Designer for the Kardashians Launches Luxury Skincare Brand

In 2016, Ollia Tzarina founded ‘Tzarina by Ollia,’a faux fur coat and gilet brands with over 50 different colours – from pastel shades to vibrant hues.

Her coats went on to be a global fashion trend and were worn by some of the absolute biggest stars in the world, including the likes of Kylie and Kendall Jenner, J-Lo, Beyonce and Ariana Grande. It was also featured in Vogue, Forbes, Elle, Marie Claire, The Guardian, Daily Mail, E!, People, OK! And has worked with brands such as Ralph and Russo.

Upon selling the Tzarina brand in 2018, Ollia decided to switch to more affordable luxury in the form of her new skincare range ‘Bio Lab Exotique.’ This organic high-end skincare range was created using ingredients sourced on privately sustained plantations in Africa.

The brand has one sole aim: to show that chemicals are simply not needed when it comes to treating skin conditions such as eczema or even to help collagen production and provide intense hydration. With a precise unique mix of rare oils, the same if not better results can be found. Bio Lab Exotique offers the opportunity for natural luxury skincare, for everyone.

Here we speak to Ollia about what made her jump from working in fashion to joining the beauty industry.

kylie jenner faux fur
Kylie Jenner in one of Ollia's faux fur coats
  1. You previously founded the faux-fur brand ‘Tzarina by Ollia,’ which was worn by the likes of Kylie Jenner, Rita Ora and Sofia Richie. What made you want to leave that behind and go into skincare?

When I launched it was real fur, the main competitor we had was Yves Salamon and Nicole Benisti who up to this day use real furs.

We diverted into the faux market along with the likes of Gucci. You have to adapt to the market. I stayed in fashion for three years, doing everything alone for the first year and a half, from shipping items out to all of my marketing. It was super interesting, but I was working 20 hours a day at times and not sleeping for 48 hours straight.

With the real fur, the profit margins were great as they were, I had everyone from Beyonce to the Ecclestone sisters as my clients, I had People magazine, Vogue, Elle all supporting the brand.

We then stepped into the faux fur era where for a brand to survive you had to do volumes, deals with another distribution channel, mass influencers, I did not ever plan to be a mass brand, I didn’t want to go there even though I had two distribution offers sitting on the table. At the time I got a great offer to sell so I took it.  Skincare came along when my friend told me his family bought argan oil fields and invited me to Morocco. I fell in love with the concept. I want to create value now, not a scandal.

 

  1. ‘Clean Beauty’ is amongst the biggest trends in the beauty industry today. Would you say ‘Bio Lab Exotique’ is a ‘Clean Beauty’ brand?

It’s so clean you could cook with it if you ever happen to be stuck on some desert island with no way out! Bio lab has zero added chemicals.

 

  1. What is it about synthetic ingredients that makes you avoid using them?

I want to be in the market where people can use the product without the added fear of side effects, be a pregnant woman or someone with an Auto-immune condition.

 

  1. What is the story behind the name ‘Bio Lab Exotique’?

The name Bio Lab is relatively self-explanatory. Throughout the past months, we have utilised several different labs to we process different varieties of Bio Oils. I added ‘Exotique’ as the base oil ‘argan’ is mixed with rare, exotic precious oils.

 

  1. What has surprised you most about the beauty industry since you founded ‘Bio Lab Exotique’?

It has actually been the extent to which people are passionate about organic oils! It was something I’d previously never really realised.

 

  1. What changes do you think need to take place within the beauty industry in the next couple of years?

The Beauty industry, at least in my opinion, is an industry where everybody can find exactly what they need. Be it highly acidic products that resurface the whole skin or 100% organic products that are great for maintenance, The Beauty industry stands to improve anyone, and everyone’s lives once they’ve found the products right for them.