Beating The Odds: Farnaz Alam

This beauty flourishes from within oneself, represents the person as a whole and defies typical beauty standards. Be it estheticians, cosmetologists or beauticians, the role of the wonderful people around the world dedicating their lives for enhancing our own distinctive facial and bodily features, adding a splash of colors and a touch of completeness to our looks deserve mass scale and hearty applause. Specially in Bangladesh, where Farnaz belongs to, it is quite a revolutionary and novel concept to prioritise aesthetics as a career. It is worth mentioning that Farnaz has been heavily and passionately influenced by her mother, one of the pioneers of Bangladeshi beauty industry arena, Kona Alam. But it is a matter of great pride for Bangladeshi people that she has carried on the legacy even further with her illustrious achievements in both national and international level. Her inspirational story of reaching sky high success is sure to inspire hundreds. Her eventful work timeline that includes pursuing superb academic feats and getting standardised practical training in aesthetic field, development of her very own, exclusively stunning makeup line “Kona by Farnaz Alam”, her upcoming and very much talked about TV reality show “Color Your Dreams”, future plans on institutionalizing cosmetology and beauty courses in the country are only some of the feathers in this young beauty expert’s wing of success so far. And talking about Farnaz Alam, we have an incredible story to share indeed. Apart from being the DMD of Woman’s World Ltd, CEO of WW Cosmetics and Founder of Kona By Farnaz Alam, she is also involved in building lives while taking charitable initiatives in women empowerment in her own country.

In a vibrant conversation, Farnaz, in her own words, describes the event, L’Oreal Paris – The Brush Contest as the first major accomplishment in her journey in aesthetic arena. After being done with her bachelor’s in Interior Architecture from Taylor’s University in Malaysia and Northumbria University in the UK, she completely focused in what she does best and embraced the beauty world as the unique expert esthetician she is. She also achieved formal degree and qualification in Skincare from Canada.

Again, Farnaz worked with L’Oreal Paris for a year after her contest win. While Farnaz developed her own personal skills with L’Oreal after her emphatic win in the contest, she also worked hard as a part of the team for the endorsement of as many as five collections. Throughout her career, she has been participating in many editorial and beauty shoots with iconic brands, international influencers and world renowned photographers. Performing as a makeup artist at London Fashion Week has also been one of the major milestones in Farnaz’s journey.

Her ample experience and true passion for indigenous make up products to complement local skin tones and types inspired her heavily to concretize the pioneering idea of developing her very own makeup line, namely, ‘Kona by Farnaz Alam’. The exclusive collection consists of a broad range of beauty products such as matte liquid lipsticks and foundations complementing compact powders, eye glitter products and even eye shadow palates. There is no doubt that the brand is a loving tribute to her mother, the legendary Bangladeshi aesthetic expert, Mrs. Kona Alam. The beauty line famously collaborated with beauty industry giants like MAC, L’Oreal, Bobbi Brown and Urban Decay at The New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2020, which is very prestigious. As Farnaz firmly believes that the brush contest reality show is the first actual step towards the immense success she has achieved as a beauty expert, she has always looked forward to be a part of such an initiative dedicated for young and budding Bangladeshi make up artists. That is the pathway through which came in the venture of a reality TV show in Bangladesh to provide the prospective youngsters with a proper platform to demonstrate their skills and passion regarding aesthetics.

It has been absolutely a sheer delight to have a conversation with Farnaz on various aspects of her life and here is stated a glimpse of her hopes and dreams, her work and aspirations in her own words.

L’Officiel Arabia: When and how did you decide to get into the makeup industry?

Farnaz Alam: Make up and beauty industry have always been very close to my heart. Since my childhood, I have keenly and closely observed as well as occasionally assisted my mother, the renowned Bangladeshi beauty expert Mrs Kona Alam who dedicated herself to create, enhance and accentuate the aesthetic side of numerous lives. Along with this inspiration, the natural knack of playing with colour palates and make up brushes was also a very influential factor in this respect. Again, in due course of time, winning the L’Oreal Brush Contest was the turning point when I actually started focusing on structurally developing my career in Make over and beauty industry. The encouragement and support that I have received from the concerned beauty personnel, make over based publications and magazines and people from our country and abroad also inspired me to a great extent to pursue my life in this sector.

 

LOA: Tell us more about ‘Kona by Farnaz Alam’.

FA: First and foremost thing is, this makeup line is a heartiest tribute to my loving Mother Kona Alam who has been one of the pioneers in Bangladeshi make over arena. Thirty two years back, before I was born, she started her own venture “Woman’s World Ltd” Which truly revolutionised the beauty scene in Bangladesh at that very time. It is noteworthy that it was not an easy task then to handily conduct business in such sector the way she did. Again, from my part, I have always wished to resolve the problems that I faced while using commercial make over products. For instance, Kona by Farnaz Alam collection has addressed the fact that matte lipsticks dry out too much with time and our range of matte lipsticks are sure to be more satisfactory in this respect. I have given my heart and soul and worked immensely hard for three years to develop our very own range of make over products that suit and also greatly complement the skin tone and types of people from this part of the world. I would specially like to mention our glitters, shimmers and also the eye sparkles and our own eye shadow palates that create amazing look very effortlessly. The foundations that our makeup line provides are also very complemental to the skin tone and make over preferences in our subcontinent and a little of it can go a long way which complies with the recent minimalistic approach in international beauty scene.

