Tara Fela-Durotoye opened Nigeria’s first makeup school. House of Tara now spans stores, schools and thousands of representatives.
A Lagos lawyer who chose beauty, Tara Fela-Durotoye pioneered bridal makeup in Nigeria and built House of Tara into a brand with its own stores and schools.
Tara Fela-Durotoye was born in Lagos in 1977 and studied law at Lagos State University. Then she did what her degree did not point to: she became a makeup artist, and she turned that choice into a profession.
She is a pioneer of bridal makeup in Nigeria. In 1999 she launched the first bridal directory, then set up international-standard makeup studios and the first makeup school in the country.
House of Tara
She is founder and CEO of House of Tara International, the maker of the Tara Orekelewa Beauty range, Inspired Perfume and the H.I.P Beauty range. As of 2019 the brand had 270 products, 23 stores, 14 beauty schools and 10,000 representatives across Africa.
Forbes listed her among Africa’s 20 Young Power Women in 2013 and Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women in 2020. She is an alumna of Lagos Business School and has completed programmes at INSEAD, Yale, Stanford and the Harvard Kennedy School.
The detail to take away: a trained lawyer can build a beauty brand, and a service business, bridal makeup, can grow into schools, stores and products.
