Lotus Cosmetics was officially launched in Guyana last month by Sameerah Mohamed-Ferouz and husband Sayyid Ferouz with the promise of affording Guyanese access to a new natural, high-end and affordable line of products.
Lotus Cosmetics is the sister company of Radical Cosmetics and Lotus Bio-Mineral in the US. The US companies were created by Fenton Baijnath and have been in operation for over 25 years.
Lotus Cosmetics (Guyana) is a new joint venture between Baijnath and the Ferouzes, with the goal of manufacturing colour cosmetics for Guyana, the Caribbean and Latin America.
The couple partnered with Baijnath to supply the Guyanese market with the products from the line as Baijnath plans to bring his years of experience and technology to Guyana.
At the launch at Gabriella, located in the Amazonia Mall, Sameerah explained that the line offers ten shades of lipstick, ten shades of lip gloss, one voluminous mascara, one eternal eyeshadow palette and one forever face palette that has four shades of eyeshadow, one blush, one highlighter, and four powder foundations. “We are also working on creating a liquid foundation as well,” she said.
The intended manufacturing facility will be managed by Sayyid, who is Managing Director of Lotus Cosmetics in Guyana. However, according to them, the new manufacturing facility is the starting point for Lotus. There are also plans to branch out into various other areas of manufacturing over the coming years.
Further, Sameerah stressed that Baijnath is a Guyanese national who created and successfully managed a manufacturing facility in the USA. She noted that he has been in the cosmetics industry for over 25 years and was a former engineer at companies such as L’Oreal, Revlon, Calvin Klein and Unilever.
“He has products featured in successful beauty and cosmetic stores such as Ulta and Sephora. He also holds several patents and received numerous awards for his work within the industry. As a Guyanese, he wants to share his work with the people of his hometown,” she added.
As a 100% Guyanese-owned business, they hope to work along with the people of Guyana in order to bring further development to the country.
Baijnath, who also spoke at the launch, explained that the brand’s philosophy is to provide a natural cosmetics line designed to supply pure, clean, and healthy beauty products. “All of our products are safe for our customers and environmentally-friendly. We dedicate our resources to the clean beauty culture, to research and develop the most innovative safe beauty products with the quality you have come to expect and deserve,” he said.
According to him, Lotus Cosmetics is dedicated to providing products that are sustainable, eco-friendly, and non-toxic without compromising efficacy and luxurious wear. “We formulate the best cosmetics in our labs to provide you with makeup that does not only look good but is good for your skin too. Free of parabens and toxic ingredients, our cosmetic products are rich in collagen-boosting extracts and natural ingredients,” he boasted.
Lotus Cosmetics’ high-standards are composed of six strongly linked pillars of what clean beauty is composed of: sustainability, transparency, cruelty free, ethically sourced, clean ingredients plus high-quality formulas and performance.
In terms of sustainability, he said, through global consciousness, they have taken the stance to care about social and environmental responsibility of impact. “As we become more ecologically aware, we encourage low-polluting packaging and products. We can break it down into segments: (1) Production (water consumption, energy and waste management); (2) Packaging (recyclable, biodegradable and compostable). We believe as a brand that sustainability requires a positive impact to the world and to the consumers we provide products to,” he said. For transparency, they have transitioned to implementing innovative steps towards providing greater clarity in labelling the ingredients and process of each and every one of the lotus bio mineral finished products.
He explained, “the Leaping Bunny Program is the gold standard in cruelty-free certification for personal care and household products companies and signifies no animal testing at any stage of product development.
“Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption, ethical purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, ethical shopping or green consumerism) is a type of consumer activism that is based on the concept of dollar voting.
“There are four basic components to accessing clean ingredients. The first two components are to find and evaluate optimal ingredients. As a brand we have established our standard of criteria and the process in which we implement for selection. We have metrics for which we categorise clean and then rate/compare ingredients to see if they meet the certification needed for formulation. The final two components to accessing clean ingredients are comparing the ingredients and handling the formulations. We use a supplier certification query method, comparing storage and tracking. Informed selections are developed through evaluation frameworks built within our research and development team.
“Application, wearability and comfort of every single lotus bio mineral cosmetic product is made with the consumer in mind. We convey the science behind the ingredients, the complexity of the formulations, sharing the ways the finished product harnesses the functions it is supposed to have with every single application.”
It was stressed that the Lotus Cosmetics line includes smooth and brightening extracts: bilberry, sugar cane, orange, lemon, and sugar maple.
