Ready to do a makeup haul? Look no further than Wardah, Indonesia's first halal cosmetics line.

Wardah makes skincare and makeup with the needs of different women in mind. They make sure to use ingredients that are cruelty-free and halal, so that Muslim women can use the products too!

In 2020, they exported IDR 22.9B worth of products to Malaysia, boosting Indonesia’s economy.

But success didn’t come overnight—Wardah went through many challenges to get to where they are today.

This is where it all began.

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🇮🇩 Humble beginnings  

Nurhayati Subakat studied pharmacy and worked at a hospital in Padang, Indonesia.

She moved to Jakarta, where she studied at a cosmetics company. She learned how to work on the products’ quality control. But she knew she wanted to open her own business!

She first started selling shampoos at different salons.

She had a difficult time as her business was in debt. At one point, her factory even burnt down! But with the help of her husband’s savings, she built a new factory.

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💄 Learning to pivot

But Nurhayati didn’t stop at selling shampoos. She realized that there were no halal makeup brands, and wanted to start her own.

Having halal products would mean no testing on animals. It also meant that the natural ingredients in her products were good for the hair and the skin!

She started selling Wardah products in 1995. She’d spend her days going door to door, trying to sell her products.

Indonesia had lots of Muslims, but people weren’t sold on halal makeup. They were used to non-halal brands.

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📈 One day at a time

In 2004, almost a decade after starting, Nurhayati opened her first physical Wardah store.

The store did well for a few years. But they were still not satisfied. Wardah completely redesigned their products and relaunched the brand in 2009.

Leading up to the relaunch, they struggled with suppliers.

Nurhayati’s youngest child who is also Wardah’s current R&D Director Sari Chairunnisa shared, “We could barely find suppliers for halal raw materials. They didn’t understand it and we had to sit down and explain to them the importance of halal ingredients for a company like ours.”

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🩵 Setting the standard

Eventually, Wardah became the first halal-certified cosmetics and skincare company in Indonesia.

People started to look for more ‘clean’ makeup and skincare products–even non-Muslims!

Now, they make over 135M units of makeup products, facial treatments, and hair products in a year.

Each product goes through strict testing and uses only halal-certified ingredients.

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🤔 Learning to pivot

What makes Wardah such a popular brand?

Apart from their high-quality products, the brand has been around for nearly 30 years.  

Still, the company finds creative ways to innovate! During the pandemic, they knew customers couldn’t try on their products in stores.

So they added a new feature to their website: customers could virtually try makeup on! Since then, they’ve had 250,000 makeup try-on sessions through their website.

Wardah makes sure that their products help make women’s lives easier, whether they wear a hijab or not.

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🎉 Here and now

In 2017, they made $1.1M (IDR 15.4B) with just their exports to Malaysia. By 2020, they made $7.95M (IDR 122.6B).

They’ve also launched a men’s skincare line called Kahf, to help men take care of their skin with gentle products! Now, Wardah is looking into other ASEAN countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore.

Wardah started with a single idea: to shine a spotlight on halal beauty.

But this beauty powerhouse shows that even one simple idea can pave the way for future success.