Beauty Founders Draw on the Asian-American Experience to Inform + Inspire Their Brands
As we span the globe to explore the fundamentals and reach of beauty through culture, we focus on Asia and the vast and varied cultures of the over 30 countries and 100 languages that make up the Asian and Pacific Islander community.
Particularly as the uptick in anti-Asian hate continues to surge throughout the country, uplifting and celebrating the beauty of the AAPI community and focusing on the joy, stories and journeys of each founder highlighted here, is important now and always.
Each brand carried on thirteen lune with a founder identifying as AAPI draws from the experience, history and heritage informed by their Asian identity. Here, each beauty founder shares their unique experience and story drawing from their background and beauty journey.
Tina Chow Rudolf, Strange Bird
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
Strange Bird wouldn't exist if it weren't for my mom and my grandmother teaching me at a very early age the importance of skincare. My earliest memories of watching my mother go through her 2 hr skincare routines daily and watching my grandmother give my mom facial and vise versa, instilled in me the importance of taking care of yourself and how your skincare ritual could be a vehicle for that very important practice. Strange Bird is a manifestation of many things but above all, it's about nurturing your well-being, quieting your space and strengthening the relationship you have with yourself.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
My family lineage is very spiritual. We were raised Buddhist and my father taught me how to meditate when I was 7. I understood the importance of connecting with my higher self through prayer and meditation and that practice is the foundation that I have built my life and values from.
How has the rise of frequent and senseless acts of Anti-Asian hate affected you and how are you coping with what is happening to the AAPI community?
Of course, it's frightening. I worked in Chinatown as a social worker for almost a decade before having my first child. The elders being assaulted are my families and the businesses being shut down due to xenophobia is devastating. People have this idea (due to the model minority myth) that Asians have it good. The families I worked with all lived in tenements and were some of the most vulnerable populations in the country- and they are the ones being brutalized. It's a pretty crazy thing to have tried your whole life to fit in, follow the rules, put your head down and be good...to then be told to go back to your own country. With that said, the shattering of that illusion is a right of passage in a way. For me, that's the moment I realized those rules weren't made to keep me safe, but to keep me in a box. Asian. Check.
How can non-Asian people be allies during this time and always?
Money. It's that simple. It's the only way we can stop borrowing microphones (when trends are on our side) and buy our own (so that we can keep this conversation going even after social media has moved on). Go to AAPI owned restaurants, shops, bakeries. Buy AAPI owned products. Put our AAPI owned products on your shelves, in your stores, invest in our businesses with real cash.
Otherwise, all the other stuff is just another flashlight in a room full of flashlights. It's nice. But it's not sustainable.
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Mia Reddy, Dehiya
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
I am South Korean and Black. I was born in Seoul, S. Korea and adopted by a white family at the age of two. My sister and Dehiya’s Operations Director, Jacalyn, is adopted from South Korea as well. Growing up in a small, homogeneous, Midwestern town, my identity was always a thing around my neck—the ignorant questions, comments...and the STARES. I never had the opportunity to just relax in my (literal) skin because I was being constantly reminded I was different. Consequently, I dedicated my whole academic career to unpacking my identity and helping other womxn of color unpack their own beauty origin stories. The biggest reason Dehiya exists is to create a more comprehensive beauty narrative—one that champions all the beautiful parts of us that were not celebrated growing up—the plethora of skin tones, eye and lip shapes, hair patterns and textures. My Asian heritage will always be considered in everything I do, as will my Black heritage. I feel as though what I create with Dehiya is an extension of who I am as a person and as a result, my art is also political.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
Being of mixed heritage, raising two boys who look like black men but are also 1/4 Korean, it is a balance act to educate them to be proud of and celebrate all their parts while also understanding how the world perceives them. They have always known they are biracial and both their names include CHAE, my Korean surname. I am proud I can share that with them. Additionally, even though I didn’t grow up in a Korean household, one of the cultural aspects we celebrate regularly as a family is the food—kimchi jjigae, japchae, scallion pancakes, bulgogi. Who doesn't love a great Korean BBQ? We live in Southern California so good Korean food is only a stone's throw away but there is no bonding experience like teaching your kids how to ferment their own kimchi!
How has the rise of frequent and senseless acts of Anti-Asian hate affected you and how are you coping with what is happening to the AAPI community? How can non-Asian people be allies during this time and always?
Frankly, I’m exhausted. There is a contentious version of history that tells a story of hate and division between the Asian and Black communities. It's a story that created a lot of inner conflict for me growing up; I felt as though I had to choose a side. This divisive rhetoric is built on and fueled by White racist ideology. That story needs to be replaced by those of Blacks and Asians marching for civil rights and social justice, side-by-side.
