Pregnant and undeterred: How Rosemin built a Dubai-born beauty brand in a time of global uncertainty

Dubai: “It was 100% deliberate.”

That’s how Dubai-based entrepreneur Rosemin Opgenhaffen describes launching a beauty brand in the middle of global uncertainty and in her third trimester of pregnancy.

“You can’t choose when these things happen. You just have to start and never look back,” she says.

Conventional wisdom would suggest otherwise. The traditional playbook would tell you to wait for stability and only launch when markets are predictable. But Rosemin wished to do things differently.

Part of that conviction is personal, she tells Gulf News.

Long before she built brands for others, she was navigating her own skin struggles.

“I had terrible cystic acne and I did have pigmentation too. In the beginning, I would cover my face with so many layers of make-up and I knew it had to change," says Rosemin as she bit into her pizza.

Years later, that frustration has translated into Rosemin Beauty, a tightly edited, high-performance range designed for women who don’t have time for complicated routines.

Her hero product, a Correct & Conceal duo, is already stocked at Ulta Middle East and is now sitting alongside established names like Huda Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury. It's no small feat and it took her over a decade to get to this place.

A career built behind the scenes

Before launching her own cosmetic line, she was better known in industry circles as the person brands turned to when they wanted to get the Middle East right.

Through her consultancy, RR&CO, she worked with global names such as Burberry, Givenchy and Christian Louboutin, helping them establish a foothold in a market that demands nuance and local market knowledge.

Her own career had followed a similarly international path. From the London College of Fashion to stints at Sotheby’s, Prada and Burberry’s head office, she moved through the upper echelons of luxury before landing at Gucci’s press office, where she was recruited by Tom Ford.

A role at Juicy Couture followed, where she oversaw European PR and communications, before eventually striking out on her own.

If her career has been global, so has her upbringing.

Born in Canada to Indian parents from East Africa, she grew up moving between cultures and continents, an experience that, over time, shaped her ability to navigate multiple worlds with ease.

For years, she moved through the world of beauty and luxury, close enough to understand how it all worked, but not quite ready to put her own name on something.

“To launch something new, it’s crucial to have enough confidence in yourself. But once I got used to the idea of being on my own, it felt incredible,” she says.

The idea itself isn’t new. The blueprint for Rosemin Beauty goes back to 2015. She had already started building it, travelling to New York often, meeting manufacturers, figuring out production.

In many ways, it was ready. But the reality of it was less straightforward. Taking it forward meant relocating, stepping away from a life she had already built in Dubai and that pause, at the time, felt necessary.

“Right when we were about to sign the dotted line, I was like, oh my god, am I ready to leave Dubai?”

At the time, the answer was no. Her career in Dubai was established, her business stable.

“I had a thriving company here. I had a TV show and I was working at a luxury publication,” she recalls.

Launching another venture, particularly one that required relocation, felt less like an opportunity and more like a disruption.

So she set it aside.

“I actually put that 2015 deck in my desk. I remember putting it in the drawer,” she says.

It would remain there for years.

A different perspective

The idea resurfaced, as these things often do, unexpectedly. While moving homes, Manji came across the original research deck.

“I opened the drawer… and I see this research deck… and I had that aha moment again,” she says.

But the intervening years had altered her perspective.

“I’m not 35 anymore. I’m 45 now. I have changed as a woman and I have changed what I expect in a brand,” she says.

What had once been a broad concept now felt overly expansive. The revision process, she explains, involved subtracting as much as adding.

“I started kind of taking that research deck… and just crossing things out, going, how do we create a really capsule collection of products that we need?”

The emphasis shifted to cater to women on the go.

“I want a super intentional product,” she says.

Plus, Rosemin's own experiences with skin break-outs helped her come up with a less-is-more cosmetic products.

“I did have cystic acne and I did have pigmentation,” she says.

Her initial response to make-up was not unusual.

“In the beginning, I didn’t really know any better… I would cover my face so much with foundation and concealer,” she says.

Over time, she learned to approach makeup differently—less as concealment, more as correction.

“If you’re smart with your makeup, you can really kind of correct what you need and let your skin show through,” she says.

But that approach, she realised, required time and time, for many women, is in short supply.

“They’re like, no, I don’t have time. I’m rushing to the office or dropping the kids to school,” she says.

A product for the in-between moments

The resulting product philosophy is less about transformation than about maintenance and about making small adjustments quickly.

“I just look at my life and I’m like, I don’t have time… but you still want to look polished,” she says.

Her solution was to reduce the number of steps required.

“I really wanted to cut the step down and nobody has time for seven layers,” she says.

The brand’s central product, a compact combining corrector and concealer, is designed with that in mind.

“Wouldn’t it be great if you could just create a compact… that you could just touch up anywhere… pigmentation, any spots,” she says.

It is, in many ways, a product designed for the in-between moments: a quick adjustment before a meeting, a touch-up after a flight.

“Even on a flight, you could just dab, then mascara, lip balm and go and look polished,” she says.

Avoiding the noise

It's also no secret that the contemporary beauty market is crowded, and often driven by rapid product cycles and celebrity endorsements. Rosemin's approach has been to step back from that pace.

“Once you start hearing the noise and you start jumping on trends, it takes you nowhere and that’s just not me,” she says.

She is also pragmatic about consumer behaviour.

“I don’t expect someone to wear Rosemin Beauty head to toe,” she says.

What matters, instead, is coexistence.

“What excites me is when someone’s going Ulta to buy Charlotte Tilbury and then coming to Rosemin Beauty to try what we have on our shelves,” she says.

The unglamorous parts

While her product line is gloriously streamlined, the process behind it was not.

“It’s a big task to launch your own venture, not just financially. Many bumps like compliance to legalities to using the best manufacturers are tough calls that need to be made,” she says.

The transition from brand consultant to a beauty founder also required learning a different set of skills.

“Trademark, import tax… you have to learn everything,” she says.

Even now, she frames it as ongoing.

“Everything’s been a learning curve the past two years,” she says.

A base, not a boundary

Rosemin is clear about the role Dubai has played in the brand’s development.

“This is really my home and it's an extraordinary country! I’ve been here for almost 20 years and it's my privilege to live in a place that supports female businesses and small SMEs so strongly,” she says.

The city’s positioning, between markets and cultures, also helps.

“The UAE is the best of East meets West. It’s a place that lets you excel and grow to great heights,” she says. Perhaps, that's where she gets her confidence to throw the conventional rule book of entrepreneurship and just launch at the most unconventional time.

"Plus, the Middle East has given me so much exposure and that being fearless comes naturally to us now."

And the proof of her defiant spirit is in her minimalist make-up launched at the most unexpected time.

"I wouldn't do it any other way."