Many of my Shabbat dinners are spent with Kevin and Ann Rabbani. Mrs. Rabbani is an amazing cook, and Mr. Rabbani is a great host– yet, despite all the time we’ve spent together, I never knew how they started a successful cosmetic business.

At many of our Shabbat dinners, much of the conversation revolves around my mom’s friends asking if all cosmetics are the same, which moisturizer is best, and any other “inside” tips the Rabbanis can garner from the team that fills thousands of jars and tubes of creams and oils. After starting their business in Mrs. Rabbani’s father’s basement in Cresskill, NJ, the Rabbanis now head a company with almost 70 employees,.  

Mrs. Rabbani’s father started making cosmetics in his basement almost 18 years ago. Ann would help pour the chemicals and package themt. “Whenever I had friends over or wanted to go out, I had to first finish helping my father, before doing anything else. My friends must have thought my father was like a mad scientist,” she said. Ann Rabbani studied art in college but dropped out and came back to help her father, who by then had expanded the business to a small facility in Northvale, New Jersey, and taken it full-time. Not long after, the business moved to Pompano, Florida.

Mrs. Rabbani met Mr. Rabbani in high school, where they dated and then married young. Just eight years after Mrs. Rabbani’s father moved to Florida, the Rabbanis saw that he was getting older and brought the business back to New Jersey, where they would eventually take it over and start Biogenesis Labs. Mr. Rabbani had just started his career as a lawyer, and he would come to the factory after working long hours to learn the formulas for the products and the logistics of the business. At this point, it was just the Rabbanis and Mrs. Rabbani’s father filling all of the containers and doing all the packaging by hand. It wasn’t until they started hiring part-time workers to come and help them with the manual labor that the company really expanded. Soon those employees went from part-time to full-time. Some of those pioneer workers who started with them almost eighteen years ago are still with them today.

The Rabbanis attend many trade shows each year to showcase their products and acquire new clients. One of their biggest events is a show in Las Vegas, a trip which Mr. Rabbani loves. While it is crucial for the Rabbanis to get new clients and expand their business, many of their clients actually came from Mrs. Rabbani’s father from before the couple took over the business. Ann mentioned that when the business was capable of expanding, and they had increased their production rate, she and Kevin had called up all of her father’s old clients – many of  whom immediately gave them orders, and are still buying from them today.

As the company grew, one of the greatest difficulties it faced was a lack of space, according to Mrs. Rabbani. The company had to move three times within the first five years, difficult because of the heavy equipment. Additionally, it was hard for the couple to get their part time employees to quit their other jobs and join them full time. “We had to make sure we could pay them what they were making at their old jobs – while I wasn’t even paying myself!” Mrs. Rabbani said. Her advice to anyone interested in getting into the manufacturing industry is to “work with a manufacturing facility to learn the ins and outs of manufacturing – no matter what the industry may be.” She emphasizes how important it is to know how to troubleshoot the machines and to know all the potential challenges. “Don’t go into manufacturing without knowing all about it,” Mrs. Rabbani said.

Recently the Rabbanis expanded to a 62,000 square foot factory in Paterson, NJ.  They now employ seventy employees. Mrs. Rabbani said “Thankfully things are not done by hand!” Biogenesis manufactures many creams, oils, and lotions for popular cosmetic brands. Some of their most well known clients are Doctor Brandt’s and Sole De Janeiro, two of the fastest growing brands at Sephora. Biogenesis usually creates formulas for the brands, unless the brands  come packaged with formulas, which is rare. In any case, these formulas are secret and not to be shared with competitors. Mrs. Rabbani says, “[My husband] routinely has to be in check with his chemistry skills, in case he has to write a new formula or fix problems with an old one.” Luckily, their oldest daughter Sela Rabbani ’18 has plans to join the family business and has already interned for Sole De Janeiro, along with studying chemistry.

What strikes me as remarkable about the Rabbanis is how they manage to collaborate so well. Mrs. Rabbani admits that she does get sick of her husband every so often, but she adds that the two of them are able to work together in the same office space for hours at a time, sometimes not saying a single word to each other. “I have mixed feelings about moving into our new factory, where Kevin and I  will have different offices – for the first time in over eighteen years!”

The Rabbanis chose to send their children to Ramaz to teach them the right values. “It is important to work hard and succeed, but it is equally important to hold onto your roots and remember where you came from,” said Mrs. Rabbani. They did, after all, start out in a basement!