Vanita Parti MBE | Blink Brow Bar

Women to Watch | Beauty Founders

Vanita Parti MBE: The Founder Who Made Brows a Beauty Essential

“Our purpose is shaping confidence and empowering women, one brow at a time.” – Vanita Parti MBE

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Some founders create successful businesses. Others change an entire industry.

When Vanita Parti MBE introduced Blink Brow Bar over two decades ago, eyebrows were often treated as an afterthought within the beauty world. Today, they’re considered one of the most important parts of a beauty routine, with threading now recognised as a highly skilled profession and brow care becoming a global category in its own right.

From launching the UK’s first dedicated brow bar to building an internationally recognised brand stocked across major retailers, Vanita has remained committed to empowering women through confidence, exceptional service and innovation. Alongside her entrepreneurial success, she has championed female empowerment, celebrated South Asian expertise and helped elevate threading into the respected craft it is today.

As part of Darling Magazine’s Women To Watch: Beauty Founders series, we spoke to Vanita about the journey behind Blink Brow Bar, the importance of purpose-led business, and why she believes beauty should always celebrate what makes us unique.

We sat down with Vanita to talk about entrepreneurship, confidence, beauty and building a global brand.

The Founder

1. Tell us about yourself. Who are you outside of your business?

I am a mother of three quite grown-up children so finally have more time on my hands. I take the time to live a full London life, to meet interesting people and visiting galleries and theatres. One can never get bored in this City. I am also coming to the end of a master’s in creative writing which I study in the evenings and now thinking, what next?

2. When did you first realise beauty was going to become part of your career?

I knew I too would start a business one day but never guessed it might be in beauty. My father was in fashion, so I have always loved clothes. Looking back, perhaps my career was set in stone, when I had my eyebrows shaped for the first time, at the age of thirteen. It was transformational and gave me enormous confidence. That moment has stayed with me.

3. What problem were you trying to solve when you launched your brand?

In the early 2000s London was changing, life was speeding up because of the internet and more women were working. I saw nails bars launching into busier lives and thought that the Brits could do with some help with their brows, an afterthought in beauty. It was a combination of introducing threading in an elevated way but also to make it easy for women to get their brows seen to. A service that promised to make is easy for women to prioritise their brows with fast but brilliant results.

4. Was there a defining moment where you thought:

“I’m actually going to do this.”

It was when I visited a salon in Wembley to get my brows threaded. A friend had asked to come with me and she loved the results. I knew if she loved it. I questioned why all women wouldn’t love it? I was at a crossroads in my career, having just had a small baby and turned down for a promotion at British Airways. I knew that this was my moment.  

5. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve overcome as a founder?

As a founder, you have to persuade people to come on the journey with you, whether a department store, the team, your family or your customers. You can never stop because the moment you do, someone will be right behind you. The biggest challenge is to constantly be the ambassador for your brand and switched on 24/7. There is no time to rest so you need to love what you do.

6. What’s one thing people assume about running a beauty brand that simply isn’t true?

People assume that you have will be rich overnight. It takes an enormous amount of dedication and passion before you can get to that point. What is true, is that you have freedom, with creativity but also with time. I choose my hours and love that I am the one to sign everything off – that it is my vision.

7. What does success mean to you today compared to when you first started?

Success at the beginning was to roll out fast and be everywhere, to take every opportunity and to build a brand, to perhaps sell one day. Now, I realise that it is not about the end, but the journey itself.  I thrive on the women that make up the Blink community – whether customers, the team or other entrepreneurs. I love the fact that collectively we create change, bring women confidence and are able to give back. Our purpose is defined as exactly that, ‘shaping confidence and empowering women, one brow at a time.’

8. How do you look after your own wellbeing while running a business?

Exercise is super important and I try to ensure that I do something every day, whether Pilates, yoga or swimming. I try and get facials and massages when I can. I recently went to a retreat in India, which is the first time that I have truly indulged in taking care of myself – I highly recommend it. I also love meeting with friends and going to talks around books and film. I also try to read and watch more, to switch off and distract myself from the world brows. Although I am always drawing inspiration from everything I do.

“It will never be the right time, so just do it.”

The Brand

9. Which product best represents your brand and why?

I would say the Brow Boost, a light and natural formula that acts as a serum. It not only actively helps to grow them with a combination of peptide actives but also hydrate with hyaluronic acid. We encourage women to start treating their brows, as they would their hair skin, to ensure longevity in colour and texture. When Blink launched, we had many causalities from the era of skinny brows. I believe that those days have gone and the fact that the Boost is our best seller, means that women are paying attention to the wellness of their brows.

