500 Startups-funded app wants to stop you from buying beauty products you don’t need

Favful founder Sasha Tan.

Shopping for beauty products should help you de-stress – but often it does the opposite. That’s because when you visit, say, a makeup store, you’re overwhelmed by the myriad of options in front of you and you end up buying stuff you won’t even use. If you’re lucky, a salesperson comes to you with some advice, but how can you be sure it’s not an upsell?

Favful offers price comparisons and ratings for beauty products based on skin type, and features reviews from users to make the shopping experience less overwhelming. It also has beauty tips and easy barcode scanning, which allows people to view comprehensive information on the products.

Most women use only 10 percent of the beauty products they buy.

Backed by Segnel and 500 Startups even before it launched this year, the Kuala Lumpur-based startup essentially gets rid of the need for countless open tabs on your computer because you have all the beauty advice you need in one go.

“Women waste an average of 5,846 beauty products in their lifetime, and the majority use only 10 percent of the beauty products they buy due to insufficient information that doesn’t cater to the individual’s conditions. Clearly there is still a gap in the beauty industry regarding the delivery of information,” says Favful’s 25-year-old founder Sasha Tan. “That’s why at Favful we are passionate about pairing beauty needs with the convenience of accessible technology, not just to help beauty brands reach the right customers, but more importantly to empower consumers in making the right decisions.”

A different ball game

Favful was born out of Sasha’s own frustrations.

“I remember I was going through puberty and all excited about the beauty world out there, so I constantly changed my beauty products and brands. I ended up with worse skin and had to resort to drastic injections and laser treatments. Over 10 years, I’ve spent a ton of money to find out the skincare products that actually worked on me. I thought there must be a better way for us to obtain information easily.”

Throwback: Sasha during her puberty years versus a recent photo.

But the company isn’t Sasha’s first dive into entrepreneurship. In 2012 and at the age of 21, Sasha started her own dessert shop called Stoone in Singapore.

Favful isn’t Sasha’s first dive into entrepreneurship.

She also had the experience of helping build two multimillion-dollar tech companies – HappyFresh and Booster – where she was the first employee.

While her stint in those startups prepared her for Favful, Sasha says the beauty industry is a totally different ball game.

Market well-targeted