Camila Coelho Talks Self-Acceptance, Her New Beauty Brand And The True Meaning Behind Elaluz
This Brazilian model, influencer, and entrepreneur tells Bazaar that launching her own line of products is a “dream come true”
With 8.8 million followers on Instagram and combined following of 4.7 million subscribers on her two YouTube channel, Camila Coelho is one of the most well-known social media influencers of our time.
The Brazilian global entrepreneur and social media sensation recently unveiled her own beauty line, Elaluz by Camila Coelho, one of her “biggest professional dream” finally coming true. “It’s been on my mind for a long time. This isn’t something I decided to spontaneously do in the past few years,” Camila says, speaking with Harper’s Bazaar Arabia.
From sustainable packaging to clean ingredients, sourced right from Brazil, she shares exactly how it all came together, the story behind her brand’s name and her plans for the future of Elaluz here.
Harper’s Bazaar Arabia (HBA): Why did you decide to launch Elaluz now?
Camila Coelho (CC): I’ve always loved beauty, ever since I was a little girl. Growing up, I have countless memories of myself playing with makeup when I was around four or five-years-old. When I was six, I asked my grandmother if I could wear her red lipstick for my passport photo. I actually still have that photo.
Throughout the years, when I was in my teens, I started working at a make-up counter in a department store with Christian Dior. I saw the power of beauty and how it was empowering, and I knew that I could become a makeup artist and help in transforming people in a very positive way, in bringing their beauty from the inside out. That’s when I found YouTube and social media, and started to put my content out there as a beauty blogger.
At the time it was super new and I didn’t know that this could become my job. It started out really organically and, in past few years, I’ve had a successful career on social media by being able to work with all these brands – but my biggest dream has always been to create my own beauty line; it’s been on my mind for a long time. This isn’t something I decided to spontaneously do in the past few years.
Throughout the past three years I’ve been involved in everything, from the packaging to the formulation. I’m always 100% involved with anything I do and as this is my brand I wanted to make sure it was exactly how I imagined it to be. This is my biggest professional dream coming true.
HBA: Can you explain the meaning behind the name of your new beauty line and why you decided to call it Elaluz?
CC: Elaluz means ‘She’s light’ in Portuguese. When I first decided to launch the beauty line, I immediately thought “What am I going to call it?” I thought about using my own name, but the concept of light has played such a huge role in my life.
Every individual person has a light shining inside of them. No matter where you come from, we all have this beautiful light and sometimes, depending on what you’re going through in life, you block that light. It happened to me when I was a teenager. I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was nine years old and, in my teens, I went through a period of time where I had a hard time accepting myself; I let my life shutdown by being negative instead of positive. Once I accepted myself, my life changed so much after.
Everyone faces challenges, no one is perfect; you just have to accept them, know who you are as an individual, and that’s how you find your inner light.
I really wanted my beauty brand to represent what I want to project as an individual: an person with warmth and confidence, that comes from an internal light; I’m really happy we were able to call the line Elaluz.
Image courtesy of Raul Romo
HBA: Why did you decide to launch Elaluz with the 24K Lip Therapy and Lip and Cheek Stain?
CC: Elaluz is all about the essentials and I wanted to launch the line with a few essential lip products, the kinds of products that I buy or rebuy over and over again. I’ve always been a ‘lip’ girl. I can leave the house without makeup on, but I’ll always have something on my lips. It’s about the essentials when it comes to beauty, A lip and cheek stain is like the plain white t-shirt of makeup; it’s a product that looks good by itself, but you can also build it up and pair it with other products if you’re going for a more full-on look.
We’ll be launching other products throughout the year, not just beauty and makeup, but also skincare and hair – which is very exciting.
HBA: Sustainability plays an important role as one of Elaluz’s key values. What actions has the brand taken to ensure it’s as sustainable and environmentally friendly as it can possibly be?
CC: This was super important to me. I knew right from the start I wanted sustainable packaging for our products and our ingredients to be clean, but I also knew it was going to be a challenge.
Most of Elaluz’ packaging is recyclable or made from reusable materials. I wanted the packaging to look as luxurious as possible, while also being sustainable; we had to work a lot on it, but I’m happy we made it happen. When it came to the ingredients there was a ton of back-and-forth on it as I wanted the formulation to be clean, high-quality and long-lasting. We’re also using a lot of Brazilian ingredients within the products, ingredients derived from fruit and nuts, which was a big priority for me as I come from Brazil.
It’s definitely a challenge, but it was very important to me that Elaluz be a sustainable brand.
HBA: So many digital entrepreneurs that are looking to move into the beauty industry or already have, within the past few years. What sets Elaluz apart from all the other beauty brands out there?
CC: Beauty is a part of my background and this has been a dream of mine for so many years. What sets us apart from other brands is that we’re a lifestyle brand. We’re not launching a full-on line of products at once, we’re launching with just two hero products that are everyday essentials, made up of clean and sustainable ingredients and formulas. We’ll also have different categories as well.
But one thing that really makes Elaluz different from the other brands is the fact that I’m involved in 100% of everything.
For more information on Elaluz by Camila Coelho visit elaluz.com
Lead image courtesy of Raul Romo
