Tara: Touching Lives through Art

SHE needs no introduction when it comes to the art of beauty make-up; Tara Fela- Durotoye, is a master in the art.

The Chief Executive Officer of the leading beauty brand, House of Tara, credited with the setting up of the first makeup studio and establishing Nigeria’s first make-up school in 2004, is very passionate in touching people’s lives with her beauty outfit.

Inspired by her stepmother’s beauty routine and her work as a make-up artist during her university days, Tara said she was, inadvertently, drawn to cosmetics, after seeing “what make-up, actually, does to enhance a woman’s self-esteem.”

While talking about her passion for teaching, Tara said: “I am still a teacher; the only thing is that, this time, I am not teaching Mathematics or English, but, I am teaching enterprise, I am teaching make-up artistry, as a platform for enterprise.”

Making a difference in young lives is part of the mission for the 37-year-old cosmetics guru. “There are certain things that tell you that you cannot make it; that you will not make it; that Nigeria is not a place where people make it,” says Tara, adding “I beg to differ.”

She revealed that the Tara beauty range was born out of her frustration at the lack of suitable cosmetics in Nigeria, “Importers didn’t know, exactly, what was right for the Nigerian women, so, I want to fill the gap, while encouraging pride in home-grown glamour.”

“Many Tara products were named after beauty icons or beauty philosophies in Africa,” says Tara, “for us it is about sharing the world and sharing our culture to the world.”

Tara also highlighted the brand’s achievements, “Today we have about 14 schools, across the country, where people have been trained to become makeup artists. I can, confidently, say that for 80 percent of the make-up artists, that are active players in the industry today, either working as entrepreneurs or within other beauty brands, were trained by House of Tara and I think for me, that is the greatest joy.”