Naked Beauty Podcast

Zara Rahim on The Beauty of Giving Yourself Grace

Host: Brooke DeVard
Guest: Zara Rahim
Date: November 17, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Brooke DeVard sits down with Zara Rahim – a multifaceted communications strategist and former Obama White House, Vogue, and Uber staffer – to explore her unique beauty journey, her experience as a South Asian woman navigating mostly white institutions, and the power of giving oneself grace throughout career and life transitions. The conversation flows easily between frank career advice, the challenges of representation, lessons in self-acceptance, and a bounty of beauty and skincare recommendations. Zara’s wit, honesty, and vulnerability shine through in a discussion focused as much on inner as outer beauty.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Zara’s Remarkable Career Path

• From White House to Vogue to Uber (07:06–08:13): Zara recounts her career journey, emphasizing that her path was far from traditional or privileged. She notes her struggles in school and her non-Ivy-League background, dispelling common myths about success trajectories.

  "I think that there's an assumption that a lot of people that get to these really established places have always, you know, gone to Ivy League schools and they always got straight A's... that was not the case for her."
  — Brooke DeVard (06:03)

• Working with Mariah Carey (04:49–05:28): Zara shares a special voice note describing her surreal experience working with Mariah Carey on her memoir.

  "Imagine working with somebody who was and is deeply formative to your life and your womanhood... She is no bullshit. I learned so many lessons from her. Honor of my life, though, truly, like, inarguably the most important person I've worked with today."
  — Zara Rahim (04:49)

Navigating Professional Spaces as a Woman of Color

• On Salary Transparency (08:44–11:11): Zara updates her public view, shifting the onus of salary transparency from women of color to white colleagues.

  "Women of color actually shouldn't really have to take on the labor of asking our white counterparts to share their salaries. It's actually on you and your white counterparts... to create an environment in which it's normalized."
  — Zara Rahim (09:11)

• Beauty in White Spaces (21:06–26:51): Zara discusses the extra labor women of color must put in just to be seen as competent and the importance of always being "on."

  "I didn't really have the luxury of just, like, showing up, looking... in anything. And just being like, I didn't brush my teeth this morning. Oops... And also, like many of the women that are my peers... are always on. They're the best dressed women in the room."
  — Zara Rahim (25:53)

Beauty Standards, Representation, and Self-Acceptance

• Growing Up South Asian in Florida (12:03–15:54): Zara opens up about her upbringing, feeling "other," and being grateful for her family's efforts to preserve cultural heritage even as she navigated white-adjacent environments.

  "It was a very sort of... in retrospect, I now am so deeply appreciative. But of course... it was not as fun growing up, especially when you're sort of living in a place where white adjacency is key..."
  — Zara Rahim (13:54)

• Unibrow, Body Hair, and the South Asian Glow-Up (15:13–19:13): Zara unpacks childhood insecurities, the cultural beauty of the unibrow, and the shame that can be unlearned with time and perspective.

  "I certainly wish that I had extended myself more grace, young me... I for years would look at photos of myself from when I was a kid and be like, oh gosh, it was so, like un-cute... Now I look at them in a totally different way. Like, I was very cute."
  — Zara Rahim (15:30)

• Dealing with External Judgments in Beauty (26:51–28:34): Conversation turns to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and double standards for women who choose to show up fully themselves.

  "Thank God we have young, progressive women... it's been incredible to see... women in office who don't take shit... The dog whistles are no longer dog whistles. They're just saying how they feel."
  — Zara Rahim (26:56)

Evolving Approach to Beauty & Self-Definition

• Embracing Fun and Authenticity in Beauty (07:33–08:44): Zara emphasizes the importance of keeping beauty fun and true to herself, resisting sponsorships or trends she doesn't believe in.

  "I realized that it... could be fun... I still had my point of view about like politics or policy... but it's also very okay to care about beauty. And it really happened in a way that felt super organic and unforced."
  — Zara Rahim (07:33)

• Pandemic Reflections: Redefining Self-Worth (29:06–32:37): The pandemic prompted Zara to interrogate whether her career really defined her self-worth and to question the ethical alignment of her work.

  "I spent a solid portion of my career... letting my career define me... I had a moment after... when the pandemic begun, where I was like, all right, no office, no work... Who am I?"
  — Zara Rahim (29:06)

Navigating the Beauty Industry as a Conscious Consumer

• Supporting Brands with Alignment & Ethics (33:12–34:52): Zara highlights her focus on buying from Black- and POC-owned beauty brands that build financial equity, with less emphasis on sustainability than representation and real impact.

  "I'm really focused on... people that are making good paying jobs that are going into the pockets of people who look like us, that are creating businesses that reflect faces that look like ours..."
  — Zara Rahim (34:06)

• The Ongoing Representation Gap (34:52–36:46): The conversation addresses how many beauty brands still struggle with basic representation, and why that’s both baffling and a clear red flag.

