The Interview: ILIA founder Sasha Plavsic on the success of her 'skin-centric' beauty brand

ILIA Beauty is known for its range of skincare-infused cosmetics, designed to leave skin looking "fresh and radiant".

The brand was founded by Sasha Plavsic in 2011, and thanks to a rise in skincare-infused makeup trends, it has continued to grow.

Plavsic speaks to TheIndustry.beauty about the inspiration behind ILIA, how it's doing in the UK, the benefits of skin-centric beauty, and the influence behind its product launches.

What inspired you to launch ILIA?

When I was 30 I decided to go back to my roots in Vancouver, Canada. During my brief sabbatical, my mom really influenced me. She said, "hey, you should really start paying attention to what you’re putting on your skin" and encouraged me to read the ingredient list on my favourite lip balm. I was shocked to discover many of the ingredients were not what I considered to be safe. So I challenged myself to see if I could create a more conscious and clean version that could rival some of the conventional greats on the market. That’s how ILIA was born.

When launching ILIA, did you have a clear vision of what you wanted the brand to be? If so, what was this?

Yes, I knew that I wanted to find the best possible ingredients available for ILIA products and add active levels of skincare ingredients to our makeup products. My goal from the beginning was to create a range of skincare-powered makeup. When I started ILIA, I was also begging labs to explore creating formulas from scratch that were clean.

How is ILIA an eco-conscious brand? 

Conscious beauty defines brands that are looking at how to formulate products safer, more effectively, and that perform better for the customer.

I tried to include as much natural and organic as possible in the first four years of the business, but I realised it wasn’t efficacious. There are many natural ingredients that can aggravate your skin. We say that not every natural ingredient is good, nor is every synthetic bad. It’s a combination of the two. Clean beauty is not just about the products you’re making anymore; it is about how you show up responsibly as a company or a corporation in the world.

How has ILIA's product range developed since launch? 

We launched the brand with just a single Tinted Lip Conditioner, a hybrid balm-meets-lipstick that has buildable and wearable shades.

In the following years, ILIA's growth has been exponential. The brand now comprises a full product range, including skincare-informed makeup hybrids that have achieved cult status, such as our Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 30 and Limitless Lash Mascara. The collection also includes multi-use makeup products, such as the Multi-Stick and the Colour Haze Multi-Use Pigment, designed for easy, on-the-go application.

Why is skincare-centric beauty important?

Skin-centric beauty, means that pretty much everything we also do focuses on the skin, as a starting point. "Wake up skin, makeup the rest," it keeps going on. But, all of those bits and pieces are what I want for the brand, and who we are, what we do, and then what the customer should be experiencing. I'm hoping that it starts to resonate, and that there's better clarity there. There are so many people in this space now, and I think makeup and skincare are really merging as a category. We can see it happening. Our point of difference, there, is definitely with SPF, and the skincare actives that we include in our products.

How do you decide what products to launch? 

We are never led by beauty trends. When we launch a new product we want to ensure we are launching the best, most effective products possible.

We are predominantly known as a makeup brand and all our colour cosmetics are powered by skincare. However, it then seemed like a natural progression to venture into the skincare world and earlier in the year we launched our first pure skincare product - The Activated Eye Cream - after a long period of research and clinical trials. We were blown away when the eye cream became one of the top selling eye creams at Sephora. It made us understand that the ILIA customer would like to see more skincare in the range and we are so passionate about creating the perfect range for our customers.

Where is ILIA available in the UK? How well does it perform here? 

We launched ILIA in the UK exclusively with Sephora in 2022 and are growing a very loyal customer base - we are seeing a lot of love for the brand there. We then launched our UK website in 2023 to expand our customers' ability to shop.

Will ILIA expand to additional UK retailers in the future? 

We are very happy with the brand's performance at Sephora and I will always have a special relationship with them. They were so supportive when I launched the brand 10 years ago, they really understood what I was trying to achieve and really believed in the brand. Together we were able to create this new category of clean cosmetics.  But, yes we are looking at further opportunities in the UK.

Are there any other plans for ILIA in the UK?

ILIA is excited to continue to grow in the UK market as we gain more brand awareness. We are looking forward to an exciting 2024, which includes a couple of huge new product launches... watch this space.