New York-based content creator and entrepreneur Zareefa Ahmed used her grief to honor her late mother in the best way possible. Refining her mother’s century-old holistic beauty rituals, Zareefa created Ammu Beauty, a plant-based skincare brand dedicated to preserving natural beauty. Founded in 2021, Zareefa worked for months writing and testing formulas by hand, prioritizing creating products that helped to heal consumers’ skin long-term as opposed to quick fixes.
Through her social media platforms, her rituals have gone viral, deeply resonating with her audience. Her holistic wellness techniques have been used to educate and encourage people that there are natural alternatives to help improve their skin and overall wellness.
Zareefa talked with Her Agenda on misconceptions about holistic beauty rituals, how her mother’s teachings continue to influence her life and motherhood, and the benefits of her family’s rituals.
Her Agenda: How did you use your grief to create something positive?
Zareefa Ahmed: Ammu Beauty was born from grief, but it was built through the intention and channel of that grief. After my mom passed, I found myself really returning to the ritual that she lived by, and not just by what she used, but how she approached care. It was consistent, thoughtful, and deeply rooted in the traditions that she also grew up with. I think that experience really reshaped how I saw beauty entirely. I believe beauty is structured into that expression. It’s where I take everything that I grew up with, I refine it, and I translate it into formulations that are effective and accessible. I don’t do it in an outdated way, but in a more modern way for people to adapt to it in today’s time, and my grief really gave me the foundation for Ammu Beauty. The brand itself is about building something tangible, something that allows women to really experience all of these benefits without needing to piece it together themselves. It’s kind of just like okay, I understand how our body holistically works, and now these are the products that my skin and my body understand.
Her Agenda: What inspired the name behind the brand?
Zareefa Ahmed: Ammu means mom in Bengali. Because it’s all of her recipes and all of her teachings, we just named it after her.
Her Agenda: How has the brand grown from how you first started to now?
Zareefa Ahmed: Something that’s very specific to me is that my personal platform brand grew with the skincare side. Ammu Beauty didn’t start as content. It started as a product division, and over time, it’s grown from individual formulations into a more complete system. We’re not just creating standalone products; we’re thinking about how everything works together to support the skin long term. I think it was about translating what I already knew about the actual products, and now it’s just been refining it and targeting the solutions that still honor where all of the products and formulations came from, but at the same time, meeting the expectations for performance in the modern world. For my personal platform, like the buys and the refill content, it really helps build that awareness and trust. On the beauty side, it has evolved into a brand that stands on its own through our formulation and quality, and the results that our clients are getting.
Her Agenda: In the future, how would you like to expand the brand?
Zareefa Ahmed: The expansion isn’t about adding more products. It’s about deepening that understanding. When you see the ethos of what I’m trying to do, half of it is that knowledge, and the other half is how to actually implement that. A big focus moving forward is growing the educational side through my personal brand and really helping people understand how their skin actually functions. It’s not just what you use, but the why. I think it’s so important how our internal health, inflammation, hormones, and daily habits all show up on our skin. I think Ammu Beauty has now become the extension of that knowledge. The product side is where we take that understanding and really translate it into systems that people can rely on. In terms of tangible expansions, we’re looking beyond facial skin care. There’s body care, hair, and more targeted treatments that are coming down the road. We’re also using that same philosophy where the skin is not just isolated, but everything is connected. The goal is to really build a brand where education and formulation evolve together, so people aren’t just using products. They’re actually understanding products for their skin in a much deeper way.
Her Agenda: What is your earliest memory with your mom and witnessing her in her holistic beauty rituals?
Zareefa Ahmed: She didn’t separate beauty from daily life, and it was the way that she cooked, the way she cared for herself, and the way she cared for us. It was the way that she approached it with consistency and the fact that everything had a purpose, and that perspective really stayed with me as I became a mom. I just grew as a woman. It taught me that effective care doesn’t really have to be complicated at all, but it does have to be intentional.
Her Agenda: On your platform, how has the response been from your audience when you educate them about these rituals?
Zareefa Ahmed: I think the advisory for the content side of things has always been about education and perspective. Through my platform, I’ve been able to show people that beauty isn’t about what you buy, but how you live, your habits, and the consistency and understanding of your body. I’ve also been able to challenge the idea that we always need to outsource our results, that we need something external to fix us. In reality, a lot of transformation comes from what we do daily. That response has been incredibly strong because people feel like they’re learning something and not just being sold something. Many women tell me that it reconnects them to their own roots or reminds them of the rituals that they, too, have grown up with. The beautiful part is that Ammu Beauty exists alongside that education, and it serves a totally different purpose. It’s for the person who truly understands the philosophy, wants to refine it, and has these products in their hands that are ready to use and that they can trust.
Her Agenda: What would you say is a common misconception people may have when it comes to using holistic beauty rituals?
Zareefa Ahmed: I think that in today’s society, so many people are addicted to instant gratification. For example, acne. The only way to truly heal acne is to dry it out, but not understanding that, maybe in three days you could dry out your acne, but it’s also going to leave you with texture issues. It’s going to damage your skin barrier. I think that the most common misconception is that modern science has come around and should be better than something that was thousands of years ago. If we’re looking at beauty in a holistic way, we want to look better in the long run rather than just solve independent problems that our skin is having.
Her Agenda: How has using your mom’s beauty rituals impacted your own life?
Zareefa Ahmed: I mean, it shapes everything about how I approach care at every level. I don’t see beauty as a separate thing from my lifestyle. It’s connected to how I eat, how I manage stress, and how consistent I am with habits. Those rituals taught me that results come from alignment and not intensity, basically what I just mentioned. You don’t need extreme measures if you are consistently caring for yourself in small, meaningful ways. I think a lot of people think oh, I have to do this drastic change, but it’s these small moments of change that really impact you. It also gave me discernment. I’m not easily pulled by trends because I understand that real results come from repetition. It comes from intention and really understanding your body. I have a deep personal understanding of my own body.
Her Agenda: What benefits have you seen from using beauty rituals?
Zareefa Ahmed: I think rituals create a foundation. A lot of modern beauty focuses on quick fixes and outsourcing results, but rituals really do build consistency. They make you more aware of your body and more engaged in your own care, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use advanced formulations. Without that foundation, results are often temporary. I’ve seen improvements in my skin, but also in my nervous system, my stress levels, and overall sense of balance. It’s just not about looking better. It’s about feeling more regulated, more present, and more connected to yourself.
Her Agenda: What lessons have you learned from your mother that you applied to your own journey with motherhood?
Zareefa Ahmed: [My mother] taught me that care is something you practice daily; it’s not something that is for special occasions, it’s not about the big moments, it’s about consistency, presence, and how I live every day. It really does shape how I feel. As a mother, I think a lot about what my children are observing, and not just about what I say, but how I live, how I take care of myself, how I regulate, how I show up. I also learned that nurturing is powerful, softness is power, creating a sense of safety, comfort, and intention in everyday life. It just stays with my children, and I hope it stays with my children far longer than anything else. In many ways, it’s the same philosophy applied to Ammu Beauty. The same thing that I apply to motherhood. It’s all about being present every single day. You’re going to see that these little habits are what truly will shapeshift you.
[Editor’s note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
