Female Founders: Niha Amin & Shanzey Al-Amin of Zeyl Beauty On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Learn something new every day. We like to reflect each night and come up with something new we learned each day. As a founder, there is no shortage of daily lessons! Learning a new skill or information helps us sharpen our brains and use our knowledge to improve future situations.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Niha Amin and Shanzey Al-Amin.
Founded by Niha Amin and Shanzey Al-Amin, the Canadian-based skincare brand Bridal Glow by Zeyl Beauty, combined 15 years of experience and Mother’s Nature’s finest ingredients from Ayurvedic remedies to create high quality products. After a mutual obsession with beauty, Niha and Shanzeyl honed earth’s simplest ingredients to detox, nourish, and treat skin for an instant glow. The gals behind the glow share their best kept beauty secrets with the intent to provide exceptional plant-based skincare for everyone — no matter your age or skin type.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Shanzey: My education is in medical aesthetics and dermal science, which gave me a deep understanding of what makes our skin look and feel its healthiest. Additionally, I was the National Director for Anastasia Beverly Hills for ten years, where I got to apply my corporate knowledge to all things skin, makeup, and beauty.
Niha: For me, my love of skincare was refined by working with brands including Estée Lauder, Saje, Kiehl’s, and Morphe. Over the years, I have honed in on the importance of healthy skin and how it can transform any makeup look. Most of all, I have fallen in love with holistic wellness and the incredible benefits of using elements from the earth to treat all skin types and needs.
As sisters and first-generation immigrants, we developed a deep appreciation for all-natural remedies. With 15 years of combined experience in the industry, Shanzey and I had the opportunity to study skin health from all angles and become skincare enthusiasts.
Our shared experience is what makes Bridal Glow by Zeyl Beauty one-of-a-kind. It is not simply about what goes into our products. It is the fact that healthy, glowing skin can change a person’s life — and we’re committed to crafting products that give every woman that feeling, regardless of their skin color.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
It is hard to pick the most interesting story as we truly believe we have learned something new every day since starting our business!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the first renditions of the Bridal Glow Masque is one of our favorite moments. During the heart of COVID, we were working with our lab remotely and were very excited to receive our product samples. When the masque arrived, it looked a lot yellower than we remembered. There was way more turmeric in it than the amount we agreed on and when we applied it to our faces, we looked like the minions from Despicable Me!
This issue was remedied promptly and is something we look back and laugh at regularly with our team whenever we see the minions. We learned that some work is best done in person. Since then, we have made it a top priority to visit our lab to oversee and finalize our products before production.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Shanzey: Having worked closely with Anastasia Soare, founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills, I had close exposure to her entrepreneurial spirit and journey. This experience taught me what it takes to create and successfully execute a thriving business by always persevering and being solution-oriented.
Niha: My legal statistics professor has played an integral role in my ability to persevere through difficult situations. While taking his course, I struggled with the course material and was very overextended through my extracurriculars as a resident advisor and sorority leader. His office hours turned more into life coaching sessions where we worked through prioritization skills and problem-solving. I still use his tips and advice in our business and personal life.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Creating a business is very risky, and women tend to be more risk-averse than men in financial decision-making. This risk aversion leads to women choosing more traditionally stable and secure career options. Women also often have lower financial literacy compared to men because men tend to specialize in making household financial decisions and acquire financial education, whereas women tend to specialize in other household functions. Common in the South Asian community, women are responsible for the household even if both partners work. Since owning a business can be more time consuming than a traditional job, this can be an obstacle when pursuing business ownership. Often reinforced by societal pressure, working more is believed to be connected with ignoring your gender enforced household responsibilities. Additionally, it is rare to see women-owned businesses in the mainstream, making it hard for other women to see this as a viable career path.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Women business owners get nearly 50% less funding than their male counterparts, which is a major obstacle we must remedy in our society. Studies have shown that for every dollar invested into businesses, those founded by women generate almost twice as much revenue than businesses started by men. While this should result in better funding for women, it doesn’t due to gender biases. The majority of funding platforms are led by men who are less likely to understand the creative visions of women-owned businesses; however, most consumers are women who are more likely to align with women-owned businesses.
Providing better funding options for women-owned businesses will go a long way towards helping more women create their businesses, which should be a top priority for banks and government organizations to reduce the misogyny seen in current financing options.
