and realized I should take better care of the planet. And it's like, why? Why can't you be someone that is raving all night and want clean beauty?

17:04Why do you have to choose between clean or good formula and glitter or silver or a bold color? Why can't you have it all? I think the days of, to your point, all of clean and sustainable beauty being packaged into yoga going class with let's go pick up strawberries in the field. And that's the commercial you're going to get is I think now a bit absurd. Clean beauty is for everyone, just like electric cars are for everyone. Just like you could choose to eat a vegan impossible burger because you're going to digest better, not because you are 100 percent against all things like. You're not trying to fit into a box.

17:42And that's I love that you're saying this because and I and I want to bring this culture thing up. OK, because I mean, I love this. I mean, I'm Indian. So being Indian myself, you know, Latin culture, South Asian culture, we have colors everywhere. We grow colors. We love colors. I mean, even now when my mother, you know, she's approaching 70, when she dresses up for any function or party or whatever, she's wearing beautiful colors. That's just part of us, you know. And I feel like for so long, the westernization of beauty has forced multiple cultures into this muted look. And I've never understood that.

18:17I'm like, your vitality and your vibrance, it doesn't need to be muted after a certain age. And I don't know why here we do that, but we don't do it in other parts of the world, right? Like we don't do that in like in Mexico, in India and even in like anywhere I've seen. Like when you travel the world, you realize like the world is colorful. The world is so colorful. The world is so colorful. And suddenly we have gotten everything. And that's what happens as well in the millennial era, in like millennial pink and all of that. And it's just suddenly you look around and all beauty packaging was the same white with the same kind of logo.

18:54And suddenly it was the clean girl aesthetic. and which is problematic in itself, by the way, because girl versus what? And I think it has it carried a certain judgment on maximalism, a certain judgment on expression, a certain judgment on a lot of these. It became a cookie cutter world in everything really around us. But that world is changing right now. I think that was super interesting. Like our second Second frustration with clean beauty is because we knew maximalism was about to come back. And it's coming back. If we look around us right now, it's coming back with force because that's the cyclicality of the world.

19:34Because look around you, our world is in a horrible place right now. We are in a war. I was going to say on the brink of a war. No, we are. No, we are in the war now. We need to all what's happening is World War III about to happen. I think this is what it looks like. It's what we're living in. And there's a climate catastrophes happening and there's risks. Sorry for to be a bit alarmist, but we are in a world that is always at a risk of a recession and always at a risk of another storm today. And when that happens, and history has taught us that, is that after World War I came the roaring 20s.

20:08And after World War II came the fun, fun, fun 50s. And after Vietnam came the 80s and disco. And at Y2K, when we all thought our computers are going to collapse one night while we sleep and it's going to be the end of the world, came the amazing expressionism that happened with clothes and with boy bands and girl bands and all of that. And that is the world we're living in right now, because if we all think that we can take everything that is happening without having an outlet and that outlet being super fun eyeshadows or dressing up in sequins is the comeback of Paco Rabanne and of Carvin and of all of these super fun brands.

20:45We need that as human beings. We need to express ourselves and color and shiny and being able to take ourselves through the imaginary, the beauty that is beauty and fashion and film to take us into different imaginaries. I think that's a blessing that is great for all of us to take. And this is the moment we are living in right now. No, I couldn't agree with you more. I think it's profound what you said. And I really, really, I mean, I resonate so much with that. I know so many people do. And it's not even just about like when I think of beauty anymore, I don't even think about products. Like, I'll be honest with you.

21:17I think about a feeling at this point. And, you know, it's crazy. I was watching Mad Men again. And I started the series again like a week ago. And it really kind of like I love that show because it always like makes me think of like advertising and marketing and all of this stuff. but more importantly it makes it just made me realize like we really are always on a hamster wheel you know we're always on a hamster wheel somebody else is putting in front of us and as consumers as much as we pretend to be like well now we're questioning more and now we're doing this we always find ourselves on someone else's hamster wheel and so it's like at some point like i i agree with everything you said it's almost like you're being forced into the present moment right now because of everything that's going on because there is no other place to find refuge refuge mentally, you know, and I know a lot of people resonate with that.

22:04And so when you find that refuge in your now, what are you surrounding yourself with? Are you going to surround yourself with the muted colors and the camel print? And, you know, like, what is it that you want to look at when you're in your present? And that's, I think we don't stop and, you know, even consider that. Like, we're still like, well, what box am I checking off? You know what I mean? If I look like this, what celebrity will notice me online and like my social media posts because they resonate with my so I mean we just can't get and that's why I feel like a brand like yours is so important to remind us of that you know and I really would love for you to speak about when you were making your decisions about like color palettes and like the choices of the products what were some of the things that you kept in mind I know culture was a big part of it but like walk us through that for me I wanted to before anything stand out in color like I mean I love color so it's just like at all moments you're going to see me wearing ridiculous amounts I love your I love your sweater by the way.

22:59Color makes me happy. And I think color makes people happy in general. And it was important for us to one, when it came to our secondary packaging to show really fun combination of color that one can have a deep root in Mexican culture and two, to be colors that are also known to signal certain things to people. So for example, our palette is blue and pink, and then there's a gold inside. That's what the actual packaging is gold. That pink is called the Rosa Mexicano, but it's also, by the way, very similar to a Barbie pink. So you're getting two worlds in one. The blue is a royal blue. You can call it a Frida blue.

23:41You can call it an Eve Klein's blue. And the gold is not just any gold. The gold is the same gold as a 10 peso coin fresh from the bank. That is the gold that we mimicked because it's the most Mexican gold. There's no gold that's more Mexican than the most used coin in all of Mexico. And when you put the three of them together, they make a pink, blue, and gold that is one of the most famous exhibitions by Yves Klein in Berlin about 35 years ago. That is really about the beautiful combinations of these three colors together. Our Acaricium is solid lip serum comes in a pink and orange packaging.

24:17And that pink and orange packaging, I mean, pink and orange is a beautiful combination to start with. It's a beautiful nation I love but it's also the combination of the Mexico Olympics of 1968 which was probably one of the best design Olympics possible and it's what they they painted the whole stadium in circles of this pink and orange so it's also very rooted in history no one needs to know that by the way but I think it's just like it helps no I think they do need to know that though because I mean, here's the thing. And this is what drew me into the brand. I'll be very honest with you. I love that you're bringing culture forward because I think that's how people learn.

24:57You know, like when you're looking at a product and you're holding it, you're using it every day, you're that's learning. And we don't learn anymore. For some reason, our culture has completely deviated from this idea of like, we need to understand other people's actual cultures. You know, we need to understand the art, we need to understand the architecture, the beautiful things that manifested in that part of the world that we can learn from, you know. So I would say that's amazing, you know, and I think you should put that everywhere, you know, put the history everywhere. We are, we are, we are.

25:26We put it at the end of the day, I think the emotion that someone gets when they see a product is still always what is what is the most important for me. But whenever we have the opportunity to tell our stories, we take them, we welcome them. When it came to choosing the colors inside of the products, it was also the same. It was a mix of figuring out with makeup artists, what are colors that people will use? What are colors that can complement the biggest amount of skin tones possible? What are colors that will also stand out and shock a bit? Our palette has, our palette is very colorful and we keep getting told like, oh my God, it's so many colors and why?