The Trailblazers

Kuwaiti sisters Nora, Sarah and Dana Al-Ramadhan founded Apotheca Beauty in 2013 and have since paved the way in the beauty space in the GCC

- OLIVIA MORRIS

Can you talk us through your career journey?

All three of us have backgrounds in the financial industry. My [Nora’s] background is in Consumer Retail Products, Investment Banking and portfolio analysis. I worked in New York City for two-and-a-half years after receiving a finance degree in Los Angeles. Sarah received her MBA from London Business School and has a background in Mergers and Acquisition, while Dana spent five years at HSBC Corporate. Our professional experiences have provided us with the fundamental analytical and technical skills required to run a business such as ours. Naturally, we each have very different personalities, styles, and different ways of working. However, our common interest and ultimate passion has always been beauty. Having all three grown up in a household of women, it was only natural to share and develop our beauty secrets with each other throughout our lives.

As sisters, what inspired you to go into the beauty business collectively?

We stumbled across distribution through a close connection to an A-list dermatologist in Los Angeles who wished to sell his products in the Middle East. We spent a couple months studying the GCC market, and soon realized that there was a serious gap for premium, niche beauty brands. From then on, our mission has been to supply a curated collection of these high-growth beauty brands to consumers in our region, while offering an unmatched level of support to these young brands we believed to have tremendous potential. We envision ourselves as extensions of the brands we represent in the Middle East and go through great lengths to service both our brand partners and customers.