BEAUTY & INFLUENCE

Interview with Zuha Hussein, Digital Creator, PR Manager at CosmoGroup

July 25, 2022 | FW Luxe | Author: Temi ‘Lanrey | Edited/Published by Nina Zhu

How did you get started as an influencer and how did you find your own voice in the space? Did anyone inspire you to take this step?

I’ve always wanted to continue my profession as an Auditor, until after my marriage, since my spouse didn’t like the idea of a working woman. The Pandemic ignited me to use the extra time constructively to spend more “me” time. This opened me up to the idea of blogging, which created an identity for myself. And as regarding the Inspiration, yes! I got it from the Dubai PR and collaboration market: that was what I wanted to bring to the Omani digital industry through my blog.

With your full-time job at Cosmogroup. How do you juggle creating digital content and working together?

Yes! Especially when you are in PR, your phone never stops ringing. I have scheduled my weekends for my studies and blog. The Weekend morning sun is great for capturing content, whereas my evenings are for posting them. My followers are most active between 8:00 p.m to 11:00p.m as per my Instagram insights. The key to juggling things in life is to schedule and organize them.

You have an impressive engagement rate of 2.8 percent, according to phlanx.com, so why does audience interaction matter to you and how do you decide on exciting contents?

Before my blog, I started doing IGTV in Middle East Beauty Bloggers regarding skincare, haircare, laser machines, body odour, and personal matters etc. When you talk to 180 people almost daily for an hour live, that's when you start connecting with them more intimately along with their follow-up DMs. Most of them later followed me back from when I started my blog there. Regarding content, I post a poll asking about their suggestions/opinions on a few options.

What does fashion mean to you as a woman and how do global trends influence the fashion aesthetic amongst women in Pakistan?

Fashion defines me. The way I carry myself defines my personality - calm (soft colours), sorted (solid clothes), and elegant (avoid bold cuts). My wardrobe also reflects my mood: light tones on my happy days and dark tones on my gloomy days. In 2022, I see the fashion industry of Pakistan growing more independent with little influence from global trends. For the last two years we’ve had the trends together in both eastern and western collections within our market, which showed the flexibility of the fashion industry. Earlier we would hardly find western collections with Pakistani branded outlets, but now every brand keeps a separate western section for women.

How do your relationships with collaborations such as RedTag and Fr Madcos come about and are there conditions to be maintained while working with them? Are there memorable past collaborations you’d like to share?

After creating the blog, proposals were sent to the brands I wanted to collaborate with. After my first few, I began trending through the tags and hashtags used from those collaboration content. Redtag later chose me as their brand ambassador and would timely send PR packages expecting social media mentions in the feed posts and stories. With FrMadcos, they required a minimum of 4 feed posts/PR package within a month. None of those brands put any restriction with the contract: though noting that to be a brand ambassador for two competitors would lower my credibility. My first few collaborations were: 1. SAE Skincare - sent me products worth around 120 OMR. 2. Sama Resorts and Properties - offered a stay in the desert camp known as Sama al Wasil camps. 3. Mumzworld - send out PR packages monthly in return for unboxing stories. All of which provided discount codes for my followers.

Are there any collaborations you would refuse for personal reasons? Have you ever had to decline collaborations?

Yes! Since I moved to Pakistan, I got many collaboration proposals that required me to post holding their products, which made me uncomfortable. I post my pictures on social media on my terms. In the Middle East, we usually had the freedom to post what we wanted.

What are some facial or skincare hacks that keep your skin at its best?

The struggle to keep the skin acne-free and hydrated in a tropical climate is real. I make sure I don’t skip my morning and nighttime skincare routine:

Morning:

  1. Scrub (alternate days, with a mild exfoliator) 

  2. Facewash 

  3. Facial Globes / Icing 

  4. Tea Tree serum (to avoid breakouts and sebum production)

  5. Vitamin C (to repair the skin, works best in daytime)

  6. Sun Block

Nighttime:

  1. Cleanse with cleansing milk

  2. Wash with a mild face wash

  3. Tone the skin 

  4. Hyaluronic acid for hydration

  5. Eye cream

  6. Retinol (for wrinkles and fine lines, always at night)

  7. Sleeping mask / Night Cream

  8. Lip Balm

How do you handle social media trolls, aka digital losers? Do you have a specific experience you'd want to share, and how did you handle it?

Alhamdulillah! I haven't experienced any cyberbullying as an influencer. I believe the reason is that the product images on my blog don’t attract males. Though my DMs are full of unrequited compliments and requests from the opposite gender that I ignore. So after trying for a while, they would stop.

What should we look forward to from @zeeusain in the future?

@zeeusain is planning to make the name a brand. I have some business plans, which might take a while. If God’s will, you will see it come true.