When Sasha Plavsic founded ILIA, she didn’t just want to disrupt the beauty industry—she wanted to reinvent it. Born from a collision of personal necessity and professional curiosity, ILIA is the love child of cutting-edge science and eco-conscious ambition. Long before “clean beauty” became the buzzword du jour, Plavsic was deep in the lab, reimagining what it meant to create products that looked, felt, and performed as good—or better—than their traditional counterparts.
What sets Plavsic apart is her refusal to compromise. ILIA’s cult-favorite formulas don’t just offer a pretty face; they’re infused with active skincare ingredients, delivering both immediate glam and long-term glow. With a steadfast focus on sustainability and transparency, Plavsic has built ILIA into a global powerhouse, proving that integrity can be as powerful as innovation.
In her interview with GLORY, Plavsic reflects on the lessons learned while building a beauty empire, the challenges of staying ahead in a crowded market, and her unwavering commitment to doing right by both people and planet. If beauty is power, Plavsic is rewriting the rules of engagement—and the future is looking bright.
How do you define beauty for yourself?
Sasha Plavsic: It’s definitely been an evolution. When it comes to experiencing and remembering beauty, a lot of it revolves around my mom. I don’t think that’s an uncommon memory for those who grew up with their mothers. My mom was beautiful—she is beautiful. Little things like her perfectly manicured red nails, her dangling golden bracelets, and the way she casually applied a bit of eyeliner and lip color while pulling her hair into a chic, understated French bun. My friends also remember these details vividly. I also recall being under four feet tall and rummaging through her drawers, and I believe my first application of lipstick was from Clinique.
Yes, it’s interesting how those formative moments around beauty often involve our maternal figures—mothers, grandmothers, etc. Let’s fast-forward to you being a beauty entrepreneur and the owner of a successful brand. What inspired you to embark on this journey of launching ILIA Beauty?
Sasha Plavsic: I’ve always been a seeker with a lot of curiosity. I was seeking to create and design rather than specifically aiming to be an entrepreneur. I had two failed business ideas before ILIA. My background is in design—I worked in branding and even did some work with Urban Decay Cosmetics in the US. Being there inspired me because of the entrepreneurial spirit and the idea of the American Dream, where you can come from anywhere and make something of yourself. This was something I was unknowingly pursuing.
The start of ILIA wasn’t easy. It began when I broke up with my boyfriend of nine years and moved back to Vancouver. After trying out a few different business ideas, like a silk scarf line and a wool sourcing project, I came home in 2009 feeling very deflated. I had just turned 30 and had been traveling the world for 12 years since I was 18. Moving into the studio suite next to my parents’ garage was a humbling moment, but it provided a place to regroup.
During that time, my skin was suffering, and my mom kept telling me to pay attention to the products I was using. This prompted me to look deeper into skincare, which became the foundation for ILIA Beauty.
When you were setting the foundation for your company, did you have a North Star or a specific goal you wanted to accomplish?
Sasha Plavsic: It was a little bit of both. Initially, when I started looking at beauty products, I realized that many marketing claims didn’t align with what was actually happening on the skin. I wanted to debunk that. Complexion is a challenging category because it requires a wide shade range, which can be costly and requires thoughtful execution. Many brands haven’t approached it well, often due to cash constraints and underinvestment in aspects like packaging and display.
I started with lip products because many successful brands do the same. I wanted to create something between a lipstick and a lip balm. I was rebranding Sage Natural Wellness while working on ILIA at night. It took two years to develop the formula, a year to source packaging, and to design the logo. My branding background was a huge help. It felt like a school project—going through the motions to create a final masterpiece and hoping others would like it.
We started with an investment of $25K, which wouldn’t be feasible today, but I wrote down specific goals for the first year, such as how many units to move through and which key boutique retailers to target. A few years ago, I reviewed those goals and found that I had achieved them. Writing down goals creates a conscious connection with your intentions, something I believe in strongly. It’s a form of manifestation and resilience, which is crucial in this industry. There’s a statistic that you’re ten times more likely to hit a goal if you write it down.
Today, how would you summarize your brand into an elevator pitch? What is the core ethos of ILIA Beauty, and how does it differentiate itself in a busy marketplace?
Sasha Plavsic: In just a few words, without it being a marketing slogan, I would say, “Makeup that makes your skin better.” If someone asked me what I do, I’d say, “I make makeup that makes your skin better.” That’s at the core of who we are.
When we launched, our first website was quite basic. My dad encouraged me to include a picture with a quote about wanting to disrupt the beauty industry with innovative, natural formulas that make your skin look and feel alive. At that time, there wasn’t a niche that spoke directly to our demographic.
