Martha Tilaar survives from difficult time

JAKARTA: She is sitting pretty today as the head of a traditional cosmetics and spa empire, but there was a time when Martha Tilaar found it difficult to get her foot in the door.

"I would go to some malls in town, and they would tell me, 'sorry, your products are not in line with our image'," Martha said on a visit to The Jakarta Post office on Wednesday.

"I wasn't asking for space for free, I wanted to lease it, but they still weren't interested."

The crisis that struck in mid-1997 was a great equalizer, along with the popularity of the "back to nature" movement starting in the West. Today, Martha Tilaar's Sari Ayu cosmetics are available at stands and stores in several of the capital's major malls.

Martha also faced the image problem at the outset of her career, when a famous actress with an acne problem was coaxed into trying her products.

"She called me the next day to say she wanted more of my stuff, but that would I please put it in Helena Rubenstein bottles!" -- JP