“What was your big break?” It’s a question people often ask of celebrities, but at Allure, the beauty professionals and brand founders are the celebrities. In My Beauty Break, we’ll dig into the behind-the-scenes details — the money, the aha! moments, and the mistakes — of the biggest brands in the industry. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Anastasia Bezrukova has been hustling nonstop since her family immigrated to Canada from Kazakhstan when she was little. She saw the sacrifices they made to provide her with better opportunities, and she wanted to honor that by always striving for success.

She rose to the top of her class, got into a top University, and quickly climbed the ranks in the beauty industry. But all of that hard work came with a price — she struggled with burnout and anxiety, which she self-treated with shopping. The more she accomplished, the more she accumulated. This faux fix ended up surrounding her with mountains of overwhelm and chaos…not to mention debt.

After hitting a painful low, she was introduced to the KonMari method and her world opened up in a totally new way. She was able to think clearly and truly appreciate the items and experiences that meant the most to her. Plus, her anxiety was nearly gone.

This led to her becoming a certified KonMari consultant, and eventually, founding Minori — a newly launched beauty brand of, as she puts it, only essentials — to share her passion for minimalism and use it to lift up others.

Here, Bezrukova tells Allure about the road that led her to become an entrepreneur, the hurdles she faced, and why she wants to help the world embrace mindful consumption, one lip gloss at a time.

Allure: Congratulations on launching Minori, Anastasia! Your brand was founded ‘on the ethos of minimalism.’ Where did that idea come from and how did minimalism become so important to you?

Anastasia Bezrukova: Thank you so much! Minimalism, specifically the KonMari method, completely changed my life.

Story continues

In the past, I used shopping and acquiring stuff as a way to quell anxiety and burnout. I lived a work, work, work, buy, buy, buy lifestyle. But about four years ago I hit a breaking point. I was planning to move from Toronto to New York City and I realized that because of my spending habits, I came very close to not being able to afford the move — despite having earned a really good salary. I had zero savings, credit card debt, and an overwhelming accumulation of things that I didn’t really care enough about to bring with me to New York.

Right at this time, a friend introduced me to the Marie Kondo (or KonMari) method. I was hooked and committed to turning my life around. I challenged myself to do a 12-month no-buy, especially after reading Cait Flanders’ book, The Year of Less, and managed for eight months! I went from always talking about shopping, to bragging about wearing the same skirt from Aritzia for the 50th time that year. It brought me such a sense of calm and clarity.

Allure: How did this guide your journey into helping others and eventually channeling that sense into a new beauty brand?

Bezrukova: Well, becoming a certified KonMari consultant was a natural next step for me. I could make a difference in people’s lives by helping them clean out their closets, but also by showing them how to be more mindful, how to reconnect with the items they own, and how to make better decisions for future purposes. I’ll be the first one to encourage you to do a no-buy for three months, then splurge on a high-quality item that you will use for many years to come.

I’m not against shopping, I’m against wasting money and adding to landfills with stuff that doesn’t actually add to your life.

That’s why our mission with Minori is to inspire mindful consumption. I’d rather you not buy our blush if you’re in debt and have 20 cheek tints at home that you’re trying to get through. It’s definitely going to be an interesting challenge for Minori to balance our need to be a successful business while encouraging people not to buy things impulsively. That’s why we’ll focus on making the absolute best products and only creating essentials that people will get daily use out of. I don’t want to add clutter to anyone’s life. I want to help them declutter and reconnect with their beauty routine in a very special, intentional, and mindful way.

Allure: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Anastasia Bezrukova: It took me a little while to figure that out.

My first job was in finance as a commodities trader. I bought wheat, corn, and soybeans directly from farmers. I would drive around Ontario trying to convince people to sell to us, even hopping into their tractors with them as they worked so I could get some of their time and attention.

Eventually, I became a personal care buyer for Well.ca, focusing on hair, body, and sexual wellness, and went to my first ever trade show. This is when my entrepreneurial fire lit up. I loved every interaction I had with the founders I met at these shows. They were so passionate and so in love with the idea of creating something whole from the ground up. I could spend hours listening to them talk about their highs and lows, their tiny but powerful teams, and their hunger to create beautiful things. I knew this was a path I wanted to pursue. The founders were my people. They energized me. I looked up to them and wanted to learn from them.

Allure: Is this when you decided to start your own brand?

Bezrukova: Not yet! After Well.ca, I worked as a buyer for Sears. They went bankrupt one year later, but it was a very eye-opening 12 months. We were trying to build a new beauty section at Sears, and to shift an old-school cosmetic shopping experience towards the new way of doing things. I saw the need to innovate and push forward, realizing that customers were more intentional than ever. They wanted to know the founder, the brand, and what it all stood for. I knew wherever I worked next needed to be a company that understood the future of beauty and how to stay ahead of the curve.

