Last month, twin sisters and DJs Simi and Haze Khadra took to Instagram to announce what they referred to as “Not your average sticker book”—it was soon revealed to be a line of holographic, neon-hued, press-on eye make-up looks called Eye Play, intricate masterpieces that can be applied in seconds. “We call it minimal optical,” says Simi via Zoom. “It’s the maximum amount of output with a minimum amount of effort.”
The stickers, it turns out, were a teaser for the SimiHaze Beauty brand, which launches today in the form of three core products: Velvet Blur, a hydrating matte lip balm available in 12 colours; Sun Flush, a versatile tint that can be used on the ehttps://vogue.sg/how-to-wear-a-graphic-neon-eye-according-to-a-pro/yes, cheeks and lips for an all-over flush; and Lip Trace Liner, a lip liner containing jojoba oil that plumps and defines without any flaking.
Growing up in London, and later studying fine art and fashion in Los Angeles, the twins have built up a cult following as DJs, style icons and now beauty disruptors.
“The products we’ve made are really lasting, comfortable and easy to use,” says Simi. “We didn’t come into this just being like, ‘We want to create another beauty line.’ We didn’t want to add more clutter. We wanted to give people the highest-quality, most carefully curated, efficient products.” Her sister, Haze, adds: “And the most aesthetically pleasing.”
It’s true. Housed in sleek, sculptural pink and green packaging, which speaks to the twins’ love of art and design, SimiHaze Beauty feels fresh and new—a rarity in an oversaturated industry.
Here, the twins open up about their relationship with beauty and their future plans for the brand
Congratulations on the launch of SimiHaze. How does it feel?
Simi: “We’re relieved that it’s finally launched because we’ve been working on it for so long. All of our friends are tired of us talking about it. Then, the excitement comes when we see people wearing it and getting excited about putting on the product. It makes everything real and feels like a full circle.”
Growing up, what was your earliest experience of beauty?
Simi: “I would say we were pretty late bloomers when it came to putting on make-up—we really liked the natural look. We focused more on skincare.”
Haze: “We started so late.”
Simi: “We were maybe 18 when we started putting on a little bit of make-up here and there. I would say probably when we moved here to Los Angeles.”
Haze: “Even later than that.”
Simi: “Lipstick was our main thing; we wouldn’t leave the house without lipstick or a credit card. When we started DJing, we became more bold and colourful with our looks, so that our make-up would energetically inform who we were and the music we played.”
So, was makeup then purely about self-expression and identity?
Haze: “It was never about looking attractive, it was just about fun. It was more of an accessory.”
Simi: “We got into makeup because we wanted to play around with it. It was about self-expression and showing our personalities without having to say anything.”
Did you ever have a moment as teenagers where you didn’t feel comfortable with how you looked?
Simi: “Being twins, we have always had each other’s companionship and support. We’re lucky that we didn’t have to go through our teens by ourselves. So, we didn’t have much of that moment of feeling, ‘I’m so uncomfortable in my skin because I’m so alone.’ It wasn’t as alienating being a teenager [for us] because we had each other. We were able to look at beauty from a perspective of, ‘How can we make this work for us?’ instead of trying to make ourselves look a certain way.”
As twins, do you have a similar approach to beauty?
Simi: “We have the exact same makeup routine. Lipstick is the number one thing. And then we need a healthy flush for the day, which is why we created our Sun Flush tint because it makes you look as if you’ve been for a little run or have briefly been in the sun. It looks very real, it’s not powdery or skin clogging.”
How did the brand come about?
Simi: “We wanted to create our dream products: nurturing for the skin, long-lasting and weightless.”
Haze: “We’re always talking about ideas. It wasn’t an epiphany moment, it just kind of developed from a conversation.”
Simi: “There was a moment, I remember, when we kept going to Sephora to buy this one shade of lipstick. We would experiment with every brand’s version of the same colour but in different textures. But they were all so heavy and really pigmented, whereas we wanted a natural look, like a bitten lip, so we would just dab it on. And then finally we were like, ‘We need to make a lipstick that you can just swipe once and it’s perfect.’”
What were the most important things you considered when putting the brand together?
Simi: “The main thing was, ‘How can we make this brand nurturing?’ The lipstick contains hyaluronic acid and the lip liner has jojoba oil. All the ingredients are vegan and it’s all cruelty-free, and clean. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with products that weren’t 100 per cent beneficial to our skin and bodies.”
You launched initially with the eye stickers as a teaser—can you tell us about these?
Simi: “While we were DJing, we would see people in the crowd replicate some of our looks. They’d come up to us afterwards and ask us what products we used. Our looks were done by makeup artists, so we thought, ‘How can we make it easy for people to replicate our looks?’ Now it takes just two seconds to stick it on.”
How do you hope the brand will evolve?
Simi: “We want to keep pushing the boundaries of packaging, formulas, and makeup application. We want to be the bridge between what beauty was and what it’s going to be.”
What does beauty mean to you?
Simi: “Beauty is something that should be intuitive, depending on your mood and on how you want to feel. It should be used as a tool instead of a way to cover up. It’s more a form of expression.”
What about self-care? How do you take care of your mental and physical wellbeing?
Haze: “Walking is important to us, we have the 10,000 Steps app and we’re intense about it. We also do pilates.”
Simi: “Walking is so meditative. We also take Epsom salt baths, as recovery from working out is just as important. I’m a huge self-improvement junkie. I’m the person my friends go to when they need a healer, masseuse, facialist or psychic. I’ve tried everything and I’ve read all the books on self-improvement. Every day for me is about trying to grow and become the best version of myself.”
When do you feel most beautiful?
Simi: “When I feel most natural, or when I’m wearing something to accentuate my features, such as lipstick.”
Haze: “I feel most beautiful when I look healthy.”