About beauty: Duo of Masha Vorslav and Adel Miftakhova
Under the heading "Comembers" we talk about girls who came up with a common cause and achieved success in it. But at the same time we expose the myth that women are not capable of friendly feelings, and can only aggressively compete. Our heroines of today are blogger and beauty editor of The Blueprint Masha Vorslav and blogger and geologist Adel Miftakhova, the most interesting young celebrities of the Russian beauty industry. Each has its own projects and audience, but for several years they have been working together: they work together as buyers in the Foam online store, prepare books for release and regularly work as an editor and author duet. We asked Masha and Adel about the balance between work and friendship, the diversity of interests and plans for the future.
margarita virova
About acquaintance and interests
Masha: It seems, two and a half years ago, I stumbled upon the Adel channel in the Telegram and noted that she writes normally - just like other bloggers did not write. I suggested she write, then on Wonderzine. In my opinion, I did it right before leaving for Interview. I did not conduct any special searches: there are very few talented authors, and if I see promising ones, I write to them.
Adele: I always liked cosmetics, long before I started to channel. I read a lot of English-speaking bloggers who write on this topic, and I realized that no one wrote such materials in Russian that I would like to read to me myself - everything seemed very superficial and frivolous. I began to study this world, and at about the same time a Telegram appeared. And this is a very cool format for people like me, because there is a buffer between the author and the audience - the lack of comments. And this was very important to me, because comments are the worst part of the Internet. Sometimes they are the brightest surge of your activity can destroy. One careless word can upset you, and you will stop doing your favorite thing. In Telegram this was not, so I quickly became fascinated by the blog. And somewhere in half a year Masha wrote to me, suggested writing the text, and it was just interesting. Then I learned that I would still be paid for this money - it was so cool, I certainly did not expect any fees. Somehow it went: I wrote one text, the second one, and after that I began to offer topics like GQ and Cosmopolitan.
I continue to do science and do not intend to abandon it. It helped me a lot that I can search for information and read research in English - it’s pretty easy for me. I read a lot of scientific texts on geology for work, and in beauty I do the same thing: I read a lot, I try to isolate something from the texts that I need.
Masha: And I can't do that, my problem is with legal texts. (Masha is a lawyer by education. - Note Ed.) was that there was some kind of nonsense written in a strange language: "Municipal deputy of the municipal district of the municipal region ..." I just fall asleep when I read something like that. But the skill to look for information also came in handy for me. I know exactly what I need, I drive in an exact request in Google - and in front of me all the information that is needed for the text.
Mastering another profession helped in an obvious way: telling about make-up, being a make-up artist, is much easier. I have such an interesting field of activity, I do not like to do something alone. It's boring to just write lyrics. I do not exclude that one day I will be bored doing make-up. I am glad that Foam has appeared, because it is also something new. Now we've made Organic Kitchen cans - another very rewarding experience.
About working relationships and conflicts
Masha: For me, a working relationship is always a priority than a friendly one. That is, if I start working with a friend, he is first of all a colleague for me. If my friend becomes my boss, he is first and foremost my leader. And so I try not to outweigh friendly relations in our union, but at the same time I often strive to get Adel to the project I'm working on. We also have a clear distribution of interests: I'm talking about make-up, and Adele is about leaving.
I had cases when more emotional relationships were established between me and the manager than those that were convenient for me. At one time, Olya Strakhovskaya I asked for leave when I was depressed. This is an abnormal story in principle for a working relationship, but she let me go, and I am grateful to her. But at the same time, it seems to me, there must be some kind of border. You do not need to try to be friends with your colleagues, you do not need to force yourself to hush up any negative emotions or thoughts that arise in the work process. It would be good to give yourself the opportunity to express everything that does not satisfy you at work.
Adele: It also seems important to me how you express it to people. I constantly say that conflicts arise not because of what people say, but because of how they say it. I know that editors always have a pool of authors with whom they work constantly. And with some very comfortable: you understand each other, make minimal changes, everything goes easily. And there are authors with whom it is rather difficult, but it is necessary, because no one except them writes on these topics. It happened with Masha and I that it is very comfortable for us to work with each other - in many respects because our relations are not so much friendly, as comradely. And this emotional story that people sometimes have in friendship as a friend does not exist between us.
Masha: I would not say so, but it exists between us in a normal format, as is usually the case with colleagues. We do not quarrel, but sometimes the difference in approaches to work is obvious.
Adele: It seems to me that adequate adults simply do not quarrel with each other. I think everyone may have some disagreements. I can imagine how it is, but I do not quarrel with people. When I have conflicts, I understand what could be the problem of working with me. I sometimes press too hard, or only my point of view seems correct to me.
Masha: And I, respectively, on the contrary. I never consider myself to be right, perhaps that's why we complement each other well.
About writing a book
Masha: It seems to me that I was washing the dishes at the moment when I thought that I needed some kind of book where it would have been normally written about cosmetics. Not as usual, they write about it all: "The essence of the rose will give you pleasure ..." I thought it would be ideal to do this with Adel, because she is a care, I am a make-up, I would not write a book alone.
Adele: Then some time passed, we started looking for a publisher. It was still theoretically: we discussed that it might be worth finding someone to help us. And after some time they wrote to me from the Alpina publishing house. I received a letter from Irina Gusinsky: "Adel, I read your blog, would you like to write a book?" I replied: "You are just in time, of course, I want to write a book." She offered it to me, but I said that it would be great if Masha and I worked on a book together. She was not at all against. We shared our ideas about what we want to state in this edition. Everyone liked everything, and we started. Now we have already finished writing and are waiting for the presentation of the layout.
