Shakira has officially entered the beauty arena with the launch of her hair-care brand, isima, created for hair like hers “with complex needs” — i.e. porous, heat damaged, and overprocessed.
The Grammy-winning, Colombian-born superstar says the eight-product collection comes after three years of development and is rooted in “a love-hate relationship with my hair.”
“I love it. I need it,” Shakira says of her naturally curly, thick mane. “But sometimes, it makes me suffer so much. It’s made me shed so many tears.”
Having experimented with every color and texture throughout her career — from dark brunette to platinum blonde, from tight curls to silky straight and everything in between — the singer says she knows all about the need for solutions that go beyond one-size-fits-all approaches.
Her brand celebrates “the rich hair diversity of the Latin community.” The name “-isima” comes from the Spanish feminine suffix signifying “extra” or “maximum,” and is “inspired by those who demand more.”
The nod to its cultural roots is evident in the brand’s marketing and in its products, with names such as Súperbomba and Riquísima.
Isima debuted this week exclusively at Ulta Beauty. Among its points of difference, the brand says, is its “TriModal Method” of targeting three critical levels of hair structure: the scalp, cortex, and cuticle.
The brand turned to Latin American-sourced botanicals as hero bioactive ingredients, including maca root extract from Peru, sugar cane from Brazil, and Mexican aloe.
They're combined "with advanced technologies like Nonapeptide-3, GluconaBond and FiberSeal," the brand says, creating "high-performance formulas that blend heritage, innovation, and sustainability at their core."
Each formula underwent blind testing over a minimum of four weeks, with one patent-pending formula subjected to a six-month clinical trial.
Isima appears on Ulta’s Conscious Beauty online shopping platform, as the brand meets all five of its requirements: vegan, cruelty-free, sustainable packaging, clean ingredients, and initiatives that give back. The collection is Leaping Bunny and The Vegan Society certified.