From the moment I first held a Kosas product, I sensed that there was a soulful undertone running through the brand. Kosas Cosmetics, founded in 2015 by heart-centred Sheena Yaitanes, is a beauty brand that merges the benefits of skincare with the aesthetic appeal of makeup. My intuition lit up when I saw its packaging, coming in a constellation of colours, like sunny yellows, light jewel-toned purples, and balanced blues. As someone who believes deeply in the connection between beauty and spirit, I wasn’t surprised to find out that Sheena drew inspiration from the energy of the chakras and infused its emotional language into the cosmic blueprint of her brand.
Chakras 101
We have seven main chakras within us, and they work as an inner alignment system. If you’re not familiar with these energy bodies, they’re sort of like the major exits on Sheikh Zayed Road. When traffic is flowing, we cruise down the highway, moving smoothly. If any exit is blocked, the journey can slow down, get congested, and potentially be draining.
Beauty with guiding frequencies
With inner alignment and self-expression as core values of Kosas, each product family draws inspiration from the chakra that best reflects its current. For example, the purple of the third eye chakra, the home of intuition, insight, and clarity, inspired the packaging for all eye products, such as Soulgazer Mascara. The lengthening and lash-boosting peptide serum mascara formula is aesthetically and spiritually designed to open up the eyes and enhance definition.
Similarly, yellow, the colour of the Solar Plexus chakra and our personal power centres, is the shade behind the packaging of Kosas’ complexion products. As the Revealer Concealer is applied, it feels poetic as the product meant to brighten your face and conceal dark circles is inspired by the chakra that illuminates your inner fire. Sheena designed it from the essence of empowerment, not perfection.
If there is one chakra that guides the overall look and feel of Kosas, it would be, according to Sheena, the heart chakra. Representing comfort, love, and coming back to yourself, this compassionate frequency imprints on every line in Kosas.
The return of intention
Sheena describes her creative process as emotional first, technical second. The first question she asks herself, before the formula matrices and packaging mock-ups, is the question, “How should this product make someone feel?” The intuitive answer she receives becomes the energetic anchor for her creative process that follows. It seems that Sheena designs the aura before she designs the makeup.
Beauty of alignment
In discovering this brand, I found a few things to be certain. Sheena understands that energy is real, colour carries emotion, and beauty is a quiet way to subtly reconnect with who we are, in the physical, spiritual, and emotional layers. I believe that the mood and energy we get ready with in the morning is what we take with us throughout the day. Kosas feels like a brand that understands this innately. With Kosas, beauty is alignment and a tiny ritual that brings you back to yourself.