On a sleepless overnight flight, Dr. Tara Lalvani found the solution to her makeup problems. Since she had no internet access, she decided to buy the best makeup product on the market as soon as she landed.
“If this didn’t exist, I would create it,” she recalls. The result was that Lalvani, a former dentist, couldn’t find anything online and instead began creating a line of vanity cases, mirrors and tools that would revolutionize makeup application, with better lighting and easy access to brush tools.
“When I realized that, I didn’t think about how I would implement the concept,” she says. “It was almost like a calling.”
With its hero product Beautifect Box, the UK-based company has made rapid progress since launching in 2020. Harrod’s added the box to its range just six weeks later and the brand has grown 300% year-on-year, generating sales of over £13 million.
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“I didn’t want to start a business, I just wanted to find a solution to a problem I faced every day when it came time to get ready,” says Lalvani.
“I was tired of being tied to one place, having bad lighting, and having my makeup all messy and chaotic in lots of bags. I’m sure everyone felt the same way.”
By this she meant that future consumers will lean mirrors against windows to capture natural light and achieve the best result. But that’s not so easy, says Lalvani. Not if there isn’t a lot of natural light coming through bathrooms or certain makeup areas.
The key point here is lighting. Beautifect aims to simulate real daylight for true-to-life colors, while “what you see in the mirror is your true reflection.”
“We didn’t want to stop there,” she adds. “We wanted to simulate different environments. It’s quite good to see what you look like during the day. And what does it look like at night? We guessed what the end result would be.”
The company’s Glow Mirror simulates three different environments – bright sunlight, daylight and evening light – and Lalvani was careful to ensure that future consumers would not be tied to one location.
The beauty tech entrepreneur believes she is “setting a new standard in lighting.” With three light color environments, the Glow Mirror is based on a color rendering index (CRI) of 95+, mimicking evening light, daylight and bright sunlight.
Her more than 10 years of experience as a dentist has also helped her create a “21st century dressing table” with storage space. “When I have to operate on someone’s mouth, I don’t have all my instruments spread out in a messy tool bag and then I don’t have to search for the right one,” says Lalvani.
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“We wanted to simplify this and designed it to keep your daily makeup in one place, similar to a dentist’s tray. You can get the product done in half the time.”
When Lalvani came up with the idea, she had two young children and was looking for a solution that would allow her to not only get ready but also take care of the children and fit it into her busy daily schedule.
It took 18 months from landing in Dubai to developing the first prototype. Former Dyson engineers helped her develop the “best in its class”. The mirror can be tilted to any position and one battery charge is enough for up to a month of use.
“I’m a perfectionist by nature, so it took extra time and I basically built it for myself,” she admits. “My focus was on innovation, design and performance and it has to deliver on all three.”
With a core team in the UK, Beautifect is building a Middle East hub in Dubai, there is production in Hong Kong and a warehouse in Canada to supply the USA.
They’ve also had notable celebrity success without shipping products: Camila Cabello and Beyoncé both use Beautifect products, while reality TV shows have featured glimpses of Lalvani’s creations.
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She also leaned on her husband Tej, one of the dragons on Dragons’ Den and CEO of Britain’s biggest vitamin company Vitabiotics. “The fact that I didn’t have a business background and the fact that he always believed that I could achieve something big really gave me that confidence.”
“He is not involved in the day-to-day business, but always asked me for my opinion on his work. That’s when I realized that I actually enjoy the business.”
Behind the brand: CEO Tara Lalvani on …
How to run a startup
I built the business with savings from my dental practice. You have to be resourceful, that’s a key skill for any entrepreneur. Sometimes it’s a big mistake to have the funding too early. If you give too much of your business away at the beginning, when you need it most, you’ll have nothing left to give away.
How to survive
Someone once said to me, “Every day has its ups and downs like a heartbeat.” Every day everything is flat, you are dead and you don’t even realize it. You can’t get discouraged and you have to have that clarity to know what you are doing. It is much better to have a plan than to waste resources and effort.
Change in the beauty market
It’s not easy to find a gap in the beauty industry because it’s a saturated market. When it came to finding quality makeup tools, nobody was making them. They were an afterthought. Direct contact with the consumer was also much more valuable. We learned much faster than going into retail. There was a certain excitement in the market and we realized it was what people wanted but also needed.
Stand out as a product
The key is to see how you look before you step out the front door. Each and every product is designed to outperform the market. The brush technique gives you more control and you get a result like a professional makeup artist.
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