“I didn’t know anything better than to cover up my face, in the wrong way,” says Dubai-based luxury style expert Rosemin Opgenhaffen of her 25 years in the fashion industry. It was when she reached her 40s that Opgenhaffen realised, “You don’t need a lot of make-up, you just need to correct [skin tone] where needed.” Like many women approaching mid-life, Opgenhaffen no longer has the energy for multi-step skincare regimes and the suitcases full of beauty products that she used to travel with. Factor in her first pregnancy, and Opgenhaffen, at the age of 45, says it is all about scaling back.
“The older I’ve gotten, my makeup case is a lot more streamlined. I know what works for me, and that comes with age. You start realising what you feel comfortable in.” This principle of effective, timeless beauty is what powers Opgenhaffen’s eponymous makeup line. Recently launched from UAE headquarters, selling to customers directly online, in the next few months, Rosemin Beauty, which focuses on warmer skin tones, will add a logistics centre in the UK to service Europe, followed by India and the US. A retail partner, to be announced later this month, will layer on a physical presence.
With its luxurious formulations, glamorous founder, and grown-up approach to makeup, Rosemin Beauty aims to do for discerning South Asian and Arab women what Victoria Beckham Beauty has done so effectively in the West. In a world of TikTok hype and teens taking over Sephora, Rosemin Beauty eliminates the noise, providing women with the — reassuringly few — products we really need to look and feel our best. Its hero product at launch is the Daily Radiance Correct & Conceal Duo (Dh180), whose chic gold-toned compact is already facilitating discreet touch-ups at the emirate’s chicest eateries, from Trèsind Studio to Kokoro. Conceived on the understanding that women in Asia and the Middle East have pigmentation concerns that need intelligent solutions, the compact encourages consumers to correct skin tone before applying concealer.
“I always get asked about my eye makeup on DMs,” Opgenhaffen says, “and dark undereye circles kept coming up. Going to India opened my eyes to how many skin tones there are, and what issues so many of us have.” She started hosting informal focus groups for women in their late 30s to late 50s, many of whom confessed they skipped the ‘correction’ step of make-up, relying on concealer to cover problem areas. “But what was happening was you almost had a bright raccoon eye,” Opgenhaffen says. Her solution? To revisit plans she first hatched for a warm skin-focused beauty brand back in 2015, and to launch with a compact designed to encourage women to correct and conceal seamlessly. She hired a product developer from New York and set to work convincing Europe’s most prestigious cosmetics factories to come on board. “It’s my dream product,” Opgenhaffen says, “before, I was buying two different shades of foundation and mixing them to get my perfect shade, and I’m kind of just over that now.”
Because it’s not just a fledgling brand that Opgenhaffen is nurturing into existence in 2026, she is also pregnant with her first child, due this summer, with her husband, Javed Opgenhaffen. The couple married in Paris in 2023, and Opgenhaffen says, “The good thing about having kids at this age is that there’s no FOMO. I’ve had the most incredible experiences.” For Opgenhaffen, pregnancy means she has ceased her nightly retinol regimen and stopped getting facials. “Just a deep clean at Biologique Recherche, because I do wear makeup every day,” she smiles. She also admits to “drenching myself in Mustela stretch mark oil in the shower”.
From Huda Kattan to Kris Fade to Karen Wazen, Dubai has a strong track record in fuelling founder-led brands with global ambition. Which is precisely what Opgenhaffen has. “For me, the biggest compliment is someone opening their makeup bag and having Rosemin Beauty alongside Charlotte Tilbury or Bobbi Brown or Huda,” she says, “I never want to be competitive with these brands that I have so much respect for.”
A tight edit of eye products created for “a modern South Asian or Arab eye in toasted browns” is dropping next, with blushes and lipsticks by the end of the year. Especially thrilling for Opgenhaffen was casting 47-year-old Indian model Ujjwala Raut in Rosemin Beauty’s launch campaign. Opgenhaffen first met Raut backstage at YSL and Gucci fashion shows (often the only South Asian model in the line-up) when she worked with Tom Ford in the 2000s. Casting Raut is a joyous full-circle moment for Opgenhaffen, who says, “Ujjwala represents what this modern South Asian woman is and what Rosemin Beauty is. It’s a woman who is working and has a full, dynamic life and travels, takes care of herself, and cares about what’s on her skin.” There are a lot of us out there, and founders who watch, listen, and respond, like Opgenhaffen, look set to reap the rewards.
Source: Khaleej Times