10. If somebody had never heard of your brand before, what would you want them to know?

Brows are the most basic part of your beauty routine, the foundation of everything you should do. Get them right and the rest will follow. Blink takes the risk away as every therapist is trained to offer a consistently high level of service and ensure that your brows reflect who you are. We have shaped over 20 million brows so know what we are doing!

11. What are you most proud of building?

A brand that has taken a skill from India and shared it with British women. I have been able to combine both my worlds into a company that services British women to deliver confidence. I also love the fact that threading is now recognized as being an extraordinary skill and I love that I employ many women from the Indian sub-continent who have built their career at Blink.

I remember a woman from Mumbai once writing to say that she felt as if she was walking into her living room in India, when she visited one of our boutiques. She not only trusted us with her brows but also felt at home.

12. What’s next?

Blink is going global. We have already launched in Sephora UAE and look forward to expanding further to far flung places around the world. Threading is still largely undiscovered, and retailers love our wellness approach to brows and lashes.

Any launches… We are hoping to launch in the US, Europe and China. Work in progress.

Projects… We are working on skincare around the eyes and specialist power ingredients for this zone.

Collaborations… I love dreaming up unexpected collaborations. We worked with Priya Ahluwalia, an Indian/Nigerian fashion designer who created a print for our brow pencils. We also teamed up with Glossier to encourage teens to get their brows done well. Perhaps eyewear next. Ideas welcome!

Dreams… To be the global brow and lash go to brand.

Darling

Complete this sentence…

“Beauty means…” celebrating the smallest details that make you, who you are.

Complete this sentence…

“The one thing I wish every woman knew is..” that great brows make your eyes shine and your cheekbones sing.”

Why do you think women should continue supporting independent beauty founders?

We are becoming more starved of independent thought and risk takers. Women who take the plunge, while trying to juggle so much, are hugely celebrated. Every woman wants to support that women that makes it happen.

“Beauty means celebrating the smallest details that make you who you are.”

Vanita Parti MBE

• Blink Brow Bar transformed the way many people think about brows, making them an essential part of beauty rather than an afterthought. Did you always believe brows would become such an important category, or did that vision evolve over time?

I always knew it would happen. The results were transformational. I wouldn’t have poured every part of my life into it if I had had an ounce of doubt.

• As one of the UK’s most respected beauty entrepreneurs, you’ve also been a passionate advocate for female empowerment and charitable initiatives. How important has purpose been in shaping both your business and your legacy?

So important. To be able to give back and support charities that are relevant to my team and to our customers. We spent time with Butterflies in India, who helped street kids in Delhi and now my team work with FutureDreams to show women how to regain brow confidence after chemotherapy. I also feel tremendously proud that Blink was able to elevate threading and have it seen as a credible skill, demanding a fair wage.

• Beauty standards have evolved dramatically over the last two decades. How do you think the industry has changed for women of colour, and what progress would you still like to see?

I feel that we have a long way to go and understand that the brands will always appeal to majority rather than minority. I remember wanting to buy an Yves Saint Laurent Touch Eclat, under eye concealer, but couldn’t. Now they have fifteen shades. Sometimes I still struggle to find my shade of foundation. I also remember Mac being one of the first to address this and it inspired me to see change in beauty. It is so much better than it was. I think that there is still much opportunity to have specialist brands that cater for different textures and shades of skin. Maybe that will be BBB London in near future.

Quick Fire

Favourite book? Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

Morning or night? Morning

Coffee or tea? Coffee but I would like to evolve to Rose Chai which we serve in our brow boutiques. I just need that hit in the morning.

One beauty product you couldn’t live without? Clear Brow Gloss – to perk up my brows every day.

Favourite place to travel? India, I still have so much of it to cover.

One piece of advice for aspiring founders?

It will never be the right time, so just do it. Be prepared to inhale it so that it becomes part of your being.

For more than twenty years, Vanita Parti MBE has shown that true innovation isn’t always about creating something entirely new, but about recognising the potential in something others have overlooked.

Through Blink Brow Bar, she has transformed the way millions of people think about brows while building a business rooted in confidence, craftsmanship and purpose. Her story is a reminder that the most enduring brands are often built by founders with a clear vision, the courage to challenge convention and a genuine desire to make people’s lives better.

Vanita Parti MBE