Shaila Saini, the 22-year-old founder of Lushious Beauty, aims to share her love of beauty with other women.
Saini started her lash company when she was 16 years old and in high school. Saini was inspired early on in college to take an eco-friendly spin on her business after researching brand launches in her College Composition I class.
Observing the makeup industry’s pattern of frequent releases, Saini strived to launch her beauty products at a slower turnover rate. Lushious Beauty prioritizes mindful production through small-scale product launches. Six years after the brand was founded, they have only rolled out three drops.
“I started doing some research into clean beauty and how a lot of it is a hoax,” said Saini. “A lot of companies have turned their companies to the point where there’s a new drop, there’s new makeup every month, and it’s just lost its meaning. I wanted to create something that would be impactful, and it would be transparent, and people wouldn’t have to think twice before buying it because they trust that company.”
The false eye lashes sold by the brand are made in Indonesia from nylon fibers and are vegan and cruelty free.
Lushious Beauty has a conscious supply chain where every supplier is checked through an internal quality system to ensure that they are compliant with the guidelines of ethical standards in terms of quality checks and fair wages.
“We used to actually get our lashes made by a factory in China before, but we switched to Indonesia because they pay fair wages,” said Saini. “They have their own sustainability with every step they are working towards that matches ethically and sustainably with our company as well.”
Lushious Beauty focuses on reducing environmental waste through selling eyelashes in reusable packaging that is made to be worn for weeks at a time. All of the falsies from the brand are sold in built-to-last packaging that features a magnetic band to keep them in place.
“If you go to Ulta or you go to CVS, any lash that you find is mostly disposable and can’t be used more than five times,” said Saini. “Our lashes can be used 30 times with proper care. That reduces the level of production that we need to do because we don’t want to keep selling the same thing over and over again. Once you have it, we want you to have it for as long as possible.”
The brand also takes action to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. Lushious Beauty offers pickup options for customers as an alternative to shipping with Shopify through two pickup locations, including one in Glassboro, N.J.
“The way shipping works is because we want to cut back our carbon footprint as much as possible, we have pickup options. So if you are in a 10 or 20-mile radius between our pickup locations, you can do that, and it’s free,” said Saini.
While the surge in popularity of false eyelashes has been on the rise, Saini will continue to work towards ensuring she is sustaining her company and the environment.
“I’m really glad that our generation puts pressure on corporations and on businesses to do good and be good because if it weren’t that way, everyone would be dilly dallying and doing whatever they want,” said Saini. “I’m just glad our generation can be more conscious essentially.”
