How Shared Planet Defines Beauty - Aashna Sharma (Founder)
by Aashna Sharma
Beauty is much more than makeup. Sure, I love a bold lip and cat eye, but that’s not what beauty means in everyday life. Shared Planet isn’t just high-performance makeup. We also have a responsibility to our customers and to the planet to provide vegan, talc-, cruelty- and child-labor-free products. Each of our collections centers on at-risk wild animals, and we work with charities to preserve these species. This is kindness and this is beauty.
While everyone’s definition of beauty is different, there are a few key traits of beauty to me and Shared Planet. You don’t have to have perfect hair or clear skin to be beautiful. You’re already beautiful and can continue to be with confidence, the support of loved ones and respect for the planet.
Having Confidence
Feeling confidence and being comfortable in your own skin makes you beautiful. That doesn’t mean you need to think you’re a perfect person, and it’s definitely not about being arrogant. But confidence — real confidence in knowing you’re great and worthy of love — is infectious to all around you. When someone is confident, their most genuine smile often comes through, and that makes everyone beautiful.
Being Surrounded by Loved Ones
I personally feel most confident when I get a good night’s sleep and have hydrated skin. That means at least seven to eight hours of shut-eye and lots of great face and body moisturizer. I also feel beautiful surrounded by the people I love the most. The support of friends and family members can boost confidence, and that’s truly beautiful.
Using Vegan and Cruelty-Free Products
Vegan and cruelty-free products are not only near and dear to my heart, they also symbolize a cultural shift of being more ethically conscious in our day-to-day lives. We all are becoming more aware of issues within the beauty industry. It’s not the only industry with problems, of course. But there are things we can do to help the beauty community grow and change for the better. Consumers are recognizing the power they have in pushing businesses to take part in environmentally conscious practices, including creating vegan and cruelty-free makeup.
Promoting Inclusivity
Inclusivity is one of the main things all brands should be focusing their energy, attention and money on. We should all be promoting images of people who look like a vast variety of people. There should be a new standard of beauty, where everyone fits in, regardless of gender identity, skin tone, age, body size or any other factor that has been a basis of exclusion. I commend brands that are already very inclusive, but it is important to step back and reevaluate what more can be done. We can and should always grow as a company and as people.
How do you define beauty?