TooD Founder Shari Siadat on Embracing Flaws and Defying Beauty Standards
Here’s how her makeup brand rethinks inclusivity.
“Makeup should not be about covering up what the beauty industry has deemed as flaws — it should be about celebration and joy,” Shari Siadat, founder of TooD Beauty, tells us passionately. Launched in the beginning of 2021, the clean beauty brand is dedicated to making everyone feel comfortable in their own skin, without having the need to conform to what society considers beautiful.
Growing up, Siadat never saw anyone who shared the same features as her being celebrated in mainstream media. “My unibrow, mustache, hairy limbs, curvy body type and brown skin made me feel like I was less than everyone else. I didn’t feel like my appearance was valid,” she shares. To tackle the lack of representation that she noticed, Siadat decided to take matters into her own hands by creating an inclusive brand and platform that spotlights individuals from all walks of life.
We spoke to Siadat about the making of TooD Beauty, her long-term goals for the company, as well as how she developed the brand’s recently launched BioGlitter.
Shari Siadat
Shari Siadat’s Beauty Essentials
Makeup
TooD Beauty Turn It On Soap Brows: I always start every look with this. Even when I wear no makeup, I never skip this step. It’s the best way to give a natural lift to the face.
TooD Beauty Color Cream: Depending on my mood, I usually grab one of my Color Creams. Recently, my color of choice has been “Known/Unknown” for its beautiful, shimmery, silver-purple tone. I use this if I want to create an Amy Winehouse-inspired cat-eye.
TooD Beauty’s BioGlitter: If I’m feeling extra bold, I add some of the BioGlitter in “Amethyst.”
Skincare
TooD Turn It Off Makeup Remover: At the end of the day, I love using this remover with my TooDbrush to scrub my creation away.
Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Framboos™ Glycolic Resurfacing Night Serum: At night, I apply this serum and top that off with the Wonder Valley Face Oil.
Earth Harbor products : I always start my day by spraying my face with the Tidal Rose Crystal Hydration Toner, which is made of seaweed and quartz rosewater. Following this, I use the Celestine Hydra-Plumping Peptide Serum. The Eclipse Sheer Mineral Sunscreen is the next step in my morning routine. My last skincare step is using the Calypso Vitamin C Moisture Elixir.
Raymond Meier
Haircare
Oribe Cleansing Cream for Moisture & Control: I wash my hair one to two times a week using this product.
Public Goods Conditioner: I follow up my shampoo with Public Goods’ conditioner. It’s my newest discovery and the most effective conditioner on the market.
DevaCurl SUPERCREAM™ Rich Coconut-Infused Definer: Post shower, I towel dry my hair and spread DevaCurl SUPERCREAM™ throughout my hair.
Iles Formula Curl Revive: I always finish off my haircare with this spray. I then let my hair air dry naturally.
Bodycare
Herbivore Amethyst Body Scrub with Epsom Salt: My birthstone is amethyst, so when I saw Herbivore created a crushed amethyst exfoliating body polish, I had to give it a try and it did not disappoint.
Birchrose & Co. Celestial Oil: I’m really into body oils, so I love getting out of the shower and putting on the Birchrose & Co. Celestial oil made of blue tansy and jojoba.
Shari Siadat
What made you want to start your own beauty brand?
My tagline in life is “experiment until it works.” Everything I’ve ever worked on has led to the next thing I’ve worked on. Through the process of writing a children’s book, and wanting to create a glitter product that would add color and crystals on parts of ourselves that we’ve been taught to hide or feel ashamed of, I wounded up starting TooD.
Can you share with us the inspiration behind TooD Beauty’s name?
TooD is short for “attitude.” Starting this brand followed a shift in my own perception of myself and how I’ve always seen my own beauty. I used to feel ashamed of my unibrow, but when I grew it back after 24 years of tweezing it, I realized I had a different relationship and emotional response to my appearance. Freedom is contagious and I wanted to give that experience to others through this product, allowing them to use glitter as a tool to reclaim themselves for themselves.
Shari Siadat
Your first product was the Brow Color Cream. Why did you decide to launch the brand with this specific item?
We’ve been conditioned to wear makeup only in certain ways and places on our bodies, but who made those rules? Why were they made in the first place? Who said makeup can’t be worn past the eyelids? Big box beauty has profited off of creating insecurities for us and selling us their solutions to fit into the masses.
I wanted to create a new way forward by introducing a brand new product category that hadn’t been tainted by shame and insecurity yet. By painting our brows, or any other part of our body, I hope to invite people to ask themselves, “If there were no rules and no shame or insecurity, how would I self-express?”
As a mother of three, what are some skincare and makeup tips you live by?
Never go to sleep without washing your makeup off and always wear sunscreen. You can never have too much moisturizer or body oil on, it’s important to do that as soon as you get out of the shower or tub. Take a mustard seed bath at least once a week to relax your nervous system and soak in the minerals.
For makeup, I want my daughters to throw out any rules as to how and where makeup should be worn. I want them to view all makeup as paints to self-express. Makeup should not be about covering up what the beauty industry has deemed as flaws — it should be about celebration and joy.
Raymond Meier
Coming from an Iranian-American background, what was your definition of beauty growing up? Do you view beauty the same way now as an adult?
As a first-generation Iranian-American, I never saw anyone like me reflected or celebrated in the media. My unibrow, mustache, hairy limbs, curvy body type and brown skin made me feel like I was less than everyone else. I didn’t feel like my appearance was valid. Growing up, I thought that anything that wasn’t me was beautiful.
Now, I think the most beautiful person is the one that is self-aware and has confidence in their frequency rather than meeting society’s standards of what’s beautiful. I appreciate one’s energetic joy they can transmit and how they make people feel when you’re around them.
“I want to change the world and help facilitate healing for many of us who have never felt like they belonged. I want to do that by using TooD to show the world what inclusivity is and can look like.”
How do you think the beauty industry can improve its diversity and inclusivity efforts?
It starts with intent. You have to ask yourself, “Why do I want to show inclusivity and diversity?” Is it because you genuinely care about showing different expressions of beauty, or are you afraid of being called out? If we all genuinely come at it from a place of expanding our beauty vocabulary, we can create a world where we’re no longer going to let one way dictate how things should be.
For humanity’s sake, it should be our collective goal to not let any self-hate, shame or feelings of not belonging come out of the industry so that we can start to experience the beauty of the unknown, which is one where there is no superiority or limits. Beauty is the uniqueness of one’s soul. It would be fascinating to witness a world with access to a wide range of cultures, faces and bodies. Through this exposure, we will normalize the biodiversity of humanity and help so many people heal for generations to come.
Nick Sethi
What are some long-term goals you have for TooD Beauty?
To this day, I still don’t feel like I belong but TooD is creating a world I’ve always wanted to be a part of. I want to bring innovation to color, performance and clean cosmetics. I want to change the world and help facilitate healing for many of us who have never felt like we belonged. I want to do that by using TooD to show the world what inclusivity is and can look like. I also want to do cross collaborations and be experimental where people from all walks of life are trying new things, because that’s where the magic unlocks.
What can you tell us about your new product, BioGlitter?
I’m very proud that after two years in development, we have launched the world’s first certified biodegradable glitter. Made from eucalyptus cellulose, packed with natural pigments and designed to biodegrade before the next new moon, TooD’s BioGlitter is truly a revolutionary beauty product. Our glitter is made with pioneering BioGlitter PURE, which is plastic-free and certified TÜV Austria, the highest level of independent certification for freshwater biodegradability in the world.
