This Iranian-American beauty founder wants you to embrace your unibrow — Very Good Light
TooD, short for attitude, is a new clean color cosmetics line designed for your lips, face, hair, and everywhere else on your body. The hero product is called Brow Color Cream ($24) and comes in 10 colorful metallic shades that can be worn literally everywhere. Iranian-American Shari Siadat founded TooD in January 2021 with the goal of opening up “people’s basic perceptions of where makeup can be worn.”
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Growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, Shari not only “stood out in a sea of blonde hair and blue eyes,” being of Iranian descent, but she also never saw anyone who looked or sounded like mhere represented in the media. Unfortunately, Shari says she still doesn’t.
Thankfully, for folks like Shari and others who are seeking a community that cherishes individuality, TooD is that community to let your uniqueness shine. “TooD is for everyone,” says Shari, who strives to use her inclusive brand to dissolve the restrictive labels that the beauty industry has instilled on consumers.
TooD beauty goes beyond just offering color cosmetics. The brand allows individuals to explore who they are through makeup.
“I’m creating a brand that’s inclusive of all identities, cultures, and abilities,” says Shari to Very Good Light. Shari launched her brand to provide consumers space to “play and interact with others, where all of us could feel free to be who we are.”
Brow Color Cream
“Makeup is a tool of self-expression and joy,” says Shari. TooD provides those tools with their vibrant and holographic Brow Color Cream ($24). This product is meant to go beyond the eyes, and can be used anywhere to “accentuate, color, and design on your body in any manifestation and any form.”
With this product, Shari hopes to inspire her users to highlight what makes them unique, rather than camouflage and conceal. “We won’t invest in any products that make you feel like you need to change or erase anything.”
The idea for this product sparked after Shari felt shamed for her unibrow. She decided to stop conforming to beauty standards and allow her natural brows to flourish after years of tweezing and waxing. This experience allowed Shari to embrace her unibrow, and “take pride in my roots and heritage.”
Shari created Brow Color Cream ($24) as a “personal reminder that we can always add color and crystals to parts of ourselves that we once hid and held in shame.”
The product is non-toxic, sustainably crafted, and has an infinite amount of uses. The cream can be used alone or mixed with other colors to invent a new unique shade. From eyelids to lips, to highlighter, this product can be even used to spice up your hairline and brows. “My hope is others will join in this journey of coloring outside the lines and accentuating a part of their body.”
Creating TooD
When developing products, sustainability was at the top of mind for Shari. When she first set out on her journey as a beauty founder, she was faced with the harsh reality of how unsustainable the beauty industry truly is. TooD Beauty’s Brow Color Cream ($24) uses recyclable components and packaging, and is manufactured using solar energy. Shari had to work hard to develop her brand sustainably, which helped her realize that the “choice to prioritize purpose over profit is a difficult one in the beauty space.”
On the brand’s website and social media, you will see diversity and inclusion at the forefront of the brand’s marketing and imagery.
“We didn’t just have models that we thought broke through what curated diversity can be,” says Shari. The brand’s campaign showcases raw beauty in its many different forms as she represents the model’s unique characteristics and expressive personalities. “It was their narratives that were at the forefront,” she explains.
Shari has no plans of slowing down as she hopes to continue to uplift underrepresented communities through her colorful and multi-use cosmetics. “What inspires me the most is finding the untold narrative — the faces that have never been shown.”
Originally published at https://verygoodlight.com.