L'OFFICIEL speaks with founder Sasha Plavsic about building a clean makeup brand before it became a buzzword and how Ilia is celebrating a decade of you-but-better beauty.

When Sasha Plavsic launched <a href="https://iliabeauty.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ilia</a> 10 years ago, it was self-funded with a line of credit, operating out of her Vancouver, British Columbia garage and stocked in one local store. Today, the clean beauty brand is at beauty counters around the world and is widely known for its glowy, skincare-enhanced makeup, from its Gwyneth Paltrow-approved <a href="https://iliabeauty.com/products/linger" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lip gloss</a> to its fan-favorite <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/best-serum-based-makeup-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serum-based foundation</a>.&nbsp;
Not only prioritizing inclusivity in terms of its shade range, Ilia has emerged as a timeless makeup brand for women of all ages. With products that support skin health and enhancing natural beauty at any point in one's journey, Ilia creates user-friendly cosmetics that are meant to last and become staples in everyone's makeup kit. After all, Ilia was founded when Plavsic discovered that standard <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/does-lip-balm-dry-lips-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lip balm</a>, one of the most ubiquitous products, often contains no-no ingredients that aren't safe. She soon set out to create a natural and effective alternative that also feels more luxurious than a tube of Chapstick, launching Ilia with a tinted lip conditioner.
Now a decade later, Ilia pays homage to its origins with the new <a href="https://iliabeauty.com/products/wanderlust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Balmy Tint Hydrating Lip Balm</a> available in eight versatile shades. A revamped formula that delivers only the best parts of lipstick and lip balm combined, the product exemplifies the brand's merging of makeup with skincare. To share more about the launch, Plavsic sits down with L'OFFICIEL to fill us in on Ilia's evolution and commitment to clean beauty in all senses of the word.

L'OFFICIEL: Clean beauty wasn't a major area of the beauty industry when you started out 10 years ago. How have you seen that evolve?
SASHA PLAVSIC: When I started the research phase of Ilia back in 2009, the green beauty industry and organic beauty was what was more booming at that time. Initially, I wanted to create a beauty line that focused on organic ingredients and real transparency in marketing. That still remains the same today, transparency is our number one core value, but what has shifted is that when I was creating those first six tinted lip conditioners, I was using some synthetic ingredients. When I entered the market, I had certain percentages of organic, natural, and synthetic ingredients, and I was looked down upon for incorporating synthetic ingredients. But in the back of my mind, I felt like I couldn't get to a great formula without them, that was efficacious and that actually looked to benefit the skin. It was roughly around 2014, I had nearly created most of the line, and that&rsquo;s when I decided to let go of the feelings that I was not creating the right type of products, and really start embracing what I truly believed needed to be created. Ultimately, that is what the clean category is, where the best of natural and the safest of synthetics collide.&nbsp;
 L'O: So you've done some debunking about all-natural being equated with being the best products?&nbsp;
SP: Not every <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/wellness/natural-ingredients-skincare-hair-body-wellness-health-routine-benefits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">natural ingredient</a> is good for the skin, nor is every synthetic bad. It usually requires a combination of both that are carefully selected in order to achieve a best-in-class product. One of the biggest points of difference for Ilia is that from a transparency standpoint, when we put in a classic skincare ingredient, like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/hyaluronic-acid-benefits-skincare-serum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hyaluronic acid</a> or <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/niacinamide-skincare-ingredient-acne-anti-aging-best-products" target="_blank" rel="noopener">niacinamide</a>, or even an <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/chemical-vs-physical-sunscreen-beauty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SPF</a>, it's definitely at an active level. Oftentimes, when ingredients in makeup are [advertized], they're only at a marketing level, meaning they're sprinkled in at very low amounts that are not providing a benefit to the skin. For us, there were clinical studies done on that ingredient at that percentage in a formula, and now today we're going even further with more consumer studies, and doing more clinicals to ensure we have the data we need to support the efficaciousness of the product.