  "If this looks like this, you certainly don't have any people of color behind the scenes... Or they're not in a position where they're empowered to speak up about it, which is also a problem."
  — Zara Rahim & Mavi (35:38–35:55)

Product Recommendations & Beauty Routines

Zara shares her favorite beauty products and imparts self-care tips, always with an emphasis on authenticity and what truly works for her.

• Gentle Cleansing: Dermalogica and Cetaphil face washes (38:17–38:53)
• Occasional Skincare Skipping:

  "I'm gonna be honest, sometimes I forget to like, wash my face at night... and I just want to tell everybody that's okay."
  — Zara Rahim (38:19)

• Biologique Recherche P50 toner and Dermapirifonte moisturizer (39:02–39:32)
• Face Oils: Augustine Bader face oil, honest discussion on price/value (40:03–40:54)
• SPF Obsession: Importance of sunscreen for melanated skin, favorites include Innisfree, Biore, Supergoop, Ami (41:19–43:39)

  "I have become obsessed with SPF and I think that it has really changed the health... of my skin... I'm always hounding people to put SPF on."
  — Zara Rahim (42:22)

• Eye Creams: Clé de Peau, Augustinus Bader, some sensitivity to formulations (44:20–45:15)
• Blush: ELF Putty, Rare Beauty (purple), Makeup by Mario, Westman Atelier, Merit (51:30–53:40)

  "I've been using the Rare Beauty blush, which is so purple. It's so pigmented... if you blend that out, it is okay. I love that blush."
  — Zara Rahim (52:16)

• Makeup Style: Shift from heavy makeup to natural, skin-focused looks, experimentation with cream products and highlighter (49:50–51:28)

  "Now it's sort of like less is more for me. Like, if I can sort of like accentuate the features... that I believe are beautiful parts of my face, then I'm doing a good job with my makeup."
  — Zara Rahim (49:50)

Advice & Reflection

• Career Advice, Especially for Women of Color (54:02–55:42):

  "Extend more grace to yourself... Let yourself be somewhere where you feel really happy about what you're doing, and not sort of the sexiness of what the brand means to the world... If you can sort of keep your North Star to a place of, I want to do something that makes me feel like a fuller version of myself, then you're good."
  — Zara Rahim (54:02)

• On Growth, Vulnerability, and Writing:

  "You know, I'm going through that right now with writing... and it's really hard and vulnerable work... but I keep trying to tell myself that it's supposed to feel this way."
  — Zara Rahim (55:31)

• Most Beautiful Moments (55:56–57:22):

  "When do you feel most beautiful? Oh, gosh, when I'm with other women... Women have always made me feel the most beautiful version of myself... there is nothing that gets me off more than a woman giving me a random compliment."
  — Zara Rahim (55:56, 56:33)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I still don't think people really believe me when I tell them I worked with the Mariah Carey on her book. What an amazing honor and privilege."
  — Zara Rahim (04:49)

• "Women of color actually shouldn't really have to take on the labor of asking our white counterparts to share their salaries... It shouldn't be uncomfortable. Especially as women, we have to very much take care of each other."
  — Zara Rahim (09:11)

• "I realized that it was okay to care about beauty. And it really happened in a way that felt super organic and unforced."
  — Zara Rahim (07:33)

• "I wish I had extended myself more grace, young me... now I look at them [old photos] in a totally different way. I was very cute."
  — Zara Rahim (15:30)

• "Extend more grace to yourself... Let yourself be somewhere where you feel really happy about what you're doing..."
  — Zara Rahim (54:02)

• "When do you feel most beautiful? Oh, gosh, when I'm with other women."
  — Zara Rahim (55:56)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 04:49 – Zara describes her experience working with Mariah Carey
• 07:06 – Conversation about nontraditional career journeys
• 09:11 – Thoughtful discussion on salary transparency and power dynamics
• 13:54 – Navigating cultural identity and South Asian family life
• 15:30 – Grace for your younger self and body positivity
• 21:06 – Fitting in and standing out as a woman of color in professional/white spaces
• 26:51 – AOC, beauty choices & double standards for public women
• 33:12 – Ethical beauty consumption and supporting POC-owned brands
• 38:19 – Permission to skip skincare routines sometimes
• 41:19 – SPF advocacy for women of color
• 51:30 – Cream blush obsession and experimentation
• 54:02 – Zara’s generous, practical career advice
• 55:56 – On feeling beautiful in the presence of other women

Final Reflections

This episode of Naked Beauty is a joyful and grounding conversation that fuses career wisdom, honest cultural dialogue, and fun, detailed beauty talk. Zara Rahim reminds listeners of the beauty in both giving ourselves grace and in building community. The takeaways are as practical—try the SPF!—as they are philosophical: let joy, purpose, and authenticity define your path, in beauty and beyond.