As an academic who’s studied social and political injustice for years—I’m enraged but as a Black and Asian womxn, mother, friend, I am completely heartbroken. I am an empath so it’s important for me to create some protective boundaries. I know it is important to FEEL things, I never want to become desensitized or apathetic to it all so I struggle with the guilt of not reading, writing, sharing, voicing, fighting more. I want to stay informed and do my part to push the needle forward but not at the risk of my own mental health so I self-regulate how and when I take in media coverage.
How can our non-Asian allies help? At the most basic level, check on your friends and educate yourself. Then, start the uncomfortable conversations with your white friends, your Asian friends, and yourself about why you don’t have any Asian friends. Represent and demand representation for womxn of all color, including ALL the Asian colors. Because Asians are not a monolithic group of people, we are nuanced, and extremely varied. Represent all flavors in photographs, in product palettes, in beauty education. Hold space for us to share our stories. Also, donate. Last month we donated 3% of our revenue to Red Canary Song, an organization dedicated to Asian labor rights for migrant and sex workers. We are doing it again for the month of April. Support Asian-owned businesses, be a conscious consumer, and vote with your dollars.
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Shaz Rajashekar and Kiku Chaudhuri, Shaz + Kiks
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
The whole concept of SHAZ & KIKS stems from our Asian heritage. We are two sisters, first-generation Indian-Americans, who grew up deeply rooted in our Indian culture. We've spent all of our childhood (and many adult) summers back in India with our family, something that was really important to our parents. One of our favorite aspects of our South Asian culture is the art of taking care of yourself, which originates from Ayurveda, the world's oldest healing system. Every morning, we would watch our grandma mix and match herbs, oils, and flowers from her garden and kitchen that she would use to create nourishing beauty products for all the women in the family. These formulas and rituals have been passed down by generations of South Asian women for centuries, and the whole focus is proactive and preventative care, harnessing the power of plants. We are reimagining haircare inspired by these ancient Indian rituals. As a brand, it's important for us to attribute and storytell the origin of these traditions. And the core of our mission is to create a responsible cycle of production, where we partner directly with the traditional farming communities that grow these indigenous plants in the Indian subcontinent to source our raw ingredients — it's important to us to support these traditional communities who have kept these practices alive for generations. From the very beginning of our supply chain all the way to our branding and messaging we share, we want to pay homage to our Asian roots with integrity and authenticity.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith yet the world at large often groups us as one. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
We really love highlighting our Indian farming and artisan communities we partner with to help create our products. We share a lot about our plant ingredients that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and shed light on its agricultural history. We also love talking a lot about our childhood summers that we would spend visiting our family back in India, where we learned about Ayurveda and ancient care practices from our grandma and the wonderful women in our family. And lastly, we absolutely adore Indian art, textiles, and architecture and it's an integral part of our packaging and branding!
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Michelle Ranavat, Ranavat
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
RANAVAT was born out of my personal journey as a first generation Indian American. The more I started to learn about Indian beauty rituals growing up, the more I felt connected to myself and my culture. Traditions like hair oiling or Kansa Massages are beauty rituals, but they are also cultural practices that have a deeper meaning to them. When creating RANAVAT, I wanted these cultural ties to be at the forefront of how I shared the treatments because they could bring more awareness of South Asian beauty practices and share them holistically.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith yet the world at large often groups us as one. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
I am so proud to be a part of the greater Asian Community and there are so many aspects of my culture that I truly love. The first being our holistic approach to beauty and Ayurveda- the idea that beauty comes from wellness and the importance of managing stress and creating balance in our lives. I grew up being a vegetarian and eating Indian food- we come from such a rich culinary culture, and I take so much pride in how rich and nutritious our food is. I also love that in our culture we have a deep respect for the elders in our community. You will often grow up living with your grandparents, respecting their advice and listening to them. There is a strong sense of responsibility we have to our elders and I really resonate with it.
Vanessa Lee, The Things We Do
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
I am a proud Filipina American and I love my heritage. We are hospitable, kind, and beautiful people. However, the Philippines has a long history of being one of the highest buyers of skin whitening products due to the historical put down of dark skin, closely tied to the Filipinos being colonized by the Spanish for hundreds of years, and shortly after that, the American colonization of the Philippines. We eventually gained independence but we forgot some of the best parts of who we are as island natives.
The Philippines is made up of over 7,000 islands in tropical climate year round. It is absolutely the norm for Filipinnos to have rich, deep, dark skin and is what most people in the Philippines have, including our shrinking indigenous population, but you wouldn't guess it from watching any of our movies or TV shows.
