Fate brought the Fempower Beauty co-founders together.
With their fathers from the tiny island of Crete, and their mothers from the tri-state area, Alexis Androulakis and Christina Basias lived parallel lives, yet never crossed paths.
Androulakis grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, beginning work as a makeup artist for NARS Cosmetics at 19 years old. It was there where she grew accustomed to the complicated relationship between beauty and self-esteem. “Every single person that walked up to the counter would always look in the mirror and say something negative about themselves,” she says. “If I didn’t have a complex while I was at that job, I certainly walked away with one.”
While constant talk of insecurities was anything but pleasant for the budding makeup artist, it made her realize that she wanted to put an end to it.
Meanwhile, Basias was 30 miles away in Brooklyn, New York. Born into a family of educators, she always knew that education was her calling. So much so, she set out to obtain both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Brooklyn College, her Ph.D. in Urban Education from the CUNY Graduate Center, and even took a stab at the LSAT. “I was so nervous that I had to cancel my score,” she admits.
Androulakis decided to pursue higher education as well, moving to Manhattan to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007. After graduating four years later, she launched her career in the world of corporate beauty. Working primarily in product development, she quickly learned how deeply flawed the industry was and knew she wanted to change it. But how?
In 2014, Alexis Androulakis found her solution. And her solution was Christina Basias. However, it wasn’t fate that brought them together; it was Tinder.
Fated or not, Androulakis and Basias are now “partners in business and in life,” running a beauty empire while engaged to be married in Greece this summer. Fempower Beauty is their “metaphorical baby,” designed to affirm and uplift women and femme-identifying individuals through lipstick and mental health advocacy.
In a conversation via Zoom—which has been edited for length and clarity—the couple and co-founders talk first dates, beauty application techniques, intersectionality, and more.
HT: Fempower Beauty is distinctive in that it takes the one product that so many women and femmes interact with daily—lipstick—and transforms it into something deeper. Where did this idea come from and how did you make it a reality?
CB: On our first date, she was talking about starting a beauty brand. She pitched me an idea, and I was like, “I don’t know…”
AA: But give some backstory!
CB: Well, I am!
AA: You can tell we’re in a relationship, right?
CB: So, she pitched me an idea and I was like, “I think you can go deeper than that.”
AA: I was pitching to Christina because I wanted her to know that she was getting involved with someone who was going to own their own business one day.
CB: I was intrigued. I had never really met anyone who was so entrepreneurial…it made me question and reflect on what I wanted to do with my future. And here we are, eight years later in a relationship, and four years later with this business.
We took the leap to start a beauty brand in 2017 when the Women’s March happened. We saw the collective power of all these women and femme identifying humans coming together and banning against what they felt was real injustice. So, we took that and said, “What if we can gather this collective, divine feminine energy?”
And when we really started to think about it, I was like, “Yes, this is the depth that the beauty industry needs; this is the depth that the beauty industry doesn’t have.”
To summarize your question, Alexis is the beauty person; I’m the educator. We put them both together and made our first metaphorical baby with Fempower.
HT: You teach an “Affirmation Application” practice on Zoom, which is described as “a daily makeup routine designed by makeup artists and mental health experts to recondition [the] mind, body, and soul to maximize self-love. [The] holistic approach combines scientific learnings around the way you think, see, touch, and love yourself.” Can you talk more about that?
AA: Imagine that I became this giant sponge that went around and researched a ton of different arenas of mindfulness, took the best bits of each of those arenas, and parlayed them into a beauty experience called the “Affirmation Application.”
There are examples of tapping [also referred to as emotional freedom technique or psychological acupressure], which is scientifically-proven to decrease cortisol. There are examples of breath work taken from James Nestor’s book. There are facets from Kristin Neff, a PhD based in Texas, who runs a center for self-compassion, and educates a lot around the psychological effects of literally looking at yourself in the mirror, holding your face, and saying something kind. [There is] a variety of research and a lot of “trialing” and “erroring” with real people.
Last year, Christina and I did a 100 human’s challenge. We piloted these practices in different ways: in a group setting, I did about 30 individual one-on-one sessions, and then we hosted a few workshops/webinars. What you’re getting is mindfulness modalities, beauty application techniques, and affirming messaging.
What does that look like? Basically, if we were doing your eyeliner, your eyeliner is there so that you can deflect negativity. So, every time you’re putting your eyeliner on, you can think about deflecting negativity.
CB: It’s putting on your makeup with intention and affirming yourself throughout the process.
AA: When I’m bronzing, I’m teaching my technique on bronzer, but I’m also affirming that I’m building my boundaries. It’s super fun. The idea is to remove all those negative self-thoughts and self-talk.
HT: What has been the response to the Affirmation Application practice?
AA: A lot of people want more. They want more modalities; they want more research. They want the scientific explanation as to why they should be playing the piano when they’re putting their under-eye cream on!
CB: People don’t know that they need it. That’s the challenge we face. Because once people go through it, it’s overwhelmingly positive. But getting them there can sometimes be challenging, so now we’re focusing on the awareness around it.
HT: What sets Fempower Beauty apart from other beauty brands?
CB: We were born with intention. We’re not just saying we’re about self-love. I think a lot of times, that ends up being a campaign for other beauty brands, and it seems very performative. We’re not performative. This is who we are.
When Pride rolls around, Alexis and I are always sensitive to this because it seems like every makeup brand is suddenly the most LGBT-inclusive. But is there even a queer person at the helm of that company or is it just a marketing campaign?
Alexis and I, we’re queer founders, we’re women, we have a trans human on our team. We’re inclusive from the inside out.
HT: What are your thoughts on the current state of the beauty industry?
AA: There is no brand, in the binary or not, that is using and leveraging a new age makeup service.
CB: Yeah, we are the only ones who are doing this.
AA: But that also makes it hard because nobody understands what it is.
CB: I think there is a shift to people wanting more authenticity. I don’t see enough brands trying to do that. It just seems like putting on a show.
AA: The reality of being a beauty brand in 2022 is wild. What it takes to run this from a business standpoint, while simultaneously being interested in these changes is damn near impossible.
HT: What do you think the relationship is between makeup and identity?
CB: That’s a very loaded question!
AA: Yes, it’s very loaded!
CB: There’s a whole debate within feminist communities about whether there is room for beauty or makeup in intersectional feminism. Do we dismiss our womanhood or our femininity by putting on makeup?
AA: Are we doing that for men? Is that patriarchal? Is that a control mechanism?
CB: Exactly, exactly. But we can use makeup to empower ourselves; we don’t have to wear it for anybody.
HT: How have the intersections of gender and sexuality shaped your experiences as business owners?
CB: Two femme women in a relationship is something that is hard for a lot of people to wrap their heads around. Two femme women who own a beauty brand and are in a relationship takes it to the next level. When people find out about us—they’re obsessed. They love the mission, they love the brand, they love that we’re two femme, queer women.
But with social media, you’re putting yourself out there, so there’s also the hate that we receive. Fempower can’t be for everybody if you’re homophobic. That’s just a fact!
AA: There have been times when people have suggested that we hide our relationship. Especially when it comes to fundraising.
CB: When we had the idea for the brand and were working with a consultant, they were like, “I’m not sure you should talk about your relationship.”
AA: “You don’t want to be polarizing to the straight people who might want to buy your gay beauty products.”
But it’s the perfect time to exist in the context that we do. Because if we can be that beacon, that little beam of light for people on their journey to their identities and their sexualities, that really is the ultimate goal.