By Sofia Serrano
Leqa Alzaabi a young Emirati entrepreneur is starting her brand, LEQA Cosmetics. Alzaabi has already gathered a group of followers for the brand, even though she has yet to launch the first collection. Alzaabi says her passion for makeup is what ignited her journey to create more than just a product but a community around empowering women through beauty.
Alzaabi remembers that as a small girl she used to admire how the women in her family had skincare and makeup routines and became fascinated by this sort of ritual. She soon sneaked into her mother’s room when her mom was not around and put on makeup, even if she didn’t know what she was doing.
“My passion for makeup and cosmetics began since I was a child. The inspiration came from my mother, grandmother and aunties, who regularly followed a makeup routine as part of their constant love and admiration for beauty,” says Leqa Alzaabi.
For Alzaabi makeup is a tool to empower women and enhance their beauty to make them feel more confident, instead of using makeup as a cover. Also, Alzaabi highlights the importance of having a skincare routine and approach makeup as a complement to a healthy relationship with yourself first, by loving yourself without makeup, and using makeup only as an additional tool.
LEQA Cosmetics is built around the value of self-care and self-love and the mission is to create an environment that is empowering, safe and positive for everyone to talk about any subject, from insecurities to beauty, to any concern or joy that anyone in the community feels like sharing.
Alzaabi comments on how on this generation girls are using makeup at an earlier age and says: “I still encourage first of all loving yourself with and without makeup”. The company is welcoming women from 13 up to join the conversations and be part of the “LEQAhood”. The LEQAhood exists as a hashtag on Instagram and is where the brand is raising awareness and building its community.
Alzaabi says her goal is to empower other women, as she has paved her way to build a brand out of nowhere and as a self-made woman she wants to offer a platform to other women to also find their voice. LEQA Cosmetics strives to be a lifestyle brand and be built upon brand ambassadors and organic influencers that have a shared passion. The brand is looking for women who love makeup and will give these women a platform to share their experiences as well as to have exposure.
The objectives for the brand go beyond the commercial indicators for user engagement and seek to have an active community sharing their stories and finding a space to connect. The brand wants to focus on organic engagement and allowing the community to create and express themselves on Instagram, while also allowing aspiring influencers to grow their audience.
The brand is just starting but people have already shown a lot of interest without having the actual product launched yet. The next step is to invite the first members of the community to experience a free sample of the product and give their reviews since it is a priority for Alzaabi to build the product around the community.
Alzaabi’s beauty community also provides its members with financial benefits by giving them the chance to either be a commercial representative or a brand ambassador. LEQAHood commercial representatives will work through a system of direct selling to customers online.
LEQAHood brand ambassadors will be eligible to receive LEQA Cosmetics products through a system of gifting. In this system, the LEQAHood members can share their user-generated content with the products and take part in the digital marketing front of the company.
Leqa Alzaabi is taking a different approach and wants to invite all creatives to be a part of her brand, while not prioritizing macro-influencers or well-known beauty bloggers. This is a decision based on her approach of giving opportunities to makeup lovers that would like to share their passion with the world in a safe environment that nurtures conversations that lift each other up.
“[My aim is] developing and presenting a brand that will embrace and enhance everyone’s beauty in their journey of achieving their life goals”, says Leqa Alzaabi.
