Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The local beauty industry is on the rise. In recent years, local beauty brands have dominated the market, successfully displacing Korean and Japanese products.

One of the most influential figures behind the vibrant local beauty industry is Nurhayati Subakat. She is the founder of Paragon Corp, a company that oversees 14 beauty brands, including Wardah, Make Over, Tavi, OMG, Emina, Putri, Kahf, and many more.

Even though she has a giant business in the beauty sector, Nurhayati is known as a simple figure. She is anti-showy, far from the glamorous impression that many sufferers of other local beauty brands often display who are much younger.

Nurhayati’s progress in this industry is also not random. Evidently, his name was once on the list 25 most influential businesswomen in Asia according to Forbes Asia in 2018.

Before becoming Indonesia’s ‘make up queen’, Nurhayati worked for a cosmetics company in Indonesia. Her educational background in the pharmaceutical field encouraged Nurhayati to quit her job and build her own company.

“Because I have worked in this industry for five years and I have an ITB pharmacist school background. I think making cosmetics and medicine is almost the same. Because I have that education and experience, I started this business,” he said.

Starting by selling hair care products offered from salon to salon, Nurhayati admitted that her initial turnover was only IDR 2 million a month. Now, Paragon Corp, which he founded in 1985, has a factory covering an area of ​​20 hectares, employees of more than 10,000 people, and a representative office in Malaysia.

Halal Cosmetics Pioneer

Wardah is the flagship cosmetic brand of Paragon Corp. This brand is a pioneer of halal cosmetics in Indonesia. This ‘halal’ concept was a huge success and is synonymous with the Wardah brand.

However, according to Nurhayati, her journey to build Wardah was not easy.

“I released Wardah products in 1995 and only saw Wardah’s presence in 2013. Maybe in 2009 it started to be known when hijabers are booming so we see a lot of right momentum in Wardah.”

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(hsy/hsy)