As a teenager, I was no stranger to watching makeup tutorials on Instagram and YouTube and (unsuccessfully) re-creating these looks on myself.
While many came from the West, one Singaporean beauty content creator and makeup artist (MUA) is making a name for herself in the industry—Sahur Saleim, founder and CEO of Sahur’s Art.
When she was 10, Sahur moved from Singapore to Dubai with her family. She grew up in a “maximalist beauty environment”, where bold eye makeup and lip colours were commonplace.
This led her to experiment with makeup in her teens, regardless if it was “non-practical”, and posting her tutorials in 2013.
She first went viral on Instagram in 2015
Little did she know, she would get her first big break two years after starting her account.
In 2015, when she was 17, one of Sahur’s videos went viral, and she caught the eye of Huda Kattan, an Iraqi-American MUA and beauty content creator.
That moment felt “quite surreal” to Sahur, given that Internet virality was a novel concept at the time.
I remember explaining it to my dad in the early stages, saying, “Look I have 6,000 followers now! This really famous creator (Huda) reposted my video, it has 100,000 views!” and he was so supportive but also confused, so he said, “Oh amazing! Is that a lot? What happens now?”
Sahur Saleim, founder and CEO of Sahur’s Art
Since then, Sahur’s following has continued to grow, which gave her the confidence to launch Sahur’s Art in 2021—at just 23 years old.
The pressures that fame has on influencer-run small businesses
Over the years, many makeup artists (MUAs) and beauty influencers have launched their beauty brands, such as Huda Beauty by Huda Kattan and Nimya by Nikkie de Jager, also known as NikkieTutorials.
However, we have also seen some cases where well-known beauty creators failed to deliver on their launches, which incited ire from paying customers and resulted in immense damage to their reputations as creators and entrepreneurs.
Like her industry seniors, Sahur felt the pressure to perform, citing influence as a double-edged sword.
Leveraging an audience that is already interested in beauty and has experience with makeup can boost consumer awareness for small independent brands. However, people would also naturally compare their products if they could match their favourites.
“The pressure to deliver on these formulations has definitely caught me sometimes,” Sahur said with a laugh, adding that it pushes the team to strive for better products and customer experiences.
For makeup brands, it all starts with choosing their manufacturing labs. In a previous interview, Sahur shared she initially had a contract with a lab in China, even though the “crème de la crème” of beauty products is manufactured in France or Italy.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit—indefinitely halting the brand’s progress, and Sahur eventually went with an Italian manufacturer.
“At the earlier stages of the brand, I wanted everything to happen faster! At times, we spent so much money shipping our bulk order from Italy to Singapore simply because I wanted to launch it three weeks earlier,” shared Sahur.
Listening to their audience
When Sahur’s Art first launched, its cosmetics were inspired by famous art pieces, such as “The Mona Lisa” and “Starry Night,” and included bright, bold-coloured eyeshadows and lip products.
It seemed that the brand was doing well until a customer, who had only purchased a nude lipstick at its first pop-up in 2021, made Sahur rebrand the entire business.
Sahur Saleim, founder and CEO of Sahur’s ArtShe said, “I really want to support your brand because I love what it stands for, but I just don’t know how to use blue eyeshadow…” and suddenly it clicked for me.
With our previous branding, I was working so hard to be taken seriously and have the most high quality makeup artist level products, I didnt realise that could isolate people in our community who seldom wear makeup. So in the new phase, I decided our priority was making beauty easy and convenient!
Since then, the brand has released a series of “summer-proof” and “beginner-friendly” makeup products, with each launch aiming to address beauty concerns, including acne, eczema and skin sensitivity, which Sahur has experienced herself.
“Trends come and go. For a small brand like us, chasing a new trend every week will not be sustainable,” emphasised Sahur. Hence, the brand made it their mission to create versatile cosmetics that can be used no matter what’s in trend.
While Sahur has remained tight-lipped about the brand’s finances, she shared that the company has remained self-funded since its inception, with the profits reinvested for continued innovations.
Notably, Sahur invested a five-figure sum, which she stated was a “huge investment”, to ensure that the brand continues to cater to a diversity of shades and undertones, and more reinvestments were made to continue the process.
Despite the high costs, the rebranding was successful, as Sahur claimed that Sahur’s Art saw a 430% increase in annual sales, thanks to the support it received from its customers.
Going into the brick-and-mortar space
Since then, the brand has gained popularity on social media and collaborated with well-known names, such as Love, Bonito, for exclusive product releases.
Not only that, Sahur’s Art makeup products were also spotted on two Hollywood celebrities, Mindy Kaling and Richa Moorjani, who wore them to the Oscars—a feat that is seemingly impossible to achieve for smaller brands.
Sahur’s Art has also entered the brick-and-mortar space this year, where they collaborated with health and beauty retailer Guardian to launch a few pop-up stores islandwide.
As the brand had been operating as an ecommerce company, Sahur shared that many customers often experienced issues while shopping for their beauty products online and asked when they could try them in person.
While the brand has leveraged technological plug-ins to solve their concerns, Sahur acknowledged that allowing customers to try in person will ease their hesitations, adding that she has been working with Guardian as a content creator for five years and could not miss the opportunity to collaborate.
Following the success of the collaboration, Sahur’s Art is currently focusing on making the brand “easier to shop” through hands-on experiences for its customers. It has opened its independent kiosk at Wisma Atria at Orchard, which will be open until the end of November this year.
Looking forward, the brand has also told Vulcan Post that it’s working toward opening its first official brick-and-mortar outlet at Plaza Singapura in December, and continuing to launch more products down the road.
Sahur has also expressed her ambition to bring Sahur’s Art beyond Singapore. “In the future, we would love to target surrounding markets like Malaysia and larger ones like the US and the UK. Currently, our focus is on launching more products, so there’s enough range for a full face of Sahur’s Art!”
Featured Image Credit: Sahur’s Art