 

LOA: The makeup industry is growing very fast, how do you see yourself being a part of this growing industry?

FA: Indeed, it is rightly stated that the make up industry all over the world is actually growing and also changing very fast with time. The way we looked at beauty perspective and applied make up has revolutionised as compared to yester years. New technologies, techniques and trends have engulfed the international make over scenario over the past decade in almost light speed. I firmly believe in adopting myself to the changes that this world has to offer and see myself growing everyday along with the industry itself. Then again, an undeniable fact is that, the make up industry is always greatly influenced and inspired by the classic sixties, seventies or eighties look. So even though new inventions and procedures along with fast paced Gen-Z make up trends are getting introduced every other day, my point of view is to take inspiration from the glorious past and perform appropriate fusion on the present ever changing make up industry.

 

LOA: Tell us more about your reality TV show ‘Color your Dreams”
FA: As I have mentioned earlier, participating in and winning the L’Oreal brush contest seven years ago changed my whole perspective in life. That very achievement instilled insatiable aspirations in my heart to seriously develop my career in aesthetic sector and reach the sky in make over and beauty industry. Right after that, I have always wanted to introduce a similar TV reality show that can go a long way in the implementation of the hopes and dreams of the young, talented and skilful make up enthusiasts in Bangladesh. After a long wait and lots of planning and preparations, ATN Bangla, a very eminent and leading private satellite TV channel is producing the reality show “ Color your Dreams” which would the first ever such initiative in our country. The upcoming reality show promises to provide a strong platform for the budding make up artists in Bangladesh. Here they can boundlessly showcase their talent, creativity, skills and ambitious dreams that are related to make and beauty enhancement. And I would like to say that I feel very honoured and emotional to be able to be a part of this venture as it has always been my dream.

LOA: You regularly visit the UAE, how has this country helped your career?

FA: UAE beauty scenario is undoubtedly very special and always grabs immense attention from the international beauty industry stakeholders. Regular international events are taking place here and frequent visits to UAE from world renowned make up artists, aesthetic experts, photographers, journalists and international influencers are providing me with ample opportunities to work with them. Again, the aesthetic courses that I am doing here are very beneficial for me as I am being able to learn about new ranges of products, new technology and techniques, fresh approach associated with modern looks and so on. These aspects are surely proving to highly boost my career as a makeover artist and beauty expert. And the best part is, I can actually implement the great learning experience from UAE beauty industry to improve my own make up line. I look forward to take back the international level experience I am gathering from my stay in UAE and vow to bring revolution in the beauty scenario in my own country.

 

LOA: Are you associated with any charity groups?

FA: Even though I prefer not to talk about it too much, I actually have been very closely associated with quite a few charitable initiatives for a long time now. The projects I have been involved in are designed to give all out support to young women and strongly represent women empowerment ventures. To be honest with you, I feel very fortunate as my mother was there to support me when I aspired to fly high in my career. And I want to play a major role to provide proper training and support to young girls and give them wings to fly. It is so gratifying to watch them grow and these caterpillar to butterfly transformations are greatly satisfying treats to be affiliated with. I consider myself very lucky to be a part of the journey these courageous, industrious and extremely talented girls are making.

 

LOA: Who has been your inspiration in life?

FA: By now, you must have comprehended the overpowering influence my mother Kona Alam has over me. I am what I am because of her. I always dreamt of being like her and followed her footsteps passionately. As a matter of fact, she is a great inspiration to numerous young women in our country. Be it entrepreneurship qualities, courage, persistence, business skills, expertise as a makeover artist, passion for work or pure excellence as a human being, what is there not to love and get inspired by! My very own make up line “ Kona by Farnaz Alam” is named after this great inspiration. In addition, Egyptian artworks and their goddesses can be stated as my beauty muse as I get much inspired by them.

 

LOA: Which are the new projects you are working on?

FA: I have been working on various aspects of beauty industry in present times and wish to continue them in future as well. There is a lot on my plate lately and it is very gratifying and difficult at the same time! I am working with the international media and very powerful influencers such as Narin beauty, Mo Vlogs and many others who have a global impact socially. I am also planning to continue developing new products for my make up line that are going to be introduced in upcoming seasons. This excites me very much and always keeps me on my toes. Again, as I am always keenly looking for learning something new in my field, I will be taking more courses that help me develop new techniques and train me in further new technologies associated with make up industry. My ultimate goal is, to take back what I learn in international level to my own country and implement it there. I firmly believe that the unconditional and boundless love I have always received from the people of my country influenced me immensely in accomplishing the achievements in my life. So this drives me to continue having the strong urge to move forward and somewhat relentlessly work on new projects all the time. Again, as I chose my passion as my career, It is something that I love to do and get inspired every single day to attempt something new.

CREDITS:

TALENT: Farnaz Alam
CONCEPT: Tahmina Alam
PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeremy Zaessinger
PR AGENCY: SGG Public Relations
STYLIST: Celia-Shane Ukwenya
STYLIST ASSISTANT: Farah Abdin
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Ivana
NAILS: Platinum Black