As a brand, we are known for clean, skin-centric beauty. Our slogan is “Skincare-powered makeup.” Our mission is to create amazing products, many of which have hybrid capabilities. One of our best-sellers is the Super Serum Skin Tint, which combines makeup, SPF, and skincare in one product. It’s considered the original skin tint, launched in 2020. Sephora was initially hesitant to launch it because of its unique texture, but I believed in its benefits for the skin.
The Super Serum Skin Tint includes Lantonin, an anti-inflammatory, FDA-approved ingredient that’s effective for acne, rosacea, and even eczema. Our thoughtful approach and clinical backing set us apart. While many brands are adopting similar strategies today, we were ahead of the curve, building great customer loyalty and trust. Our customers know and trust us more for our products than many competitors. We might not have the razzle-dazzle of some brands, but our simplicity, pragmatism, and straightforwardness have become our cornerstone.
It’s such a noisy world. Simplicity and effectiveness can really help cut through the clutter. Not trying to be everything for everyone allows a brand to stand out in many ways.
Sasha Plavsic: Absolutely. I was flying from New York to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. It’s cruise season, so the plane was filled with people heading to cruises out of Vancouver, one of North America’s biggest cruise ports.
I ended up sitting next to this lovely woman—80 years old but didn’t look a day over 65. She was completely natural, originally from Staten Island, now living in Florida. She told me she was heading on a cruise with her high school friends.
As we chatted, she asked me what I do. I kept it vague, saying I work for a corporation. Eventually, she pressed for more details, so I told her. Her reaction was priceless. “Get out! I have your foundation in my bag!” She leaned forward, pulled it out, and told me her daughter recommended it because of the hyaluronic acid. She said, “It’s the best out there! It fixed my daughter’s skin, and now it’s fixing mine.”
In that moment, it felt like the essence of ILIA: a multigenerational brand truly making a difference in people’s lives. Sitting next to a stranger who had my product in her bag and was selling it back to me—that was full-circle validation. I even gave her a ride to her hotel. Her name was Mary Anne from Stuart, Florida. We recently opened an Ulta there, so I know she’ll be a lifelong customer.
That story is a testament to the personal connection that people have with your brand. The beauty industry is filled with buzzwords like “clean,” “natural,” and “sustainable.” These terms can feel nebulous since there’s no universal definition. How does ILIA define itself in terms of clean or sustainable beauty?
Sasha Plavsic: You’re right—there’s no regulated definition for “clean beauty,” which can make it a problematic term. The opposite of “clean” implies “dirty,” which isn’t fair or accurate. There’s also greenwashing associated with the term.
In Europe, for example, people often equate “clean” with “natural” or “organic,” but that’s not necessarily true. For us, not every natural ingredient is good for the skin, nor is every synthetic ingredient bad. It usually takes a combination of both to create an exceptional product.
I’m a proponent of lab-made ingredients because they’re often more sustainable than harvesting crops. When we used more organic ingredients in the past, it wasn’t sustainable. If a crop failed, we couldn’t get our supply, and scaling up required more and more resources, which taxed agriculture.
Clean beauty can even be entirely synthetic, as long as it’s safe and thoughtfully formulated. For ILIA, we focus on neutralizing and pH-balancing bases and then add active ingredients that have been clinically tested to hydrate, firm, smooth, or reduce fine lines over time. We ensure everything undergoes rigorous clinical trials to meet our standards.
I prefer to think of ILIA as “thoughtful beauty.” Many brands in this space started with a thoughtful approach—being transparent about what’s in the product and building trust with customers, one product at a time.
RELATED: How Connie Lo Bootstrapped Her Beauty Brand, Three Ships, on $4,000
It’s true—synthetics aren’t inherently bad, and natural ingredients aren’t always good. There’s so much fearmongering in the industry, which can be frustrating.
Sasha Plavsic: Exactly. I recently listened to a podcast where someone claimed that even trace amounts of certain ingredients deemed toxic by the EWG are dangerous. That’s not accurate. It’s all about formulation, stability, and compatibility. Preservatives, for example, are essential for safety.
As a larger brand, we have to follow stringent regulations. I trust our formulations because they’re backed by science. It’s important to do your research but also to trust the process and the expertise behind the products.
Speaking of trust and discipline, you’re surrounded by high-performance athletes in your life, like your brother and husband. Has that influenced your approach to business and entrepreneurship?
Sasha Plavsic: Absolutely. We have a product launching in January tailored to active lifestyles and the elements, which has been great to test with athletes. The mindset of an athlete definitely shaped me. My Serbian father, who immigrated to Canada in 1951, was a world-champion water polo player. He lived through World War II and the constraints of communism but always believed in resilience and hard work. He’d tell me, “You can do anything you want, but it takes effort.”
That mentality drives one of our core company values: boundlessness. I want my kids and everyone around me to know they can push boundaries and break ceilings. Canadians are brilliant, and I hope to inspire people here to think big and be progressive.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the full discussion on the Mission Critical podcast.
