Sick of Beauty Clutter? Here’s Why You’ll Be Obsessed With New Minimalist Makeup Brand Minori

Raise your hand if you have more makeup, skincare and other beauty products cluttering your shelves than you'll ever be able to wear. We thought so.

Buying too many beauty items isn't just bad for your bank account. It's also awful for the environment when unused products get tossed out, and all of that mess around the home can also make us feel stressed and unhappy.

That's the problem that Anastasia Bezrukova set to tackle when she founded Minori Beauty. The company is all about beauty minimalism with its simple but essential products—and as a certified Marie Kondo consultant, Anastasia knows a thing or two about simplifying your home in order to spark joy. The brand launched today, June 29, and we spoke at length with Anastasia to find out everything you need to know about this fabulous, minimalistic and sustainable brand.

How Minori Came to Be

After Anastasia and her family immigrated to Canada from Kazakhstan as a child, her parents worked hard for every penny they had. At private school, Anastasia was surrounded by wealthy peers and looked forward to the day she could get her first job and start buying herself the nice clothes she saw on her friends. As she grew up, she followed this dream, landing some great jobs—while also buying all the clothing, makeup and skincare she could afford. She explains that she was overcompensating for what she didn't have in her childhood, and it resulted in a vicious cycle of consumption.

She soon shared her concerns with a friend, who introduced her to Marie Kondo's KonMari method for decluttering. She became obsessed, and set out to be a more intentional consumer. After moving to New York as a personalization analyst for Ipsy, she really began putting those skills to use, helping coworkers keep thousands of test products organized in their tiny New York apartments. In fact, she loved the process so much that she spent a year training with Marie Kondo and her team to become a certified Marie Kondo consultant. From there, she discovered her love of minimalism and learned to leave her consumption-heavy lifestyle in the past—and met others who could also benefit from a decluttered life.

(via Minori)

"I spoke with many women who told me they felt so guilty about having thousands of dollars of makeup and skincare, most of which none of them used on an everyday basis," Anastasia explains. "A lot of it was old and expired. They weren't using it because they didn't connect with it. They would buy new things, thinking they would excite them, leading to constantly searching to purchase something new."

Then came a tipping point for Anastasia. After she was dissatisfied with a makeup trial for her wedding, she took a trip to Sephora, deciding to buy a few things and do her makeup herself. As a shopper, she found herself overwhelmed. The majority of products simply weren't suited for everyday wear, and she didn't feel like there was any single one-stop shop for her basic needs.

"That was such a lightbulb moment," Anastasia says. "I said, as soon as a wedding is done, I'm going to start thinking about how can I make this better. How I can create a brand that every single product, A to Z, is an everyday essential that merits that prized spot in your tiny makeup bag. Something where you can pick any color and it's going to look beautiful on any skin tone."

And that's how Minori was born.

(via Minori)

 

The Mission

Minori stands for "minimalist" origins, as minimalism is at the foundation of the Minori ethos. It's a response to overconsumption and the idea that we don't all need to be constantly shopping.

"We have a weird dynamic in the beauty industry," Anastasia says. "We're pushing people to overconsume, coming up with so many products that aren't necessarily usable on an everyday basis. But with Minori, I'm trying to build a community on top of a mission to inspire mindful consumption as a path to sustainability."

(via Minori)

After three years of development, the brand launches today. Of course, intentionality is key to each of their first three products. Their launch includes lip glosses in four shades, cream blush in two shades and a cream highlighter in two shades, which together, are designed to help anyone achieve a natural everyday look.

"When I worked in the beauty space, I realized that so many colors don't work on women with different skin tones," Anastasia says. "With Minori, I wanted to figure out shades that work regardless of your skin and the colors you pick. The blushes, the highlighters and the lip glosses can go from the fairest skin tones to the deepest ones. You can close your eyes and pick a color and it's going to look beautiful on you no matter what. I'd rather do two shades but both of them work for everyone versus having a shade that's going to look great on someone who's fair but then three-quarters of the population can't actually wear it."

(via Minori)

The products are cleanly made, too.

"My promise is to always consciously formulate everyday essentials for everyone," Anastasia says. "Everything is vegan, cruelty-free and Leaping Bunny certified. We formulated them according to the highest ingredient standards of The Detox Market credo."

And being transparent about ingredients is just as important to Minori as the fact that those ingredients are clean. Their website's product pages don't just include the ingredients lists, but also allow you to hover over each one to find out what each ingredient does, so you can learn all about the chemistry that goes into cosmetics.  They also come in reusable glass containers, and their lids can be recycled through Minori's TerraCycle program.

 

The Products

Lip Gloss: $22 Each

Minori's lip glosses come in four shades: Dream (cloudy clear), Cozy (warm nude), Blossom (warm petal pink) and Juneberry (cool berry).

"They are extremely smooth, and not sticky at all," Anastasia explains. "When I was developing them, I was living in New York City and it was extremely hot. I wanted to make sure that if we came up with a lip gloss that it would be long-lasting but very comfortable to wear. It's very moisturizing, as it has shea butter and jojoba seed oil. The shimmer is so fine you won't feel it on your lips, and it lasts. Even after I eat a long lunch, it's still there. They're very fun, and if you're someone who doesn't want to wear a really intense lip color, and want a really natural gloss that complements the natural color of your lips, you can't go wrong with any four of the shades."

(via Minori)

 

Cream Blush: $32 each

Minori's Cream Blushes come in Scarlet (brilliant red) and Orchid (moody mauve).

"This is the one product I'd bring with me to a deserted island," Anastasia gushes. "Both tones work really really well on all skin tones, and what makes this cream blush a superstar product is the fact that it has a cream-to-powder formula. I wanted it to blend really easily into your skin without needing to be warmed up. If you're wearing foundation and you put this cream blush on top of it, it's not going to smudge. If you want to wear setting powder or bronzer on top, those products can layer really nicely. It works nicely on lips as well, and on your eyelids, if you want to play around with a monochrome look. It's also very long-lasting."

(via Minori)

 

Cream Highlighter: $32 each

The Minori Cream Highlighters are available in Champagne and Golden tones.

"Both look really nice on every single skin tone," Anastasia says. "They have a natural glow that allows you to see the actual, healthy skin, instead of a ton of shimmer. It also has the same cream-to-powder formulation as the blush does, so it's super easy to blend layers very nicely on top of foundation or skincare. I love applying it with my fingers, but I'll sometimes scrape off a little bit more on my hand and then put it on my collarbone and a little bit on my legs. It's very versatile in that way. It also wears really nicely as an eyeshadow. Between the blush and the highlighter, they're multipurpose products. You really just need one of each in your makeup bag and you're set."

(via Minori)

 

The Promise

"Our promise is to be extremely mindful with anything that we put out, with the same intentionality I want our customers to have when they're shopping," Anastasia says. "We're careful about what we release. If we create something, it's going to be for our core collection. We're not going to create a ton of different varieties of that same product category. We're going to spend plenty of time formulating and making sure that everything we come up with is something amazing that really deserves a place in your makeup bag."

 

Love sustainable beauty? Click HERE to find out why we love the plastic-free hair, face and body brand, Peach.