This led me to NYC and the role of merchandise personalization analyst at a popular beauty subscription service. I literally got to be the human brain behind the algorithm that helps tailor their monthly subscription for millions of members. I partnered with the merchandising team, tested out every single product (there were hundreds!), and tried to figure out who would love which items. I started to understand what types of products people liked and didn’t like. There’s so much newness! So much stuff on the market! What makes a product special? What is the importance and essence of a brand? How can you help people connect to something bigger than just swiping on some lip gloss?

I loved my time there, but I knew nothing would ever be as fulfilling as creating something on my own, so I finally took a leap!

Allure: How did you know when it was the right time to start your brand?

Bezrukova: It was actually because of another book! I was on a flight reading John Izzo’s, The 5 Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die. You have to read it for yourself, but one of the secrets is that people who live a happy life don’t have any regrets. I thought about being 95 years old and looking back at my life. If I tried to start this brand and failed, would I regret it? No way! My only regret would be not starting it. This shift in mindset was instrumental for me. It removed the fear. I wanted to be the 100-year-old lady that said, “regardless of the outcome, I did it! And it was fun!”

So, I began the very long process of starting Minori. But thanks to John Izzo’s book and the epiphany it inspired, I was able to remove the fear element, which really helped.

Allure: Where did you start? Can you walk us through the process?

Bezrukova: It is a terrifying process. We kind of had to accept that we were going to spend every single penny we owned. My husband and I did it together. We put all of our savings into the company. We even moved back to Montreal with our parents — at the ripe age of 31! We gave up our apartment in San Francisco and let our moms make food for us while we worked towards Minori. It was humbling and not at all the glamorous idea many people have of starting a cosmetic line. But it was the best decision we ever made. We had 10 months of focused Minori-building boot camp. Now we’re back in San Francisco and we’re so glad that we did this.

Anyway, we did it little by little, because if we had to cover everything upfront it would never have happened. So we built it slowly, starting with hiring an amazing designer.

Allure: Interesting that you started with design and not the product itself. What inspired that?

Bezrukova: Our plan was to have the presentation we would show manufacturers be as prepared and buttoned-up as possible. We knew that if we spent money upfront on getting the design and branding up to a certain level, we could win the manufacturers’ confidence. Minimum order quantities are about 5,000 to 10,000 units per shade, and even though we were able to find a partner who believed in us and gave us a good deal, that down payment for inventory was the first really big, scary payment.

We bootstrapped everything up until now. Now we’re doing a friends and family fundraising round and have two investors. You really need to have a network of people who will help because you will run out of funds. To be clear, there’s a big difference between a loan and an investment. You want to make sure that people who are investing in your company are comfortable with the risk. We’re building this for the long term, so people who are putting in $10,000 or $20,000, know that money will be in this company for a very very long time. They should be able to be silent partners who enjoy participating, seeing it grow, giving advice, and contributing in terms of their expertise. Those types of Angel investors do it because they are comfortable with a certain risk.

Allure: How do you stay so motivated?

Bezrukova: I watched my mom, who was a talented designer and seamstress in the Soviet Union, work minimum wage until the day she retired in Canada. My dad, who has a PhD and was a Colonel for Soviet Internal intelligence (our version of the FBI), became a long-haul truck driver when we immigrated. He worked into his mid-70s to make ends meet.

My parents sacrificed everything to move to Canada for me and my sister and managed to put us both through McGill, Canada’s top University, while they worked 6 days a week. My sister who is 15 years my elder, actually paid for all of my high school education with money she made as a summer law associate. Seeing how hardworking and persevering my parents and sister were was my biggest inspiration! I owe it to them to give it my all and aim to succeed.

Allure: When did it finally feel like Minori was real?

Bezrukova: Seeing the products for the very first time. After the years spent ideating and formulating when that moment comes that you get to hold the box with the final packaging and final formula…to me that moment was unreal. We had actually made something. It wasn’t just an idea.

I always kind of wondered, when is this gonna feel real? You keep thinking, “I say I’m starting a beauty brand but is this ever gonna actually happen?” In March 2021, I opened that box and saw the labor of three years in my hands. I was shaking as much as when I walked down the aisle on my wedding day.

The very next day we sent it to a buyer at The Detox Market. And now, they’re carrying Minori. That moment was pretty remarkable too. And I can’t wait to see where our brand will grow from here.

All products featured on Allure are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Read more stories about incredible brand founders.

Now watch Sophia Bush’s 10-minute beauty routine.

You can follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty.

