Real Cosmetics for Real Women
As a Pakistani-American model, the lack of appropriate color cosmetics drove this woman to start her own line.
Real Cosmetics, New York, NY, aims to provide color cosmetics for all women of color. "Women of color are diverse, ranging from Asian-American to Latina to African-American...Women of color are 40 million strong in the US. That is approximately 30 percent of all US women. Given our numbers, we should definitely have more choices when shopping for cosmetics," says Lubna Khalid, founder and CEO of Real Cosmetics.
"As a Pakistani-American former model and woman of color I have always had difficulty in finding the right cosmetics," she says. "Makeup artists would have to blend several colors to match my complexion. My partner, Anna Hernandez, is Mexican-American and has similar difficulties with finding cosmetics, even in lines that claim to cater to all women or women of color. One weekend we went to about 24 different cosmetics lines looking for a foundation color for her and found nothing! We created Real Cosmetics, Color for Women of Color, for women like us."
When it came to designing the packaging for the line, Khalid wanted a look that was simple but also represented the mission of the line. "The back of each foundation bottle features a different ÔReal' Fact such as, approximately 80 percent of the world's population are people of color'."
Representative Packaging
"These demographic facts are meant to educate and bring light to the fact that people of color are not a Ôminority' in the world and will not be in the US much longer either," says Khalid.
Rectangular shapes were chosen for the bottles and lipsticks, and compacts are square to set the packaging apart from other lines. In addition, according to Khalid, the bottles are easy to handle and not too bulky. "The bottles are simple and tall because we want the diverse range of foundation colors to shine through," she says. Red and black were chosen for the logo to add more color and boldness to the packaging. "As a women of color line, just black would be too boring," says Khalid.
The primary packaging components for the compacts and lipsticks are supplied by Thai Hoover Industries, Bangkok, Thailand. The foundation bottles are from Arrowpak Inc., Richmond Hill, NY. The bottle caps are supplied by Colt's Plastics Co., Dayville, CT. And the compact sponges are from Karlen Manufacturing Inc., St. Charles, MI.
Khalid said the biggest challenge, when putting the packaging together, was the minimum orders required by most packaging companies. "As a new company, 50,000 or 100,000 pieces is just not feasible. We had to get really creative because we didn't have the option of creating custom molds," she says.
"Women of color have been waiting for a line like Real Cosmetics for a long time. We are targeting a large diverse group of urban women of color who are being ignored. They can't find what they need where they need it and we hope to solve that problem," says Khalid.