Maureen saw what others overlooked in the beauty industry: dark-skinned women who looked like her. She saw women struggling to find products tailored to their needs.
Before founding Bandari Beauty and Luna Medical Spa, Maureen was a pharmaceutical sales representative who had a double life online. By day, she sold medicine; by night, she blogged, shooting videos that reviewed makeup.
“Most of my audience were dark-skinned women, and at the time, makeup brands were not catering to us. When I found the products that worked, everyone was asking about what I was using and how they would get them.”
With no business plan and no investors, she began importing skincare for her personal use and for people who requested it. Soon the demand was overwhelming.
"Unlike a stomach ache that forces you to act, skin problems are easy to ignore. I wanted to change that by making professional help accessible much earlier, and provide it in beauty stores"
“There is a huge gap in personalised skincare. Many brands aren’t investing in education or diagnostics. They are missing the chance to help customers understand their skin before pushing a solution. Also, tech is underutilised, from the AI-driven consultations to data-backed product recommendations. Beauty isn’t just about looking good, it’s about feeling understood.”
Seven years on, she has built Bandari Beauty to what it is today. She introduced AI-powered skin consultations before they were trendy, built a model for dermatologists to collaborate with beauty stores, and pushed for clinical-standard consultations in retail stores.
“In skincare, the biggest problem is delayed intervention. Unlike a stomach ache that forces you to act, skin problems are easy to ignore. I wanted to change that by making professional help accessible much earlier, and provide it in beauty stores. We also created a model where dermatologists collaborate with beauty professionals so clients don’t have to wait until things get worse.”
She pushed her business on social media at a time when influencer marketing wasn’t a big deal.
“Everyone else was struggling with social media when we started, but because I was a blogger, I already understood how to create videos, how to connect with an audience, and how to turn a post into a conversation.”
Maureen doesn’t shy away from the harder truths that come with building a business from scratch. “One of the biggest challenges was being taken seriously. At the beginning, people saw me as just another girl selling beauty products online. They didn’t understand the vision or the structure behind it.”
She also had to unlearn traditional career conditioning; coming from a pharmaceutical background and raised by an academic father, the idea of leaving formal employment felt risky. “There were days I questioned myself. But I always reminded myself—just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.”
-Marion Sitawa