Originally Appeared on Allure

“What was your big break?” It’s a question people often ask of celebrities, but at Allure, the beauty professionals and brand founders are the celebrities. In My Beauty Break, we’ll dig into the behind-the-scenes details — the money, the aha! moments, and the mistakes — of the biggest brands in the industry. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Anastasia Bezrukova has been hustling nonstop since her family immigrated to Canada from Kazakhstan when she was little. She saw the sacrifices they made to provide her with better opportunities, and she wanted to honor that by always striving for success.

She rose to the top of her class, got into a top University, and quickly climbed the ranks in the beauty industry. But all of that hard work came with a price — she struggled with burnout and anxiety, which she self-treated with shopping. The more she accomplished, the more she accumulated. This faux fix ended up surrounding her with mountains of overwhelm and chaos…not to mention debt.

After hitting a painful low, she was introduced to the KonMari method and her world opened up in a totally new way. She was able to think clearly and truly appreciate the items and experiences that meant the most to her. Plus, her anxiety was nearly gone.

This led to her becoming a certified KonMari consultant, and eventually, founding Minori — a newly launched beauty brand of, as she puts it, only essentials — to share her passion for minimalism and use it to lift up others.

Here, Bezrukova tells Allure about the road that led her to become an entrepreneur, the hurdles she faced, and why she wants to help the world embrace mindful consumption, one lip gloss at a time.

Allure: Congratulations on launching Minori, Anastasia! Your brand was founded ‘on the ethos of minimalism.’ Where did that idea come from and how did minimalism become so important to you?

Anastasia Bezrukova: Thank you so much! Minimalism, specifically the KonMari method, completely changed my life.

Story continues

In the past, I used shopping and acquiring stuff as a way to quell anxiety and burnout. I lived a work, work, work, buy, buy, buy lifestyle. But about four years ago I hit a breaking point. I was planning to move from Toronto to New York City and I realized that because of my spending habits, I came very close to not being able to afford the move — despite having earned a really good salary. I had zero savings, credit card debt, and an overwhelming accumulation of things that I didn’t really care enough about to bring with me to New York.

Right at this time, a friend introduced me to the Marie Kondo (or KonMari) method. I was hooked and committed to turning my life around. I challenged myself to do a 12-month no-buy, especially after reading Cait Flanders’ book, The Year of Less, and managed for eight months! I went from always talking about shopping, to bragging about wearing the same skirt from Aritzia for the 50th time that year. It brought me such a sense of calm and clarity.

Allure: How did this guide your journey into helping others and eventually channeling that sense into a new beauty brand?

Bezrukova: Well, becoming a certified KonMari consultant was a natural next step for me. I could make a difference in people’s lives by helping them clean out their closets, but also by showing them how to be more mindful, how to reconnect with the items they own, and how to make better decisions for future purposes. I’ll be the first one to encourage you to do a no-buy for three months, then splurge on a high-quality item that you will use for many years to come.

I’m not against shopping, I’m against wasting money and adding to landfills with stuff that doesn’t actually add to your life.

That’s why our mission with Minori is to inspire mindful consumption. I’d rather you not buy our blush if you’re in debt and have 20 cheek tints at home that you’re trying to get through. It’s definitely going to be an interesting challenge for Minori to balance our need to be a successful business while encouraging people not to buy things impulsively. That’s why we’ll focus on making the absolute best products and only creating essentials that people will get daily use out of. I don’t want to add clutter to anyone’s life. I want to help them declutter and reconnect with their beauty routine in a very special, intentional, and mindful way.

Allure: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Anastasia Bezrukova: It took me a little while to figure that out.

My first job was in finance as a commodities trader. I bought wheat, corn, and soybeans directly from farmers. I would drive around Ontario trying to convince people to sell to us, even hopping into their tractors with them as they worked so I could get some of their time and attention.

Eventually, I became a personal care buyer for Well.ca, focusing on hair, body, and sexual wellness, and went to my first ever trade show. This is when my entrepreneurial fire lit up. I loved every interaction I had with the founders I met at these shows. They were so passionate and so in love with the idea of creating something whole from the ground up. I could spend hours listening to them talk about their highs and lows, their tiny but powerful teams, and their hunger to create beautiful things. I knew this was a path I wanted to pursue. The founders were my people. They energized me. I looked up to them and wanted to learn from them.

Allure: Is this when you decided to start your own brand?

Bezrukova: Not yet! After Well.ca, I worked as a buyer for Sears. They went bankrupt one year later, but it was a very eye-opening 12 months. We were trying to build a new beauty section at Sears, and to shift an old-school cosmetic shopping experience towards the new way of doing things. I saw the need to innovate and push forward, realizing that customers were more intentional than ever. They wanted to know the founder, the brand, and what it all stood for. I knew wherever I worked next needed to be a company that understood the future of beauty and how to stay ahead of the curve.