Additionally, greater access to mentorship options by women and for women would be integral in helping women start their businesses and succeed in a male-dominated career path.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Entrepreneurship has allowed us to materialize our creative visions, achieve self-sufficiency, and improve the well-being of others through glowing, confident skin. Additionally, we can help give back to our communities. Our advice to women interested in creating their businesses is to “feel the fear and do it anyway.” If you have a great idea, build a supportive team to get started. The world needs more extraordinary women doing extraordinary things that will change the world!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
The biggest myth about being a founder has to be that it is easy. From the outside looking in, being a founder often looks easy as you get to create your work schedule and determine what your work looks like. As a founder, we work more hours than we ever have compared to our previous careers. These hours are often all over the place as we have to work through odd hours to account for the different time zones of our global team.
Another myth about being a founder is that you are on your own. While this is true, this experience can often feel lonely. However, help is always available should you seek it — all you have to do is ask. Other founders are always willing to lend a helping hand or listening ear as they can best understand the unique situation and experiences one goes through when creating a business.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder, and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
This career path provides freedom but requires hard work and dedication to sustain it. To become a founder, you have to be self-sufficient, a self-starter and disciplined to work independently without any instructions. As founders, we had to embrace being Jack of All Trades and juggle multiple hats. Each day brings forth a completely different experience and a new role that we must achieve to succeed. Founders need high-level leadership skills to inspire and encourage those who work with them. Above all, you need to be passionate about your business. As long as you have this passion, you can learn new skills daily and make your business an absolute success while doing what you love.
The ultimate difference between being a founder and having a regular job is the ability to leave work at the office and not take it home — work-life balance is often hard to manage as a founder. Regular jobs are also fantastic because it provides financial security, stability, and structure. As founders, we are responsible for the success of our business and the well-being and success of our team members and customers.
Above all, we believe that everyone should do what they love, whether running their own business or working for someone who does. As long as you love what you do, you can overcome any obstacle and live a fulfilling life.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Learn something new every day. We like to reflect each night and come up with something new we learned each day. As a founder, there is no shortage of daily lessons! Learning a new skill or information helps us sharpen our brains and use our knowledge to improve future situations.
- Learn from the experiences of others. As founders, your efforts directly impact your business and your success. Learning through the successes and mistakes of others helps manage your risks and improves your chances of success, as there are many transferable lessons you can take from the experience of others.
- Have a strong support system. Being a founder can often feel lonely. We transitioned from a large team to a pair, and now we work as a small team. Initially, it was difficult not having many people to rely on, and it felt very isolating. However, no woman is an island, and finding a great support system has helped us immensely, as we now have others to reach out to for help and advice.
- Success is a direct result of perseverance. You often hear stories about how success happens overnight, but this is not the case in most situations. Your ability to persevere through difficult situations and see them through will bring you success, as climbing the ladder to success is done one step at a time.
- Take breaks often and find a hobby to energize and engage your mind. Initially, we were so focused on the business that we even dreamt about work! Overworking can be mentally exhausting. We had to learn the importance of taking much-needed breaks. Busying our minds with things outside of work has allowed us the opportunity to recharge and come back to work clear-minded with creative ideas.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Giving back and building communities is crucial to us at Zeyl Beauty. Our motto is “Glowing for Good” and a portion of all proceeds goes towards helping those in need. Zeyl Beauty is skincare with purpose.
Each quarter, we choose a cause close to our hearts. Our mission is to support education and diversity, eliminate famine, empower females, and build communities. Therefore, formulating skincare products that are good for you and those around you is of great importance to us! In addition, creating collaborative campaigns to support our vision for philanthropy is a core focus for everyone involved at Zeyl Beauty. We want to make a difference that radiates and resonates with those in need!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
“Glowing for Good” is an integral part of Zeyl Beauty, and we believe in giving back to our communities and those in need. We would love nothing more than to encourage others to follow these principles. No matter how big or small your donation, every amount makes a huge difference, and it is the act of giving and the kindness that we show to others that makes this world a wonderful place full of love and compassion.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Our answer would without a doubt be Oprah! We grew up watching The Oprah Show after school and we love her energy and all she continues to do for others. Her story is a huge inspiration and reminder for us that success comes from hard work and perseverance. It is also a great reminder to give back from your success to pass the baton.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Niha Amin & Shanzey Al-Amin of Zeyl Beauty On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.