A woman of many talents and laurels, Lara Tabet’s journey to the zenith started at a very young age, when she worked in her family business in the hotels and hospitality sector, until she was headhunted by the first English language TV station set up in the region. Rising quickly to the opportunity, she soon began producing and presenting several of her shows.
During her television tenure, she conducted over 7,000 interviews with celebrities from all over the world. Owing to her popularity, she began to be approached by high-end luxury brands to represent them as a brand ambassador in the region, which led to the launch of her own initiative, ‘luxurywithlara’, showcasing brands from all over the world.
Soon, identifying a gap in the fashion industry where designers and entrepreneurs faced challenges in connecting with potential partners and investors, she had a brainwave and thus formed the Arab FashionPreneur to effectively help them out.
A multi-faceted woman, Lara has recently launched her new business, venturing into the glamorous domain of makeup with her own line of beauty products. We get her to tell us more.
Lara, tell us a little bit more about your platform, Arab Fashion Preneur.
The Arab FashionPreneur is a platform for start-ups as well as established businesses within the fashion fraternity to connect with customers, distributors, partners, and potential investors in the region and worldwide. In addition, the platform highlights new trends, technologies, and innovative business models that will transform the industry in the future.
The Arab Fashion Preneur also hosts regional events as well as local and international workshops, conferences, seminars, and fashion shows. It serves as a networking platform contributing to developing the fashion entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Middle East, valued at over 50 billion dollars in the region. Dubai is famously known as the fashion hub, where the average spend per person on fashion is amongst the highest in the world.
The fashion industry has developed dynamically in the last decade, with at least one fashion event per week, many of which are of the same standards and caliber as those we see in London, Milan, and New York.
Since the retail scene is changing worldwide – partly due to technology and partly due to Covid’s impact – and the fashion industry has not been spared in any way, we are quick to highlight the changes and assist this ecosystem in adapting and growing further.
What is the idea behind your makeup line, Lara Tabet beauty? Tell us a little bit about your brainstorming and process of designing the brand.
Lara Tabet Beauty is a brand that I have worked on for the last three years. It is a brand that is meant to represent the bold, beautiful, sophisticated, and confident woman who is gorgeous, not just from the outside but also on the inside.
I spent hours and hours selecting the right colours, aromas, packaging, and textures of the products until we came up with the right look and feel of the lipsticks, lip gloss, eyeliner, and eyelashes to start with. The eyelashes are a selection of five different types of mink, from the day look lashes to the afternoon tea lashes all the way to the evening look lashes.
The lipsticks and lip glosses are in five different shades, from the Beige nudes all the way to varying shades of pink and then through to the intense reds. What differentiates Lara Tabet Beauty glosses from all others in the market is that these are really intense glosses, and the lipsticks will last the entire day on your lips.
“Lara Tabet Beauty is a brand to represent the bold, beautiful, sophisticated, and confident woman who is gorgeous, not just from the outside but also on the inside
What do you want Lara Tabet beauty to stand for?
The brand represents self-love, confidence, kindness, resilience, determination, perseverance, empathy, inspiration, motivation, and giving back. The women of today are empowered and supportive of each other, striving to achieve their dreams and ambitions, and want to reflect a confident and bold style.
What is the range of products you are currently offering under Lara Tabet beauty, and what is in the works?
The initial launch will include five different types of eyelashes, lipsticks, lip glosses, and a black intense, long-lasting liquid eyeliner. Other products in the pipeline include mascara, foundations, compact powders, eye shadows, blushes, highlighters, and makeup brushes.
A body makeup line, a male grooming line, and a daily skincare line are in the works. At some point, we will be launching a fragrance as well.
What sets Lara Tabet beauty apart from all the beauty brands in the market?
The ‘Lara Tabet’ brand is developed in this region, made for women in this part of the world. And as it happens, this region has the most diverse population than anywhere else in the world, so we will be relevant to a global audience. In this way, it is the best of local and global. Our products represent the aspiration that our women have, to be bold and confident about themselves.
If you could have any celebrity or personality endorse your brand or wear one of your products, who would be the ideal person for it?
My personal idols are Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce. They are both self-confident and bold women who are very different from one another but have an incredible appeal to women of all ages and are adored not for their looks but for their talent, courage, self-esteem, and the energy they carry.