This led me to NYC and the role of merchandise personalization analyst at a popular beauty subscription service. I literally got to be the human brain behind the algorithm that helps tailor their monthly subscription for millions of members. I partnered with the merchandising team, tested out every single product (there were hundreds!), and tried to figure out who would love which items. I started to understand what types of products people liked and didn’t like. There’s so much newness! So much stuff on the market! What makes a product special? What is the importance and essence of a brand? How can you help people connect to something bigger than just swiping on some lip gloss?

I loved my time there, but I knew nothing would ever be as fulfilling as creating something on my own, so I finally took a leap!

Allure: How did you know when it was the right time to start your brand?

Bezrukova: It was actually because of another book! I was on a flight reading John Izzo’s, The 5 Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die. You have to read it for yourself, but one of the secrets is that people who live a happy life don’t have any regrets. I thought about being 95 years old and looking back at my life. If I tried to start this brand and failed, would I regret it? No way! My only regret would be not starting it. This shift in mindset was instrumental for me. It removed the fear. I wanted to be the 100-year-old lady that said, “regardless of the outcome, I did it! And it was fun!”

So, I began the very long process of starting Minori. But thanks to John Izzo’s book and the epiphany it inspired, I was able to remove the fear element, which really helped.

Allure: Where did you start? Can you walk us through the process?

Bezrukova: It is a terrifying process. We kind of had to accept that we were going to spend every single penny we owned. My husband and I did it together. We put all of our savings into the company. We even moved back to Montreal with our parents — at the ripe age of 31! We gave up our apartment in San Francisco and let our moms make food for us while we worked towards Minori. It was humbling and not at all the glamorous idea many people have of starting a cosmetic line. But it was the best decision we ever made. We had 10 months of focused Minori-building boot camp. Now we’re back in San Francisco and we’re so glad that we did this.

Anyway, we did it little by little, because if we had to cover everything upfront it would never have happened. So we built it slowly, starting with hiring an amazing designer.

Allure: Interesting that you started with design and not the product itself. What inspired that?

Bezrukova: Our plan was to have the presentation we would show manufacturers be as prepared and buttoned-up as possible. We knew that if we spent money upfront on getting the design and branding up to a certain level, we could win the manufacturers’ confidence. Minimum order quantities are about 5,000 to 10,000 units per shade, and even though we were able to find a partner who believed in us and gave us a good deal, that down payment for inventory was the first really big, scary payment.

We bootstrapped everything up until now. Now we’re doing a friends and family fundraising round and have two investors. You really need to have a network of people who will help because you will run out of funds. To be clear, there’s a big difference between a loan and an investment. You want to make sure that people who are investing in your company are comfortable with the risk. We’re building this for the long term, so people who are putting in $10,000 or $20,000, know that money will be in this company for a very very long time. They should be able to be silent partners who enjoy participating, seeing it grow, giving advice, and contributing in terms of their expertise. Those types of Angel investors do it because they are comfortable with a certain risk.

Allure: How do you stay so motivated?

Bezrukova: I watched my mom, who was a talented designer and seamstress in the Soviet Union, work minimum wage until the day she retired in Canada. My dad, who has a PhD and was a Colonel for Soviet Internal intelligence (our version of the FBI), became a long-haul truck driver when we immigrated. He worked into his mid-70s to make ends meet.

My parents sacrificed everything to move to Canada for me and my sister and managed to put us both through McGill, Canada’s top University, while they worked 6 days a week. My sister who is 15 years my elder, actually paid for all of my high school education with money she made as a summer law associate. Seeing how hardworking and persevering my parents and sister were was my biggest inspiration! I owe it to them to give it my all and aim to succeed.

Allure: When did it finally feel like Minori was real?

Bezrukova: Seeing the products for the very first time. After the years spent ideating and formulating when that moment comes that you get to hold the box with the final packaging and final formula…to me that moment was unreal. We had actually made something. It wasn’t just an idea.

I always kind of wondered, when is this gonna feel real? You keep thinking, “I say I’m starting a beauty brand but is this ever gonna actually happen?” In March 2021, I opened that box and saw the labor of three years in my hands. I was shaking as much as when I walked down the aisle on my wedding day.

The very next day we sent it to a buyer at The Detox Market. And now, they’re carrying Minori. That moment was pretty remarkable too. And I can’t wait to see where our brand will grow from here.

All products featured on Allure are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Read more stories about incredible brand founders.

Now watch Sophia Bush’s 10-minute beauty routine.

You can follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty.

Originally Appeared on Allure