Can a beauty founder afford to look ‘unbeautiful’?


I still remember walking the red carpet at Cannes one year with my face completely swollen from an allergic reaction. I was walking for one of the biggest beauty brands in the world, and my team had tried everything (ice, concealer, prayers), but there was no hiding it. Cameras flashed, interviews happened, and all I could think was: “What will the comments say?” It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that pressure, but the first time I realised how easily it had become a part of my job description.

And that’s the thing about being in the business of beauty. When you are the face of a brand, you’re not just selling a product... you are living proof it works. When I started Indē Wild, I was pregnant. My body was changing faster than my business plans, and I was learning to build a brand while also growing a tiny human inside me. When we shot one of the first campaigns, I had this huge belly and swollen feet, and I remember thinking: This is either going to be the most real thing I’ve ever done, or the most hypocritical.

Beauty brands have always sold us the illusion of effortlessness. The flawless founder with glowing skin and hair that moves like a shampoo ad, even after a 16-hour flight. And suddenly, there I was, the woman behind the brand, breaking out, hormonal, covered in stretch marks and terrified of looking like the opposite of what I was trying to sell. But here’s the hot take: Flawlessness isn’t what beauty looks like anymore.

Learning to own it 

When I started my brand Indē Wild, it was never meant to be about perfect faces. It was meant to be about real ones. Faces that live, laugh, work, cry, age, break out, and heal. I wanted to build a brand that spoke to women like me—ones who were tired of being told that beauty is a full-time performance. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t feel the pressure. The beauty industry is still largely built on appearances, and social media has only intensified that microscope. You can be jet-lagged, running on coffee, or postpartum, and still feel like your skin is part of your résumé.

And of course, hindsight is 20/20. It’s all easier said than done, and truthfully, I’ve fallen into the trap myself. I’ve delayed going live because of a breakout. Hid behind my hair at a shoot that couldn’t be pushed. Second-guessed a raw photo because I didn’t look “on brand.”

But over time, I’ve realised that this pursuit of perfection doesn’t actually serve me, the brand, or the people it’s meant for. If anything, it creates distance. The more we chase flawlessness, the less we feel seen and the less we see each other.

I still remember one of the first times I went viral, before Instagram even existed. I posted a completely unedited photo of my skin on my blog. Every dark spot, breakout, and acne scar on display for the world. My website crashed that day. It was the first time I understood how powerful it is to be seen—not admired, just seen.

Motherhood was the final mirror for me. Pregnancy doesn’t just change your body, it changes your relationship with it. Suddenly, I had to learn to respect my body for what it does, not just how it looks. After giving me my daughter, how could I ever see it as anything less than extraordinary?

Changing mindsets 

When I speak to our community, what always stands out isn’t the pursuit of “better.” It’s the yearning to feel enough. That’s the word that comes up again and again. Enough as you are. Enough without filters. Enough without comparing your pores in a 5x-magnifying mirror to someone else’s perfect lighting and airbrushed skin. And maybe that’s where the real challenge lies for any beauty founder. We are both the messenger and the mirror. You can’t build a brand around authenticity and then hide your own imperfections. You can’t talk about self-love while editing out your stretch marks. You can’t advocate for “real skin” while being terrified of being seen in yours.

So no, I don’t think a beauty entrepreneur can afford to always look beautiful, not if she wants to build something that’s real. What we can do, though, is redefine what beauty looks like when it’s lived, not performed. For me, beauty is no longer about hiding flaws but holding space for them. It’s about building a company that lets me show up swollen-faced at Cannes, pregnant at a shoot, or barefaced on Instagram—and still feel like I’m representing my brand with integrity. In an industry that keeps rewriting the rules of beauty, maybe the real rebellion is to stop performing for it.

Diipa Büller-Khosla is the founder of Indē Wild and the co-founder of Post for Change, a non-profit using social media for gender equality and menstrual health advocacy.

This article first appeared in Cosmopolitan India's November-December 2025 print edition.

Lead image: Shutterstock 

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