Sasha Plavsic does not speak about beauty like someone who admired it from a distance. She speaks like someone who spent years feeling her skin constantly reacting against many of the things the industry insisted on calling care. That difference completely changes the tone of the conversation.

While many founders talk about innovation, trends, or growth, Sasha keeps returning to something far more intimate: the physical experience of living inside sensitive skin. The irritation. The breakouts. The feeling of trying products hoping for relief and ending up with the exact opposite.

When she recalls the origin of ILIA, she does not begin with business. She talks about returning to Vancouver after turning 30; feeling lost; and a conversation with her mother deeply interested in healthy living that completely shifted the way she understood the products she used every day. “What I discovered shocked me. Many of the ingredients in my makeup weren’t as safe as I had believed”, she says.

For someone who had spent much of her life dealing with acne and sensitivity, discovering that many products seemed to cause more reaction than benefit completely altered her relationship with beauty. “It was a lightbulb moment to discover that many of the products and ingredients were causing more of a reaction than a benefit”, she explains.

That is where ILIA was born. Not from the desire to build an aspirational brand. Not from the need to follow an industry trend. It came from a woman trying to understand why so many products seemed to demand too much from the skin before offering anything back.

ILIA’s story never truly began inside a laboratory; it began inside a fractured relationship between skin and beauty.

Author: Claudia Valdez

Sensitivity Can Also Build a Brand

There is something particularly interesting about the way Sasha occupies space. Even when speaking about beauty, she never seems drawn to excess. That is precisely why ILIA ended up building such a quiet visual identity inside an industry historically obsessed with saturation.

Before creating the brand, she studied Typography Design and worked in branding. That visual sensitivity clearly runs through the entire universe of ILIA; from the packaging to the almost architectural way the brand presents itself.

Even the name of the brand comes from somewhere deeply personal. Sasha borrowed it from her family history; a quiet gesture that also reflects the way ILIA itself was built: through memory, sensitivity, and lived experience. When the conversation shifts toward product, the tone changes completely: it becomes more personal, more human.

The way she speaks about formulation does not feel technical; it feels experiential. As if part of her is still trying to understand why certain ingredients seemed to constantly disrupt the condition of her skin.

Even today, she describes herself as extremely conscious of ingredients that can trigger irritation or breakouts. That ongoing relationship with sensitivity runs through the entire philosophy behind ILIA.

The brand never felt built solely through marketing, it felt built through experience. That is also where one of the reasons ILIA connected so deeply with thousands of people lives. What began as a personal experience eventually became a quiet tool for those who spent years feeling that makeup and sensitivity could not coexist.

More than selling products, Sasha built something that helped thousands of people feel more comfortable inside their own skin: calmer, safer and more understood by the products they used every day.

“Thoughtful Beauty”

Throughout our conversation, Sasha consistently avoids absolutes. That becomes particularly interesting inside an industry that spent years building entire narratives around fear, purity, and polarization. “Not every natural ingredient is good for the skin, nor is every synthetic bad.”

She does not say it provocatively, she says it like someone who spent years observing how skin actually reacts: “Our approach was simply to formulate with intention; choosing ingredients based on safety, efficacy, and harmony.”

The word that appears most often during our conversation is not “clean.” It is thoughtful.

Thoughtful ingredients, formulas, and decisions. That idea ultimately defines ILIA far better than any industry category ever could. Because underneath everything, the entire brand seems built around an intensely human obsession: creating makeup that does not force the skin to constantly defend itself from it.

“Creating Makeup That Makes Your Skin Better”

There is one phrase Sasha repeats several times throughout our conversation, and it ultimately functions as the complete backbone of ILIA: “I think I would always approach creating ILIA the same, a brand that creates makeup that makes your skin better.”

That clarity also explains how the brand managed to expand across markets as different as the United States, Europe, and Mexico without losing coherence in the process. Even while beauty conversations shift across cultures and generations, ILIA’s central vision remains intact: creating products that coexist with the skin rather than constantly demanding tolerance from it.

That philosophy becomes especially clear through Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40, the product Sasha considers the clearest representation of the brand. “Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 is quintessential ILIA”, she explains.

Long before the market became saturated with skin tints and hybrid formulas, ILIA already seemed to understand that newer generations did not necessarily want to look covered by makeup. They wanted to look closer to themselves.

The formula combines skincare, makeup, and mineral SPF; clinically hydrates, helps reduce redness and inflammation, and was specifically designed with sensitive skin in mind. It does not try to completely transform the face: It accompanies it. That difference completely changes the way the brand is understood.

Beauty After the Noise

Today, the beauty industry seems trapped inside a constant need for speed. New launches appear daily; ingredients go viral for weeks before disappearing almost as quickly. Everything feels designed to compete for immediate attention.

But when I ask Sasha what makes a product remain relevant amid all that noise, her answer feels surprisingly simple: “What we always focus on is product quality and performance; creating products that our customers love using again and again.”

Her answer does not revolve around virality, algorithms, or fleeting trends. It revolves around trust, repetition and products people genuinely want to return to. Even when speaking about the products she personally uses, the conversation returns once again to the same idea: formulas that coexist gently with the body.

When I ask which product still accompanies her daily, she immediately answers: Limitless Lash Mascara. “As someone with sensitive eyes, it was essential to create a formula that wore gently on the eyes and washed off easily at the end of the day.”

The answer feels small, yet it explains so much about the way she thinks about product.

Even while speaking about mascara, Sasha continues talking about comfort. About sensitivity. About formulas that do not force the body to constantly defend itself against them.

And that clarity explains why ILIA achieved something very few brands manage after so many years: remaining contemporary without losing coherence.

Because even while the global beauty conversation continues to constantly evolve, Sasha Plavsic’s central vision remains deeply human.