Plastic-free, clean beauty just got sexy. 

On Wednesday, Aora, a Mexico-born makeup brand founded by L’Oréal veteran Nour Tayara, is entering the United States with its bold plastic-free packaging and clean formulas. Industry sources estimate Aora could reach between $2 million and $5 million in its first year in the U.S., pending retail distribution — the team is currently in conversation with several retailers. For Tayara, the U.S. was a crucial market due to its maturity in the clean and sustainability space and because 32 percent of the population speaks Spanish.

The name Aora comes from the Spanish word ahora, meaning now.

“The change is now in an industry where, I was part of it, all we do is promise that by 2030 we are going to reduce our plastic footprint by 50 percent but you know what? We wanted to do it all now,“ said Tayara, who most recently worked as the senior vice president of marketing for Thayer’s Natural Remedies at L’Oréal.

In addition, Aora is launching a new version of its Acaríciame Solid Lip Serum, $27, infused with five Mexican chiles to celebrate its entrance into the U.S. Ahead of this launch, Aora has teamed with nonprofit RePurpose Global so that for every purchase, the brand will recover nine times its weight in plastic from the ocean.

Tayara launched Aora in Mexico in November 2023 after years of frustration with how much plastic the beauty industry was using, most of which ends up in landfills even when recycled. 

“The makeup industry, in particular, is disturbing when it comes to the amount of trash it is producing,” he said, emphasizing that black packaging especially is typically not recycled. “It’s not because the consumer is not recycling. It’s because, by inception, by design, 95 percent of makeup is designed to not be recyclable. It is too small. No recycling facility will take something less than two-by-two.” 

That being said, he recognized that there were plastic-free offerings on the market, but he still found them unsatisfactory. 

“The first step in going plastic-free is to make sure that we’re not just going plastic-free to go plastic-free. I don’t believe that sustainability sells. I know that’s crazy. We all have read studies for the past 10 years that say that 85 percent of Gen Z will pay more for a sustainable product, but it’s not true,” he said. “People pay more for a better product…. People started eating vegan burgers when Beyond [and] Impossible did it, not when they were dry lentil burgers 10 years ago. We need to make sustainability flavorful. Yes, there are lip glosses that are plastic-free, but those are the ones in cardboard.” 

Therefore he’s taken a fresh approach to plastic-free that feels more similar to the luxury products on the market that do use plastic. Specifically, Aora’s palettes are made 100 percent out of tin from the actual vessel to the mirror, which features a special coating that makes it reflect like a typical mirror. 

“[The palettes] used to be a can of soup, and will be again, because tin is over 87 percent circular,” he said. 

The brand’s Solid Lip Serum product is also made 100 percent out of aluminum down to the mechanism that rotates the bullet, making it fully recyclable. Meanwhile, the brand’s lip liner features a 100 percent wood liner (sealed with an oily wax to protect it) and a 100 percent metal cap, whereas many on the market look like wood but are actually plastic.

Additionally, Tayara wanted to create a clean brand that was infused with fun. 

“I find [clean beauty] a tiny bit boring,” he said. “Why does choosing clean mean letting go of colors or glitter or fun stuff or looks that are not just ‘my skin, but better?’”

Aora’s products use vibrant colors and unexpected finishes unlike many on the market. Plus, the packaging employs vibrant hues of neon orange, hot pink and cobalt blue.

Aside from his passion for sustainability and clean beauty, Tayara wanted to celebrate Mexico through the brand, something he has found lacking across the industry. One way of doing this is by adding Spanish to the packaging, which Tayara claims Aora is the only brand on the market in the U.S. to do so.

“We, unfortunately, are still in a world where premium beauty, luxury beauty, is still very much from the North,” he said. “It’s not just because of representing the South, but there’s so many narratives, there’s so many colors, there’s so many designers, there’s so much art, there’s so much culture that have a place in the beauty industry overall.” 

Over the past year Mexico has become an increasingly popular market with a slew of brands like E.l.f and Estée Lauder Cos. expanding their footprints there. However, more recently a crop of brands created in Mexico are also now targeting the U.S. For Tayara, this move makes perfect sense.

“There’s a zeitgeist happening,“ he said. “In the past four years, there’s been double the amount of flights coming in and out of Mexico… Mexico [is] showing up in the world as a real appreciation for luxury, art, design. At the same time, [it] is a country where the economy is growing, so the market of Mexico as a beauty market is, people are investing here. People are bringing factories here, because Mexico is developing as a country itself, and then there is the Spanish language taking over the world.“

As Aora enters the U.S., Tayara has tapped several cohorts to experience the brand and spread the word, including makeup artists, content creators and the conscious community (particularly when it comes to clean and sustainability). Additionally, Tayara has spoken on podcasts and at events and communicated with relevant nonprofits to further introduce the brand to the market.