Ezra Aini: Inside the Quest to Pioneer Melanin-Rich Skincare and Scale Global Distribution

As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ezra Aini.

Ezra Aini, is the COO of Makari De Suisse. A luxurious skincare line catered to melanin rich skin. MAKARI is the original and leader in melanin skincare. Currently being distributed in over 35 countries, HSN, Amazon, pharmacies, beauty salons, and specialty stores. Makari also has over 25 flagship stores globally including the UK, Paris, NY, and more. Ezra spearheads strategic partnership, vendor and retailer management, brand strategy, sales, and marketing.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

We have come a long way since opening our first stores called Homeboyscatering to men and women of color in Brooklyn, New York. We are a family business and the entire family worked in the store. I can remember as a young boy coming home from school and helping my parents in the store stocking shelves and selling to the customers. My parents instilled in us at a very early age how important it was to treat people with kindness and respect and loved making the customers feel beautiful and walk out with a smile.

We moved to Paris at a young age and my parents were inspired to offer a more premium beauty collection for our customers. They met and partnered with a chemist — Dr. Jacques François to develop the first line of skincare for people of color, they started selling these new products and everyone loved them, and it was clear this was going to be a success, and this is how Makari de Suisse began. At 18, I cried to my Dad that I was desperate to earn a living and do something with my life. So I rented a small office in Manhattan on 29th Street and Broadway, hired one employee and never looked back. As they say it was “school of the hard knocks,” I learned through making mistakes and gaining experience…

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

When I was 19 years old and just starting in the business I wanted to score a home run quickly. I went to present the brand and made a beautiful presentation to SEPHORA. We had just started in the US so there was no real marketing being done. I called up the VP of merchandising and set up a meeting at their offices in California. After presenting and selling them the dream (I think I was a little ahead of my years and it was too early to present such a brand that would cater to men and women of color at that time.) The VP’s response was “I’ll get back to you.” After a few days of following up she finally did and said “we feel that the product packaging would stick out on our shelves, so we are not going to take it at this time.”

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I got married at 23 and saw that the relationship was not going to work after just one year. It was a very hard time for me, but I married my work. I started traveling internationally and met with distributors in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and Europe. After some time the relationship kept building with these distributors to this day. We now have distribution in over 35 countries and over 25 Makari FLAGSHIP stores, globally.

HARD WORK AND GOING FOR SINGLES RATHER HOME RUNS.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’m grateful to my parents who instilled the work ethic. If they didn’t push us at 15, 16, 17 years old to go and open the store at 8 AM every Sunday and close at 8 PM, I do not think we would be where we are today. All I saw was hard work in my life seeing my parents making a living and that’s basically all I know.

I’m also especially grateful to my mom who saw the potential in us. When we came back from living in Paris, she would make sure the French tutor came weekly so we would not forget the French language. Today I speak French every day to many of our customers. I actually speak 5 languages: ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, ARABIC and a bit of HEBREW.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?

Multicultural consumers have been ignored for many years. For over 20 years, Makari has been the leader in melanin rich skincare. Hyperpigmentation, Melasma, Dark scars, acne marks are a big concern for men and women with melanin skin. We are here to change that. Makari is made with Organiclarine — a patented formula curated by our laboratories. It consists of kojic acid, mulberry extract, licorice root extract, and vitamins to prevent melanin and hyperpigmentation in a natural way without any harmful side effects.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?

1. TECHNOLOGY — Social Media makes it so much easier to outreach consumers. You just have to be careful as there is a lot of competition and to make sure to spend the marketing dollars wisely in order to be profitable. There are a lot of brands that are showing revenues but lose $. We don’t believe in that. It is not sustainable and unfair to our customers and employees.

2. PERSONALIZATION — Skin quizzes and live chats help consumers make the right decision for their skin without having to come into any of our stores.

3. AWARENESS — The fact that consumers are more aware of the ingredients before they buy anything.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?

1. MORE DIVERSITY and Inclusion in brick and mortar. Retailers started, but I think there is a lot more room to go…

2. SOCIAL SELLING — Consumers today want that live interaction. They want to be engaged. They want the authenticity and the credibility that these KOLs [key opinion leaders] in China or influencers in the US bring to the product. Also, some people don’t like the in-store interaction. Social selling speaks to extroverts who are looking for somebody to talk to them but also to the introverts who don’t love to talk to a beauty consultant when they’re in a store — so it actually reaches out to a large group of consumers who are interested in beauty.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?

BE STRESS FREE which means have POSITIVE ENERGY and smile, EXERCISE, DRINK A LOT OF WATER, AND USE MAKARI SKINCARE (sorry I had to add that .)

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.

1. MUST DEFINE YOUR BRAND

Makari is the pioneer and authority in melanin rich skincare. Makari developed Swiss formulas that were safe and effective that treated hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone. Our mission was to create products that would work on a wide range of skin tones and needs giving customers access to safe and effective skincare products. We developed our proprietary ingredient Organiclarine — regenerating plant-based power.

2. Customers today want to see the brand values and the people behind the brand in addition to the quality of products.

Makari is a skincare brand that believes in using only the highest quality, naturally derived ingredients. Our customers know our formulas work and are results driven. We are not a typical skincare brand and we have built a strong community and we include our customers in the conversation by posting before & after’s, customer testimonials and have open discussions across our social media. We are an open line of communication to our customer base. We believe beauty is many things, but mostly true acceptance.

3. Create products you believe in and that will make a difference in the lives of your customers.

We create products our customers believe in and that will make a difference in their lives. We take pride in skincare products that work, and customers can see results. We are a brand that the goal is to make a positive difference in the lives our customers live and love when we get emails and reviews saying Makari provided them the results they were looking for.

4. Read a lot and be in the know about what’s going on overall in beauty but of course within the specific space.

We are constantly researching and developing with our team of chemists to stay ahead of this category and develop skincare that are results driven and delivers true results. At Makari we understand that for everyone finding skincare for hyperpigmentation, melasma, acne, dark spots and uneven tone can be a difficult process. Whether you have been searching or just beginning your search, we are the brand you have been scrolling for. We have the technology to assess your skin and prescribe the best Makari products.

5. Build a great team. Take care of your people who will take care of your customers who will help your brand grow.

The Makari culture is defined by our people, we are a family business, and we treat our team like family, which trickles down to our customers. Building and maintaining a strong, happy team is important to Makari. We all love what we do and enjoy working together, celebrating success and sharing the fun process of creating messaging and products that meet the needs of our customers.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

A very honorable man who passed away recently told me something so simple, but I remember until today. A smile is the most freeing and liberating gift that you can give to a good amount of people. It is magnetic. It actually takes more energy to be grumpy than to smile. Everyone in the world whether it’s the billionaire or the homeless goes through challenges at any point in their life. If one knows that challenges are from above and it only happens up to the capability that one can handle, then they can smile and be positive. That positive energy and smile can be exerted to others.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?

If you have a problem that can be cured with money, it’s not a problem.

How can our readers follow you online?

@makaridesuisse

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.