Brand Founder Chat: Sasha Plavsic of Ilia Beauty

Hi friends!

All throughout February I’m bringing you my Brand Founder Chats series – intimate and insightful talks with some of the most buzzed-about indie beauty brands out there today. If you missed the full intro post on this series, please do give it a read here.

Today we’re in conversation with Sasha Plavsic, the natural beauty pioneer who created ILIA BEAUTY nine years ago, well before the “clean” beauty category had fully emerged. Ilia has become synonymous with high-quality, skin-nourishing makeup that delivers on color, texture and workability. They are one of Sephora’s top-performing brands within the “Clean at Sephora” initiative, and with a full rebrand coming this month all signs point to an amazing 2020 for them.

I spoke with Sasha over the phone last month and we touched on everything from what initially inspired the brand, to fear-mongering on social media, to what she believes is the next big trend in clean beauty.

 

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YOUR EARLY EXPERIENCES WITH FAMILY ILLNESS SEEMED TO INSPIRE THE BIRTH OF ILIA BEAUTY. CAN YOU SPEAK TO THAT MORE SPECIFICALLY?

Growing up in Vancouver, Canada there was definitely an awareness to living a healthier lifestyle all around. More so to the fact that my brother was ill as a kid and suffered from food allergies, asthma, and dust allergies. He actually was admitted to the hospital so many times that they wanted to keep him there for six months. My mother decided she was going to change the whole environment at home – she ripped up the carpets, removed all the curtains, and started eating organic food. This was in the early 80’s before any of it was really a trend. It was his life that really depended on those changes in order for him to breathe properly. Thankfully he managed to outgrow {his ailments}, and he’s totally healthy today. So it was directly related to environment and food.

When I returned home in 2009 after a decade, my mother encouraged me to start looking at my makeup products more carefully. At the time I didn’t think much of it but when I counted how many products I was using a day, I realized it was quite a few. And it was not just makeup; it was shampoo, soap, deodorant. That’s when I started researching ingredients, and I realized a lot of the marketing claims weren’t accurate. They were marketing ingredients to be found at very low levels, and that there were other ingredients in there that could be doing more harm than good.

One of the products I’d been using forever was from Labello, a European brand. It was a cherry tinted chapstick that gave a nice kiss of color to my lips. I wanted to see if I could recreate that in a more natural and organic form. That was the first project. I worked on that for two years, and approached many labs that said it wasn’t possible to do it. But I finally met someone who believed we could create something together, and I was able to create a very small run. I just walked into a few stores in Vancouver, and asked them if they would take the product. The brand launched in May 2011 in one little boutique.

 

IF SOMEONE HAS NEVER HEARD OF THE BRAND BEFORE, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT IN THE LEAST AMOUNT OF WORDS POSSIBLE?

Clean, skin-centric makeup.

 

 

WHAT DOES “CLEAN BEAUTY” MEAN TO YOU?

“Clean” is a tough word and there’s lots of grey around it. If anything it’s conscious beauty; it’s brands that are looking at how to formulate products safer, more effectively, and that perform better for the customer. I tried to do as much natural and organic as possible in the first four years of the business, but I realized it wasn’t efficacious. There are many natural ingredients that can aggravate your skin. We say that not every natural ingredient is good, nor is every synthetic bad. It’s a combination of the two.

Read this: Beauty Game-Changers: A talk with Marcella Cacci of One Ocean Beauty

 

CLEAN OR NATURAL BEAUTY BRANDS OFTEN MARKET THEIR PRODUCTS AROUND THE INGREDIENTS THEY DON’T INCLUDE RATHER THAN WHAT THEY DO INCLUDE. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT OBSERVATION?

I completely agree with you. We don’t do that. A lot of people say “…we blacklist 250 ingredients” – we do too, but that’s a lot of ingredients for a customer to remember. We definitely have blacklisted items, like chemical sunscreen and fragrance to name a few. Also cyclomethicones, a family of silicones, is on there. But does that mean that all silicones are bad? I’d argue they’re not. In the past I’ve been pushed to say “our products are free of…,” and we have in certain areas but I just think it’s very vague. At the end of the day it’s science, and it’s all about percentages. I want to be able to build a brand that consumers trust; they trust what we’re putting into our products, and why we’re doing that. That’s what matters.

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF COMPANIES THAT MAY FEAR-MONGER IN ORDER TO SELL THEIR PRODUCTS?

I really don’t agree with fear-mongering, or when people say “dirty.” To me, what does that mean? To make people feel guilty about their purchases as a marketing tactic, I just think it’s not nice. It’s not part of our style. This category for me should be about educating the customer; it should be about empowering them to make better choices about what they’re purchasing and using.

 

 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCT FROM THE LINE AND WHY?

I think it’s the mascara (Limitless Lash). It works on everyone. The formula itself is great to lift and hold a curl. It’s also an amazing lengthening mascara that gives you natural volume and fullness. It doesn’t flake either, but one of the best things about it is that it washes off at night very easily; just some water and light cleanser will do it. People often feel it’s hard to remove their mascara, so this is a great selling point to the customer.

Read this: Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara Review

 

WILL ILIA VENTURE BEYOND COSMETICS INTO OTHER CATEGORIES IN THE FUTURE?

Right now, I feel there’s still more to accomplish in color. One of the things we’ve been able to do is to start bringing skincare into color. We say we like to “wakeup the skin and make-up the rest.” We want to really nourish the skin first. We have a product launching next month that’s going to be loaded with skincare actives – and not just natural oils but hyaluronic acid, squalene and niacinamide. All these things combined at high active levels, it’s like it’s its own product. But it’s actually built in with the makeup. It’s all about eliminating steps in the morning, so if there’s one product that can do more for me, I’m in.

 

 

IF YOU COULD MAKE A PREDICTION ABOUT THE NEXT TREND IN CLEAN BEAUTY, WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE?

I think it’s going to be around sustainability in packaging. Not just in clean beauty but in all consumer products overall. Ingredients will come and go. There’s so many more questions and concerns around packaging and even store displays now. I’m really excited this conversation is happening.

 

TAKE US THROUGH YOUR TYPICAL EVERYDAY BEAUTY ROUTINE.

A lot of our complexion items have the moisture built into them. So I’ll put on our True Skin Radiant Priming Serum for a quick flash of moisture – it makes the skin really soft and smooth. Then I’ll move into True Skin Serum Foundation with a pump of our Liquid Light in the shade Nova, which brings a super soft glow to the skin. I’ll use our concealer to just spot a few sections. Then I’ll dot our Color Haze on the cheeks, and whatever’s left over I’ll press into my lips as a stain. I’ll take whatever Liquid Light is left and dot it on my cheekbones and across my lids. Then mascara and our Essential Brow. That’s a whole look of which a few products were multi-tasked, and I can do it in under 5 minutes.

 

I hope you enjoyed this chat with Sasha Plavsic of Ilia Beauty! You can shop Ilia products at Sephora, Credo, Space NK, The Detox Market, Follain, Blue Mercury, Oh My Cream, and Mecca.

Make sure to come back next Monday for a chat with Alicia Grande of Grande Cosmetics!

xo, Erica

 

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