TooD’s New Biodegradable BioGlitter + Self-Love Ethos
The brand’s approach to beauty is about celebration, representation and exploration
Shari Siadat founded TooD—a beauty brand intended for people of all genders and ages—on the basis of self-love, self-expression, experimentation and celebration. Growing up an Iranian American in the United States, Siadat felt not only a lack of representation, but also immense pressure about one particular part of her body: her unibrow. After spending decades worrying about hair removal and altering her appearance, Siadat gave birth to her third daughter—a child that looked just like her—and everything changed.
“I spent so much of my life—from teen years all the way to my mid 30s—always trying to conform into what I consider Eurocentric forms of beauty,” she tells us. “I did everything to contort myself.” But her youngest child resembling her so strongly brought up important questions. “How do I see her effervescence and joy and beauty—and who she is and how she is and how she looks—and I don’t see that in me?” Siadat continues. These questions were the beginning of an internal journey, in which she asked herself, “‘Why do I hate myself so much? Why am I trying to change myself so much? Why do I not think that the way I was born is enough?'”
Her next move was, for the first time in her life, to attempt to embrace her unibrow. “I decided to face something that haunted me—my unibrow. It sounds so silly to say, but it truly was locked in my Pandora’s box and I thought I had thrown the key halfway across the world,” she says, “So I grew back my eyebrow just to see; as an experiment for myself. How would I feel seeing a face I hadn’t seen in 24 years? Would it still have that same amount of power over me?” Not just for herself, but she wanted her children (especially her youngest) to “witness a woman celebrating herself exactly how she was born.”
It makes sense then, that Siadat launched TooD with 10 brow Color Creams (that can also be used on cheeks, lips, wherever), which are intended to enhance rather than hide an individual’s features. She applies the shiny formula all over her unibrow; moving beyond acceptance to full celebration.
Now, TooD debuts their BioGlitter, made from eucalyptus plant cellulose. Not only is the glitter itself biodegradable but the entire formula is non-toxic and, with water, biodegrades completely in just 28 days. “It biodegrades by the next new moon, which I love. That really talks about how connected we all are to one another and into nature,” she says. “And the pigments come from the earth, so we don’t have neon purple or neon yellow, we have tones that are from plants.” Applicable with the brand’s Paintbrush or Magic Swab, there are six colors of BioGlitter, each named for a semi-precious stone: Obsidian, Tiger’s Eye, Citrine, Jasper, Moonstone and Amethyst. They eschew that sticky, tacky texture of many glitter products (which, Siadat explains, is the feeling that comes with plastic) for a lighter, softer sensation.
Many products that claim to be biodegradable and “clean,” are actually greenwashing. “When you peel the layers back, you understand that while the inside coating of the raw material is biodegradable, the external coating is still made of plastic. What makes me so proud about BioGlitter is we have a TUV certification from Germany and Austria, and that ensures that in 28 days, it biodegrades in freshwater or saltwater, which is one of the highest levels of accreditation you can receive,” she tells us. “Some other eco brands are compostable. But that means when you wear glitter, you have to scrape it all off, put it in a compost bin and go through the five steps it takes to compost it. Our BioGlitter, you can actually just wash it off in your sink or your shower—how you normally would take your makeup off—and you don’t have to worry about a thing.”
Additionally, all the eco-friendly packaging is made by a solar-powered manufacturer, which is also important to Siadat. “I wanted to know what is their carbon footprint, is it in a factory that is burning fossil fuels? I just wanted to understand everything, holistically,” she says. “How I can position myself as a clean beauty brand that’s very environmentally conscious if I’m not looking looking at my entire supply chain? I take this so personally, because I’m very vulnerable when I am sharing something that had so much power over me.”
“A question I love to ask myself and ask people is ‘Who would you be if you had no fear?’ That’s a very interesting question to ask ourselves at any moment of the day or throughout time. Because if you live with no fear, and you were able to self-express creatively what you feel inside, what would that look like? What would you permit yourself to do?” she asks. “I want to facilitate that internal dialogue within oneself. I also wanted to facilitate external dialogues between people. It’s so fascinating to me to understand how much we’re all conditioned to believe that lipstick goes on lips and blush goes on cheeks. What if we were never told all those things? Then what would we do? That is the sweet spot for me—what I love about this brand is seeing how people manifest that question through an external expression.”
Images courtesy of TooD
