Why it is on record
Founded by Tara Fela-Durotoye (b. 1977, Lagos) at the age of 21 as a bridal make-up service operating from her university apartment. Pioneered the Nigerian professional bridal make-up industry, opened the first Beauty Studio chain in Nigeria, founded the Tara Orekelewa Foundation, and built a nationwide network of accredited make-up artists and franchisees. Tara is widely cited as Nigeria's first home-grown beauty entrepreneur to build a national consumer brand on the back of indigenous skin-tone formulations.
Record held
First indigenous Nigerian cosmetics brand with nationwide retail distribution and the first Nigerian beauty academy at scale. Confirmed Company of Record.
Deep dive
House of Tara International is the first Nigerian beauty brand of national scale, founded in 1998 by Tara Fela-Durotoye. From a single home-based makeup-artistry practice, the company built a network of beauty academies, a national distribution footprint, and the first locally manufactured colour-cosmetics line tailored to Nigerian skin tones.
House of Tara is the institutional anchor of the indigenous Nigerian beauty industry and the model for the second generation of indigenous cosmetics brands (Zaron, Orikí, Suzy Beauty). It is one of the few Nigerian indigenous consumer brands founded and continuously led by a woman of national prominence.