UNICOSMETICS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE GEN-Z GLOSS

words by PHOEBE GIBSON-DOUGALL

On any given day, in any given beauty aisle, it can almost feel like we’ve reached peak beauty brand fatigue. There’s such a surplus of products, promises, and hard-to-pronounce ingredients, shopping for the next holy-grail item can feel nothing short of exhausting. Enter Sophia Zweegers. At just 16 years old, the Dutch-Moroccan entrepreneur is the founder behind the Monaco-based brand, UNICOSMETICS, and the driving force behind a refreshing new vision of Gen-Z branding.

image courtesy of UNICOSMETICS

In an industry and culture saturated by looksmaxxing and marketing, Zweegers wants UNICOSMETICS to be different. The term “clean beauty” has become both overused and poorly defined, and Zweegers wants to take the terms back to basics: formulas that respect the skin, textures that let the face remain visible, and pigments that work with rather than against natural tone. With UNICOSMETICS, there’s no manifesto printed on the tubes, no moralising—the message is embedded in the product itself.

At age 10, when most of our playrooms were filled with toys, Sophia Zweegers’ own space was in the process of being transformed into a mini lab. She’d forgone the dolls and dress-ups in favour of formulas and a ferocious sense of discipline. She started mixing, testing, and selling her own glosses at school, and from there, UNICOSMETICS was born. It’s a beauty brand designed by Gen-Z, for everyone.

image courtesy of UNICOSMETICS

The brand’s first launch subverts the usual fanfare of new releases, the first collection contains only four glosses, and Every product is dermatologist-approved, vegan, and EU-safe. At the centre is “Uniquely You”, a pH-reactive lip and cheek oil that adapts to the wearer’s skin, settling between skin’s natural warmth and the formula’s own subtle suggestion of colour. As Zweegers herself says, “it should feel like it belongs to you.”

It’s a far cry from the usual bubblegum pinks associated with adolescence, and is further suggestion of Zweegers’ singular vision. With UNICOSMETICS, there’s no grand mythologising or screams for attention, the product, and the wearer, speak for themselves.

image courtesy of UNICOSMETICS