The rise and reign of India’s beauty baroness Shahnaz Husain

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Beauty baroness Shahnaz Husain, who turned 80 last month, was one of India’s OG influencers long before the term was coined. As the pioneer of organic green beauty in the country, she brought with her great business acumen, unabashed in-your-face marketing chutzpah, and a prescient sense of future trends.

In her, the India of the 1970s and 80s found its combination of Anita Roddick and Coco Chanel. Such was the power of her marketing that thousands of young women wanted a totemic vial of cream vial from Shahnaz Husain, her eponymous brand. Naming it after herself, as though she were already a celebrity, was a mark of her self worth.

Starting in 1971, she invited Indian women to enter the hallowed portals of haute couture and international cosmetics with a promise of exotic transformation. Everyone flocked to her, including Hollywood stars, British royalty, and even Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The nation was mesmerised by her personality, which she was smart enough to encash and promote, as well as her differently packaged salves and creams.

Husain was born into a powerful and illustrious Deccani family. Indira Gandhi was a family friend and Motilal Nehru stayed at her grandfather Samiullah Beg’s home when he visited Hyderabad. Her father Nasir Ullah Beg was chief justice of Allahabad High Court and her uncle Mirza Hameedullah Beg was chief justice of the Supreme Court.

But young Shahnaz had different plans for herself. Supremely confident and with a nod and wave to feminism, she thought nothing of setting up a business after getting married and becoming a mother at 16. At 27 she launched her business with a tiny clinic in Delhi, set up with ₹35,000 borrowed from her father.