Have you ever found that you can't seem to find the correct lipstick or blush shade to match your features? Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, as a beauty brand has emerged which offers just the solution: completely customised cosmetics! They are called The Beauty Tailor New York, and as the name suggests, all their products are completely tailored to suit the individual.
What I love about this emerging brand from New York is that everything can be personally customised! I ordered a personalised lipstick, got to choose the packaging, the message on the packaging, not to mention the colour AND texture of the product! How cool is that!
It gets better though; they then ship it to you free of charge! (If you live in the USA)
It's like crafting your own product from scratch! All for $30 (USD).
Founded by the Raftis & Serghides family in New York, the company aims to be different by allowing their customers to customise each product.
Co-Founder Andrew Serghides runs the brand from New York and here's what he had to say.
Thanks for chatting today, Andrew! Can you tell our readers who the founders of the brand are and what their backgrounds are?
Sure, so the founders are Andrew Serghides, Tatiana Raftis-Serghides and Chris Raftis.
A little bit on the background of the founders:
Chris Raftis- Chris worked for MANA Products for over 40 years, which is one of the leading cosmetics manufacturers in the US. MANA was owned by his cousin Nikos Mouyiaris, and he worked very closely with Nikos to build the business into a multi-million-dollar company, which worked with all the biggest cosmetics brands around the world. Nikos sadly passed away two years ago, and Chris retired shortly after. MANA was recently acquired.
Tatiana Raftis-Serghides- Tatiana used to work in fashion as a pattern-maker and has always had a very artistic and design-based skillset. Having been surrounded by cosmetics her whole life, she always had a passion for the industry. After the passing of her uncle and based on her close relationship with her father, Tatiana wanted to carry on what became known as a family business and start a new chapter of cosmetics in the family. This is where the name comes from (The Beauty Tailor), as Raftis in English means tailor, which dates back to her great grandmother who was the first tailor in her village of Cyprus.
Andrew Serghides- I met Tatiana on vacation in Cyprus a few years ago and moved from London to New York shortly after (we are getting married on July 31st in Cyprus). I graduated from BPP Law School and went on to work for a real estate investment banking firm in London before moving to New York. I run the operational side of the business.
Oh wow! Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! What was the inspiration behind starting this brand?
Thank you! I touched on this a little above, but one of the first mentions of the concept was when Tatiana and her sister were planning her bridal shower and Tatiana said how cool it would be to gift lipsticks to her guests (as favours/bomboniere) with ‘Tatiana’s Bridal Shower’ on the packaging. She wasn’t able to find something that met her requirements, but it was here when the business idea came to life – we now have the diamond ring box for this purpose and love seeing orders from future brides.
This inspired the initial idea, but the brand grew into something a little more. Because we evolved the idea to encompass completely customised products, which is more about encouraging individuality and providing customers (whether buying for themselves or for someone else) with a platform to enjoy makeup another way – e.g., a truly personalised gift to someone, or an opportunity to be the designer of your own lipstick.
I really love that individualised vibe. What do you think sets you apart from other beauty brands?
There are other brands that do one or the other, i.e. let you create your own colour or have the option to personalise the case, but we do it all. You can create your own colour on our website or choose a pre-made colour, and then build the lipstick your way with the finish, flavour/essence, and additives.
We also have ready to wear lipsticks for a lower price, so we can accommodate all customers. All our lipsticks come with the free option to print on the case AND the box, with different box designs for different occasions.
Some brands have the extra option to add personalisation, but we make it a required field to really encourage individualism (i.e., it is not an add on for our customers, we consider it integral to their experience and love seeing all the unique content and personality coming through).
We want people to make it theirs, from start to finish. Something we find common among other brands too is that they all charge for little add-ons like flavours or lip plumper, which we do not do.
In August, we will also be launching our customisable palettes (eyeshadows, blushers, bronzers and highlighters), where you can build your own palette with all the colours you want, and like our lipstick boxes, select the print design and personalise the content.
You can see this on our website now under ‘Coming Soon’ (we have been delayed with this due to a delay in manufacturing).
What are your best-selling products and why are they so popular?
Our most popular product by far is our custom lipstick (‘Create Your Colour’ option), which makes up 90% of our sales.
Outside of this, our nudes and browns collection are our best-selling category, and Kleopatra (what you picked) is actually very popular.
People love to create their own shade and name it, and we often see very unique colours (greens, blues, light purples etc.), which are not so commonly available on the market.
Here they have the ability to create something exactly the way they want it instead of settling for something they consider ‘close enough.
I also think that custom makeup goes beyond just makeup – its creation gives customers an element of control, which is sometimes forgotten in mass consumerism where the product is created in the masses to cast a wide net.
It is of course cheaper/more profitable to mass-produce and sell to the masses, but we prefer to cast a small net and let each individual be the boss of their own makeup.
Watch how they mix up your lipstick colour from scratch!
You can purchase your own customised lipstick shade here. Trust me, it's really fun creating your own colours!
Don't forget to tag and follow your customised colour with the Beauty Tailor New York’s Instagram.
