ELLA'S STELLAR BEAUTY SECRET
(The Star, 27th April 2015)
Rock Queen Ella is now sharing the secret to looking fabulous with Lameya, her beauty supplement. Expect astounding results in just a few months, she says.
Ella, the Queen of Rock, is well known for her music over the last three decades. But the music aside, her fans are equally excited to know about her beauty routines. After all, everyone is curious as to what keeps her looking youthful and fabulous, even at 49.
Yes, 49.
The singer says her beauty secret is really very simple, and not at all difficult to emulate. In fact, after 20 years of keeping it as a secret, Ella has finally decided to share it with everybody by releasing Lameya, her health and beauty supplement which comes in gel form.
According to Ella, she chose the Arabic name “Lameya” because it means enthusiastic, inspiring and optimistic.
“Lameya has actually been our family’s beauty secret for many years. Even back when I was in my teens, I was amazed by the efficacy of the ingredients used. But since it was our mother’s secret concoction, we never thought of sharing it.
“It was only after friends and fans complimented our skin that we gave it some thought, but nothing came out of this until my husband, Captain Azhar Ghazali, insisted that I should at least share it with my fans after all their support all these years,” says Ella, whose real name is Norzila binti Haji Aminuddin.
The singer, who first shot to fame with Ella & The Boys in 2007, swears by Lameya.
“It can make your skin more beautiful and radiant. It also provides nourishment to make your skin glow, covers scars and open pores. It also helps to strengthen the hair, gets rid of stretch marks on the skin and is an anti-aging supplement,” says Ella, who has been taking Lamiya for the last 20 years.
Together with three trusted people in her life, namely her husband, sister Jojie Aminuddin and Syahrizal Ismail, now Lameya’s chief operating officer, Ella decided to invest RM100,000 into research and development and manufacturing. She set up Ben Jawi Beauty & Health Sdn Bhd early last year to make Lameya.
“Lameya is produced from black seed, pomegranate, dates, olive oil and figs, with collagen and Vitamin C extracts. We only use natural products. Our concoction is health and beauty supplement. You just have to drink the gel directly from the sachet. The packaging is simple, easy to carry and can be consumed anywhere,” says Ella, who believes anyone who take Lameya religiously will see astounding results in just a few months.
Since Lameya is classified as food and not herbs or cosmetics, the company only needed to obtain a halal certificate from Jakim and ensure its products complied with the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau.
Lameya is sold online and through authorised stockists and agents. Each box contains 30 sachets, and is currently selling at a promotional price of RM160.
The company released the first batch of 2,000 boxes last month, and they were snapped up within the first week. Since business has been brisk, the company is releasing another 5,000 boxes at the end of this month and another 10,000 boxes during the launch in June.
“This business venture has given me a whole different experience. It’s partly educational too as I’ve learned a lot. I try to get involved every step of the way, but I don’t meddle in areas that I do not have any expertise in.
“My husband and Syahrizal take care of the marketing, Jojie handles the promotions in the media and social media, while I decided on the colours of the packaging and sachet, as I wanted it to represent me. All my fans know how much I love white, so I decided to have that colour for Lameya. I wanted a brown-gold sachet because the earthy gold tone is light on the eye,” says Ella.
Her new venture notwithstanding, Ella is still rocking away. She will be releasing her latest album, which will have a religious theme, in June.
Azhar says Lameya’s release is very timely as it is intended to raise Ella’s visibility and to push her new music and business.
“We are aware that consumers have many choices when it comes to beauty or healh supplement. We are lucky that Ella is a big name, so her fans will support her business because there is always an emotional connection. We took this into account when we wanted to position Lameya,” says Azhar.
The team agreed that the best marketing approach was to integrate and merge Ella’s music and product.
“But we are not going to push (for sale of the product) to the limit because we believe quality counts more than quantity,” chips in Syahrizal.
“Since we all feel strongly about the product, we would not feel proud if we were to push the quantity and compromise on the quality. We are also trying to design a real shake-up campaign to publicise Lameya so that it reaches younger shoppers, especially our online customers,” she adds.
Syahrizal reckons that a RM2mil marketing campaign over one year would be enough to push Lameya to new heights. Of course, having half a million followers on social media helps with the promotion and publicity too.
“It just show how immensely popular Ella is,” says Azhar.
“All we have to do is to accelerate the potential for Lameya so that it reaches Ella’s supporters. We are confident it can be done because Lameya is a good product, and Ella is a walking example of Lameya’s goodness. I think even sceptical consumers would buy the brand,” says Azhar.
Apart from the encouraging local sales, Lameya is also selling well in Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.
More than anything, Ella says she wants to share just how amazing Lameya is.