It is time for that to change. My mother always told me to celebrate my dark skin. I grew up knowing it was an honor to have beautiful brown skin. I want the next generation of Filipinos and Filipino Americans to embrace and celebrate our natural features and to know that our ancestral warriors who released us from colonization had the same skin. My people come in all shades and we should celebrate every single one of them.
The Things We Do line is consciously created skincare that takes my background of medical grade ingredients and mixes it with the respect and love for protecting dark skin types. A lot of retin-A products can leave dark skin types with post inflammatory hyperpigmentation because of the redness and dryness it can cause while the skin iis adjusting to the product. Most medical grade skin brightening products include some type of bleach in order to achieve maximum results, which is not acceptable to a lot of people with dark skin. My answers to these issues were to create a strong enough retinol to achieve results that entered the skin in a gentle way, bypassing the possible PIH, and creating a skin brightening product that relied on the natural brightening ingredients of plants to remove dark scars, but not bleach the skin.
Every product was made with a brown girl in mind. A Filipino can walk into a room and make sure everyone is comfortable, it is socially what we do, we make people feel like they are family. This is my way of bringing Filipino hospitality to skincare, backed by medicine.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
The Filipiino people have Malay, Spanish, Polynesian, Chinese, Portuguese, and Arab roots. We are a beautiful mixture of many different cultures and languages and we love to celebrate each other. We love a party! We are known to be great dancers and it is said that there is "something in our water" that makes us great singers as well. We are emotional and intuitive people and we have a good time.
How has the rise of frequent and senseless acts of Anti-Asian hate affected you and how are you coping with what is happening to the AAPI community? How can non-Asian people be allies during this time and always?
I find that Asian people often have a hard time of speaking up when there is injustice within our community because we have been taught to just take it, that someone else has had it harder, and that when we speak up, who will listen?
We know now that the world is listening. It is not only the right thing to fight back against racial injustices against any group, but it is an honor to our ancestors to continue pushing the needle towards equality, and above all, love for mankind. It has made me extremely confused and sad to see what kind of hate is being directed towards the AAPI community but it has ignited a fire in us to push back harder and that the good work of our people is not done.
Non-Asian people can be allies through making sure that you stand up to someone who is making offensive or negative speech about Asians. Talk to us about how you are educating yourself and how you want to openly be a steward of change. Teach your children about different Asian communities and how we aren't all the same, but equally beautiful and appreciated. Look for healing in your own ways if you have bias against Asians and really question why they exist and how you can get to a healthy place. The hard work starts within, but let us know you are working on it. We love this country and we have given back to it and contributed our art, culture, and minds. Love us back and show us what you are willing to contribute during a time when we need you to outwardly stand up with us.
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Stefanie Walmsley, Prim Botanicals
Please share how your Asian heritage and culture informs your brand and Its approach to beauty?
I was born and raised in the Philippines, to a Filipina mother, and my cultural upbringing has absolutely shaped Prim. From the start, I've always aimed to use as many Philippine ingredients as possible and share whatever knowledge I have about what these ingredients can do.
Turning towards natural remedies is second-nature to me, and I have my heritage to thank for that. I'd say that for most Asians, self-care through beauty is really a way of life. It's not seen as vanity to care about how you look because it's connected to how it can make it feel. It's also a sign of respect to "fix yourself up" so to speak. We love our beauty treatments and bathing rituals and I hope to share that joy through Prim.
As we know, Asian is not a monolith yet the world at large often groups us as one. What are some specific aspects of your culture that you love to celebrate and highlight?
Filipinos can find the humor in anything! We love to have a good time and are incredibly resilient. Honestly, if you're feeling down in the dumps - call up a Filipino friend. Chances are, we'll help you feel better in no time!
How has the rise of frequent and senseless acts of Anti-Asian hate affected you and how are you coping with what is happening to the AAPI community? How can non-Asian people be allies during this time and always?
It's been a struggle. It's not lost on me that I'm white-passing and I won't pretend to know the fear my loved ones experience for simply looking Asian. But I feel that worry for my husband, for my mom, for so many people around me, you know? And mostly I just feel really sad when I think of the people who have been attacked, and all those in their orbits.
There is still a stigma attached to seeking therapy for mental health issues across Asian cultures. Which is deeply unfortunate because therapy is freaking awesome and truly, everyone could benefit from it! I think it would be great for more non-Asians to understand that an Asian person might need help, but not know how to ask for it. Supporting local Asian businesses, checking in on friends, even just helping to spread kindness and stopping any form of hate whenever witnessed would be wildly beneficial.
