For the first time in Basma Beauty’s three years on the market, consumers will be able to buy its products in person.
Starting today, the cosmetics brand is entering 300-plus Sephora stores nationwide in the “Next Big Thing” section with twelve top-performing shades of The Foundation Stick and three shades of The Cream Blush. It projects the expansion will double its annual revenues. Basma launched initially on the beauty specialty retailer’s website in March last year. It participated in Sephora’s Accelerate program for emerging brands in 2022.
“Now customers are going to touch it, feel the texture, the creaminess of it, the scent, all of that,” says Basma founder Basma Hameed. “You are not going to second-guess the purchase like you might when you’re purchasing something online. Being able to connect finally properly with the customer, that is so major for our brand.”
Basma arrived on Sephora’s site with its TikTok-famous complexion product, The Foundation Stick. The Foundation Stick is priced at $40, while The Cream Blush is $28. Hameed admits introducing a complexion product online was no easy feat. “Our team was literally taking requests through DMs and comments asking us how to shade match them,” she says. “We did everything that we can, and I think we did an OK job because that’s what helped us grow and for Sephora to roll us out in stores.”
In product development, Hameed hones in on problems she senses makeup consumers have. The Foundation Stick was formulated with a focus on undertones, and The Cream Blush was conceptualized in response to white cast that powder blushes left on Hameed and separating that occurred when she wore other versions on top of foundation. Basma sold out of three of its cream blush shades in three months. The brand sells six cream blush shades total.
“Being able to connect finally properly with the customer, that is so major for our brand.”
Basma’s latest product release is the $36 The Cream Complexion Brush, which Hameed began developing a year and a half ago. She says, “I’ve been wearing makeup since 6 years old, so I know every product, every tool out there, and any tool that I used they’re either too rough or they always fall out and get stuck to your face.”
The Cream Complexion Brush is available on Basma’s site. It sold out a couple of days after Basma posted a TikTok video a week ago sharing the brush samples Hameed rejected from the brand’s manufacturer before landing on the one that became The Cream Complexion Brush. “It has the perfect amount of bristles to just buff in any cream complexion product,” Hameed says in the video.
She elaborates, “My labs hate to see me coming. Every time I go in, I’m like, ‘We’re not doing this. I don’t want a mold that you already have, I want us to be creative, I want us to do something new.’”
Basma has 210,600 followers and 5.7 million likes on TikTok, where its The Foundation Stick put the brand on the map. It appears to melt into users’ skin when they swipe it on. In late July, a TikTok video showing consumers swiping The Foundation Stick on their skin racked up 6 million views. Hameed says Basma’s videos have amassed over 500 million views across social media platforms.
The brand reports it’s never paid for sponsored content and instead relies on seeding products to influencers and makeup artists. Out of the products it seeds, Hameed says 90% leads to a post “due to the genuine enthusiasm of influencers who often share their positive experiences because they truly love our products.”
Basma plans to lean on TikTok and Instagram to promote its Sephora expansion and gift products to 500 influencers. Hameed will also visit select stores. Rolling out to even more Sephora stores domestically and venturing to Sephora stores beyond the United States are big goals for Basma. The brand is currently working to introduce global shipping on its DTC site in the coming weeks.
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