Influenced by the continual lack of representation in the beauty industry, Aleena, Aleezeh, and Naseeha Khan, three Pakistani sisters by way of LA, Dubai, and the UK, decided to carve their own space in the beautysphere and leave a path for others to follow. The sisters founded their beauty brand, Ctzn Cosmetics, as a response to the lack of inclusivity not only in makeup marketing campaigns but also in daily life. Naseeha, a working makeup artist, shares her “annoyance of needing to mix foundation shades to find matches for models and everyday women alike, rather than the shades being readily available on the market. We needed a brand where it’s the norm to have products for every single person.” We chatted with the founders behind Ctzn Cosmetics to learn more about their makeup products as well as the mission behind their pivotal brand.
“It’s a simple mission”
It’s clear as Aleena reflects on her upbringing as well as to present day, that she’s affected by the fact that she never saw models who looked like her represented in any type of media. “We never felt like anyone looked like us in the campaigns. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern women are such huge consumers of products. We’re such big supporters with our powerful word of mouth and sales. We had an epiphany. Where’s the love in return? Why does a darker model need to come to set with her own foundation because she doesn’t have the same support that her shade would be in the kit? It should be equally accessible for everyone. The ethos didn’t sit well with us.”
She goes on to explain that she doesn’t feel that Ctzn Cosmetics is trying to do something complicated. She sees it as the opposite, stating, “It’s actually a simple mission. We’re not doing anything crazy, it’s just the simplicity that’s lacking. We want everyone to feel seen by our collections and for each individual to know they were considered when the collection was made.”
Nude is more than one colour
As the beauty brands began to roll out larger foundation shade ranges, Naseeha noticed that nude lipsticks seemed to remain stagnant with a singular beige shade. She remarks that “no one has ventured into inclusivity with nude lipsticks. We felt that we needed to create a few ranges of nude colours because it’s very skin tone specific. We want to disrupt the industry by saying that nude is more than one colour.” As a result, the Ctzn Cosmetics Nudiversal range came into being.
Ctzn Cosmetics’s debut product, the Nudiversal dual-ended matte lipstick and lip gloss is available in 25 nude shades. Naseeha shares that “the idea of adding the gloss came about because a lot of people felt that matte lipsticks can be drying. Plus, glossy lips are back in style.” She’s right. We’ve all experienced our lip texture akin to the Liwa desert during the matte liquid lip craze. She makes a point to note that Ctzn Cosmetics “lipsticks are velvety matte meaning they’re creamy. It has an ingredient called wild mango butter which is why it’s so moisturising.”
Interestingly, all the shade names are named after cities that the sisters have visited. They hold special memories in the girls’ hearts and were commemorated with their own namesake Nudiversal lip duo. Nasheeha’s quick to point out that “the colours shades aren’t tied to a specific city. Our deepest shade is called Stockholm.”
With a thoughtful approach
In contrast to today’s world of fast fashion and fast beauty, where brands are creating and releasing products on a monthly basis, Ctzn Cosmetics is taking a different approach, described as “thoughtful and intentional” by the sisters. Since its inception in spring 2019, they’ve released only a handful of cruelty-free products in addition to the Nudiversal Lip Duo, including their Glo Balm luminizer, Lip Stroke lip pencils, and Ctzn Gold eye shimmer. They stress that they don’t want Ctzn Cosmetics to contribute to overconsumption and instead aim to promote a sense of mindfulness to their consumers when makeup shopping.
They’ve also taken sustainable steps as a brand, such planting one tree for every order placed and using post-consumer recycled packaging. They comment on the excessive waste they’ve seen across social media with PR packages and media kits and say, “they want no part of that”. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” We can’t think of a better way to describe the sisters behind Ctzn Cosmetics.
Ctzn Cosmetics is available to purchase online as well as at That Concept Store and Faces.