L'O:&nbsp;Ilia has been a hero of double-duty products, like the lip and cheeck color Multi-Stick or even the combination of makeup that performs like skincare. What inspired this?
SP:&nbsp;Our mission at Ilia, which has been the mission since the beginning but it took several years for me to write it down properly, is to protect and revive the skin. One of the reasons I started really exploring more makeup and skincare that was natural was because I had suffered from <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/how-to-treat-prevent-maskne-acne-from-wearing-masks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acne</a> pretty much my whole life, from age 13 to even now I break out sometimes. I found that it was so hard to control the products I was putting on my skin because I was using skincare and makeup products from different brands, and I didn't know at the core exactly what was in there or how they were all working together. If you dump a bunch of cleaning products into a bathtub, sometimes you can get some of that foam. It's almost like a science experiment. And I felt like my face was turning into a science experiment with all these products. So I decided to look deeper and start eliminating pieces in order to control more of what one product could give benefit-wise. The culmination of that several years later was our Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40, which has skincare ingredients that are added at efficacious levels and blended with a tint. It was ultimately finding a way to formulate products that are going to protect and revive people's skin at any age.&nbsp;

L'O: Speaking of age, inclusivity is another aspect of the beauty industry that has changed a lot over the past 10 years, but has always been central to your brand. What have you learned from fostering that message?
SP: Everybody's skin is different. And everybody knows their skin. Depending on your background, you can have different pigments, textures, or skin conditions. But one of the similarities that we realized is that many of us have a few main attributes and concerns. One of the biggest concerns out there is, will this make me break out? Another big concern is, will this make me look older? Looking at those two attributes we decided to focus on testing products on a wide variety of skin types, skin tones, and age of skin. My mom was a big influence in the beginning, and has very much been an influence throughout my life, but took great care of her skin naturally. One of the things that she noticed is that she was wearing less and less makeup because if it was too powdery, or if it was too matte, it would accentuate any fine lines that she had. In formulating, we had to look at all aspects of the different skin conditions and concerns that people have, and try and have a formula stretch across those to make somebody's skin look like skin when it was on. I think we've done that really well. It is why we've been able to tap into a more mature demographic in the past year. That customer's always been there but we've definitely targeted her more recently because nobody has been speaking to her properly.

L'O: Founded in Vancouver and now headquartered in Laguna Beach, California, Ilia has found a home in places that are close to nature. How has this impacted Ilia's approach to clean beauty?
SP:&nbsp;I was raised by a mom who was very simplistic in her approach to beauty. Ilia was created because there are a lot of women out there who like to wear just a little bit of makeup to accentuate her features in a natural way. And I think that in the Pacific Northwest that's very much embodied, just with a more active, outdoor lifestyle and just being in nature. One of our bigger initiatives this year is <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/how-beauty-companies-prepare-for-a-greener-future-sustainable-makeup-products" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sustainability</a>, and we have an internal program where we're reverse engineering a lot of our packaging and creating refillables. It's going to take a few years because the industry needs to catch up, it's not all there on how to do it yet, but we are really working hard towards that. As a brand, we can become more carbon neutral, but we're still producing things. What is the most simple way to offset that without having to tell the government that they need to change their laws? To me, that's reforestation. Externally, for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/wellness/earth-day-tips-for-living-sustainably" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Earth Day</a>, we partnered with <a href="https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1% For the Planet</a> and <a href="https://onetreeplanted.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Tree Planted</a>, whereby we will be planting 51,000 trees in Ecuador and Brazil. One of the biggest things, even since I was born in 1979, is how much of the wilderness in the world has disappeared.

L'O: For Ilia's 10-year anniversary you're launching the Balmy Tint. What's the story behind the new release?
SP:&nbsp;Our first product was our tinted lip conditioner and it was the one that put us on the map. It was all that I could afford to launch when I started the brand. As much as we love a bold <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/best-lipstick-for-your-zodiac-sign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lipstick</a> and as much as we love lip balm, I felt it was always two products. You would use your lip balm, and then you would go and apply your lipstick. That first product to me, a really easy, effortless, buildable tint, was what every woman needed. To celebrate that, 10 years later, lip has dipped down for us as one of our top categories (complexion is our leader, with eyes following), and I wanted to be able to bring some energy back to what was once an incredible hero. We went back and totally turned the formula inside out and essentially made it more balmy. So, the name Balmy Tint is really calling back to that tinted lip conditioner, but we're calling it our "first kiss" made balmier.&nbsp;

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