How Tara Fela-Durotoye Broke Grounds in Nigeria’s Beauty Industry

The story of Africa’s fashion industry in this millennial era will hardly be told completely without the mention of major players like Tara Fela-Durotoye. She is not only the founder and current CEO of House of Tara International, but also the creator of the Tara Orekelewa Beauty range, Inspired Perfume and the H.I.P Beauty range. Today, she has become a highly respected mentor for make-up artists and small business owners in the fashion industry across Nigeria.

Tara is one of the pioneers in the Bridal makeup profession in Nigeria, and was also the first to launch a bridal directory in Nigeria in 1999.

Her Early Interest in Fashion

Her interest in fashion started quite early while she was being raised by her father and step-mom after her parents separated when she was just 8 months old. Her Togolese step-mom was a quite fashionable woman by any standards, and Tara picked interest in makeup just from watching her. Much later, she lived with yet another step-mother who was Nigerian. Tara later described her as a beautiful and fantastic woman.

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“She was a fantastic woman, very fashionable, so when you looked at her dressing table she had make-up products, she would paint her face in the morning, she never missed her hairdressing appointment, her nail polish was always perfect. I grew up seeing her adorn herself and I liked looking at her through all that process. I didn’t know that a seed was being sown in my heart,” she said during an earlier interview.

Despite not growing with her biological mother, Tara remembers that her mother was very industrious and good at nurturing relationships. She also picked up a few things from her mother during their encounters.

How she Got interested in Entrepreneurship

Tara experienced her first sparks of entrepreneurship when a businessman came to her school to address students about entrepreneurship…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the rest of this interview on page 12 of our latest magazine edition- 15 Entrepreneurs Disrupting Africa’s Fashion and Beauty Industry. Click here to read now.