About work as buyers
Masha: I worked with Foam a year ago - I was first called to write texts there. Then it was a men's cosmetics shop. Then the guys thought that it was necessary to collect an assortment for everyone. And they asked if I was interested in doing this. I replied: "Yes, in general, I still have a friend Adele, let's draw her in too." Then we met, and we were offered to be not only content managers of the site, but also buyers, because the creators did not understand anything about women's cosmetics. By tradition, Adel is a care, and I am a make-up.
Adele: I am a beginner buyer, and so far I am not very good at what people like. Initially, when I selected the very first assortment, I looked at what I would have bought myself. I also remembered that my friends love me - for example, there are quite a few fans of natural cosmetics. Then I thought it would be great to bring a natural brand that would be understandable to me too. Not stupid cosmetics, which removes toxins and slags. And then the process got better: I come across some interesting brand and I throw it into ideas - maybe we should buy it. I’m not looking for brands with direction, but interesting options are found, for example, in blogs that I read.
Masha: Most of the time, you look at a spreadsheet in Excel, which shows a hundred shades of some L'Oréal lipstick, then go to Google Images, type in names and try to figure out whether you need this color or not. That is, in the case of make-up, this is a very dreary job, because the cream is one, and the lipstick is ten. And ideally, you need to know exactly what shades to buy. Because blue shadows are bad, and green ones are normal. Because today the trend is on purple and red, and not on blue. And this is a very large amount of items, besides expensive decorative cosmetics are not very well bought. People would rather buy some cheap and cool shade than expensive ones.
I had the concept of a perfect online store, but now it is irrelevant. People need more than I wonder. Buyers want to try the tenth lip balm, but I no longer need it. I have a personal set of what I need, and most likely, I will pay attention to some unique novelty - if it is cheap and cool, or if it is coolly packed.
About the Collaboration with Organic Kitchen
Adele: The company, which owns the Natura Siberica and Organic Shop brands, has a brand called Organic Kitchen - they have very cheap cans with good content. Masha and I communicate very well with their PR director Vitalik Kozlenkov. Once he had laid out a plot on his instagram, as a star in their flagship store was kneading scrubs. And I, half in jest, wrote to Vitalik: "Or maybe we will also make a can together?" He said: "Yes, come on!" In the end, he persuaded the owner of the company. He agreed, we made a hydrophilic balsam. And I did not expect that there would be such a success, but it was a very noticeable launch. After that, a large-scale collaboration with bloggers appeared.
You can participate in different ways. You can just throw in the task, for example, say that you want a gel with glitter - you will do it. You can specify the desired ingredients, control the process of creating more or less. In general, what is in the bank may depend on your desires. Someone just ordered and approved the abstract product, Masha and I had a different way. We agreed that we want certain ingredients, colors and textures. For us, we mixed several times and sent samples.
Masha: I thought about Glass Skin cream for three days. I immediately realized that I needed to start from the packaging: I did not know that there was an opportunity to make a bottle like Adel. What in this package can be such that it will be convenient to take with you and what theoretically it fits normally? I thought that it should be a thick cream, which has no domestic counterparts, and at the same time is quite cheap. The landmarks were the famous eight-hour cream Elizabeth Arden and Weleda Skinfood. Both products are not without flaws: Elizabeth Arden begins to smell unpleasant because of lanolin, while Skinfood has a greasy, oily texture that is very sticky. I asked to do something similar: so that the balm healed and was as allergic as possible. And in order to suit the maximum number of people, I needed the most universal bank. And to shine beautifully. But I did not know that he would be so fucking mixed with other products. When they sent me the fourth sample, I tried it — I always had pencils and lipsticks at work — and I understood that. I started using the tool myself and realized that the cream can also be positioned as a makeup balm. Skinfood is also used as a highlighter, but not as a medium for mixing cosmetics. Already the fourth sample Glass Skin approached. The first one was very solid, like cuticle oil, the second and third ones turned out to be very liquid, then with an excessive amount of sparkles, and then an ideal appeared.
About future plans
Masha: I am thinking about creating my own cosmetics, but I don’t want to do that yet. The easiest way is to work with Organic Kitchen, but they still do not want to make decorative cosmetics. In addition, I almost understood what everyone wants from cosmetics: people need to be beautiful, fashionable, fast and cheap. And it is difficult.
Adele: This can be done only if you have a lot of money at the start. Because when you make a cheap product, you need to produce it in large quantities. Beginner and not very rich cosmetic manufacturer can not afford it.
Masha: Yes, and at the same time there are Russian brands of care that can take us under their wing, but there are not so many make-up brands. These are mainly makeup artists who themselves know what they need to do.
Adele: I already have an idea to create my own brand, my friends suggested that I create it together. So far, I think about it, pondering what banks would be great to do. Everything is at the negotiation stage. In order to make cosmetics, you need to use a lot of people. Looking for investors. We need a person who comes up with a concept, and the person responsible for what the banks will be is me. Do not do without a technologist who creates the formula. Production may be in Russia, and may be outside. Ingredients are of different quality, they need to be purchased in different places. Packaging is also very expensive, and then it is very expensive to distribute.
Masha: It's like a store: this is impossible to do together. We have a pretty big team at Foam, and the guys really understand what they are doing. They sold before that, and not only banks - they have the necessary contacts, designers who are doing everything right. I have little idea how to build a team from scratch.
Adele: Perhaps we will do some more jars with Organic Kitchen. They sell well, and this is a fairly painless job: they work very fast and produce quality products. This year, in fact, so much has already happened that I am just waiting for it to end. To relax, draw some kind of line and start anew. I really hope that our book will be released this year. It will be a good fat point.
Masha: Next year, you will probably have to carry out some activities with the book. But my immediate future plans are vacation. Separately. This is all that I can say with confidence.
