Artientifique, World’s First Initiative of Upcycling Cosmetics to Save the World
In the journey of sustainability, Fashionnovation found a lot of like-minded and environmental friendly companies like Artientifique, a company that upcycles expired cosmetics and creates value added products. Reportedly, this is the first initiative in the world that utilized cosmetics for value added paintings. Fashionnovation communicated with the person behind this initiative and in this special article, brings the driving force behind her step to make the world a better place.
In this article, we will hear the story directly from the person behind ‘Artientifique’.
The background:
Once upon a time, a young girl was sitting at her dressing table and wondering what happens to the unwanted stock of expired makeup products, where does it go? There must be some stories that we don’t know, and she was firm to discover those.
The school girl started piling makeup from her peers, teachers and started creating wonderful paintings out of it. After years of practice and continuous improvement, she took her works live on social media. Do you know who is this girl? She is Aisha Javid Ali Mir, an Indian living in Madina city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, well-known for her passion for space science and sustainable school projects.
Aisha Mir with her collected raw materials that she will use for her amazing paintings.
Sustainable Innovation, which helps us revive our nature’s beauty and perform our duty as a responsible global citizen. This would be a guilt-free investment in the art sector which would redefine our mindset towards environment-friendly products and encourage us to recognize them as our top priority.
Aisha creates exclusive paintings by upcycling old and expired cosmetics, this is her effort to save our home planet earth from marine biodiversity degradation. This initiative’s name is Artientifique, the name she signs her paintings with on the frames. Aisha says
“It basically means a person who practices art and science simultaneously, as I’m solving a scientist’s challenge in an artistic way, so I name myself an Artientifique.”
Painting done by Aisha Mir using expired makeup products. Photo courtesy: Aisha Mir, Artientifique.
What motivates you?
When I first started painting using old and expired cosmetics, I had one goal which is I want to see my planet full of life once again, fascinating and beautiful as if it got a makeover! I was the first artist globally to take cosmetic waste sticky, melting, and dry products from people and recreate them in an eco-friendly way to create paintings. The process and the cause were my crucial motivators that gave me momentum to continue and work harder to prevent more cosmetics from reaching the landfills.
What is your aim?
My aim through Artientifique is to showcase how beautiful and durable upcycled art can be, I want to redefine our mindset towards sustainable art, I want to show that they are way different than the conventional ideas of recycling.
How do you prepare such lovely works?
A lot of preventive measures while working with discarded cosmetics are required. I wear gloves, cover my nose if required, making sure no waste residues are left. Every cosmetic container like bottle or tube or palette needs to be cleaned first before upcycling the material inside it so that it becomes germ-free and safe to use.
I have separate dedicated tools which are not mixed with other regular tools, for extracting the material, designing motives, creating new textures, intensifying the color, and improving their durability. While working with one or two products, you may not feel the need to do all these, after all, it is your own makeup and you know its condition. But when I work in my art studio, I have to handle kilos of cosmetics, literally big boxes full of oozing foundation, and leaking nail paint, broken shadow palettes, and dry kohl. But when these products are given a new life as an exclusive painting to adorn our walls, they again demonstrate us that beauty is everywhere, we just need to search for it and value its presence.
Any food for thought for the readers?
I would like to end this with a food for thought. Please ponder on this question- while we are so concerned about what we put on our faces, shouldn’t we also think once what are we putting on our home planet’s surface?
You can reach out Aisha Mir at artientifique@gmail.com or follow her on Instagram: @artientifique_official and her website: https://www.artientifique.org.
If you have any initiative like Aisha Mir or have to say something to the world, feel free to contact us and get featured in Fashionnovation! oUR EMAIL ADDRESS: FASHIONNOVATIONFD@GMAIL.COM
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