Indie beauty conversations: Shade M Beauty

20 Apr 2021 --- Shade M Beauty’s Co-Founder Jolie Nubani chats with senior beauty and personal care journalist, Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, to share the inspiration behind the brand and its mission to reach all women, especially those underrepresented in the beauty industry.

Co-founders of Shade M Beauty, Nour Khalife and Jolie Nubani, met while working at L'Oréal. The duo were “frustrated with the industry’s narrow scope in regards to representing and producing products for a diverse body of women from different backgrounds,” says Jolie Nubani. “Being of Middle Eastern descent, we saw major gaps in the beauty world.” 

Click to EnlargeShade M Beauty

Achieving true inclusivity 

Together, the duo had over 18 years of combined experience. What followed was the bold and exciting decision to leave the corporate beauty brand space and, instead, use their knowledge and understanding of the market to launch their indie name: Shade M Beauty. Their aim was to “create a brand that spoke to all the things we have long wanted to see in the market,” enthuses Nubani. 

Shade M was born out of the need for representation and product efficacy that fits into the mainstream and fulfills women’s needs — with ethnic inclusivity at the core of the brand. The indie beauty brand has been made with “diversity, representation and the Muslim woman in mind,” Nubani says. Together, the two beauty executives brought Shade M to life. 

The co-founders worked with women to design and develop its brand and product range, forming partnerships with female artists worldwide. Shade M’s founders believe in everyone loving and owning who they are, being the truest form of themselves and screaming, 'I am my own shade!'. “The brand has a mission to drive this message into a global reality,” emphasizes Nubani. 

Better for you beauty

The belief in better for you beauty is also a key pillar of the indie brand’s identity. Developing the idea of makeup made for every shade, Shade M created its highly pigmented, clean, halal-certified, PETA-approved, vegan and cruelty-free makeup brand. Highlighting how the vegan and clean beauty movements have gained in popularity and prominence, Nubani has seen how these have been: “Steadily growing in trend from a small conversation to finally being seen as a necessity.”

The indie co-founder describes halal beauty as going “hand-in -hand” with vegan and clean beauty demands, as both halal and vegan beauty avoid similar ingredients. “Halal ties up directly with the ethos of vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics, which are increasingly becoming a standard,” adds Nubani. 

Increasingly, consumers are becoming aware of what ingredients are in their makeup products. With this comes the realization of “how much we really absorb into our skin over a lifetime,” says Nubani. Sharing insights on the wider impact of consumer demands for ‘better for you’ products, Nubani predicts: “The demand for halal will not only increase, but the overall expectation from consumers of clean and sustainable will soon change the face of cosmetics.”

Click to EnlargeConscious creations catering to concerns

Shade M is made for everyone that has been overlooked in the mainstream beauty industry. The brand’s formulations, ingredient selections, and product choices strive to reflect its mission to do things differently.  

The brand has been created “for every woman, but especially those who have been underrepresented and not seen enough in mainstream beauty,” Nubani highlights. When Shade M launched in February 2020, it wanted to appeal to the “ethnic woman — with a special focus on the Muslim woman who represents over 1 billion women in the world but is rarely seen,” says Nubani.

Dedicated to designing beauty products for women who do not see themselves in the mainstream, the brand illustrates to the world “who these women really are, celebrating their individuality and embracing them for it!” adds Nubani.  

Launching its debut range

The brand's first range of products is a collection of 15 shades of lipstick. Taking inspiration from the women who inspired the duo to create Shade M, the range is called Muse. The brand founders specifically chose lipstick because it is an experimental category that plays on the individual mood and is associated with providing energy and happiness. 

“But we didn’t want to make just any lipstick,” says Nubani. After all, “studies show that women ingest between four and nine pounds of lipstick during their lifetime!”. Instead, Shade M sought to achieve a variety of shades that offer full coverage for every skin tone and contain a long-lasting and non-drying effect. “Selecting the shades was such a big deal,” highlights Nubani. Shade M houses nudes, pinks, reds, purples, and even a silver lipstick in its collection.

Made in Italy, the vegan and cruelty-free Muse is a highly pigmented lipstick. The product is halal-certified, meaning it is non-drying because it is free of alcohol. The lipstick range is manufactured on separate production lines to remove the possibility of cross-contamination with ingredients that are not part of Shade M’s formulation. 

For its first product, Muse matte liquid lipstick, Shade M teamed up with Saudi-based digital artist Fida Al Hussan, whose work centers on furthering the conversation of women worldwide. Sharing insights on their collaboration, Nubani says: “Fida embodies the same ethos as Shade M. She is a strong and confident woman who moves against the tide of society while making strides and positively impacting the world along the way.”

By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist