'Queer-Owned' | RuMU Beauty

Co-founders Egon & Gerard share the vision behind their queer-owned inclusive skincare brand RuMU Beauty.

LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs aren’t just running businesses—they’re creating spaces that drive change and build community. Our 'Queer-Owned' series goes beyond the storefront to explore the purpose, impact, and stories behind queer-owned businesses.

This time we're speaking to Egon and Gerard of RuMU Beauty, a queer skincare brand committed to radically honest beauty and disrupting the status quo. Their products invite us to rethink skincare, abandoning arbitrary gender distinctions in favour of clinical efficiency, transparency and a love for our bodies as they are.

We were thrilled to have RuMU Beauty join us as a partner to the 2025 WCS Awards, where we sought to bring greater exposure to the important work they are doing to create a more inclusive beauty industry.

What personal or professional experiences led you to create RuMU Beauty, and how does queerness shape the core of that story?

Egon: RUMU was born from a very personal place. I’ve always seen beauty not as something you apply, but as something you return to — like coming back to your own skin after years of trying to escape it. As a queer person, your body is so often politicised, questioned, or erased. So RUMU became our way of reclaiming that space. For me, it’s a love letter to all the versions of myself I’ve had to survive to become.

Gerard: My background is in fashion and the creative world, so I always felt drawn to the aesthetics of transformation, but RUMU wasn’t just a project of visuals. It came from the urgency of being seen without asking for permission. Queerness isn’t a strategy here, it’s our why. It’s how we formulate, how we communicate, how we exist.

What does it mean to you, personally and professionally, to be recognised as Queer Leaders by the WCS Awards?

Gerard: Being recognised as a queer leader feels meaningful not because it’s unexpected, but because it reflects the kind of leadership we believe in. For me, queer leadership is about creating spaces of welcome in a world that rewards division. It’s about holding space for complexity, queerness, and joy. Being seen by WCS, an organisation that truly understands that, felt powerful and deeply aligned.

Egon: Professionally, it’s empowering. It gives weight to what we’re building and our way of showing up. And personally, it felt grounding. We’ve always created from a place of love, not strategy. So being recognised for that felt aligned, like something clicked. It reminded us that we’re not alone in the way we imagine beauty.

Why did you choose to name your brand “RuMU,” and how does that concept connect to your vision of skin and space?

Egon: The name “RuMU” comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word “room” (ルーム, rūmu). We loved the intimacy of that concept. The metaphor came naturally: skin as a room you inhabit. Not something to perfect, but something to tend to, live in, rearrange, and grow within. We didn’t want skincare to be about fixing flaws. We wanted it to be about staying, really staying, in your own body.

Gerard: Also, as creatives, we loved that a room is never finished. It’s always changing just like us, just like skin. But more than that, for many queer people, a room has always been a refuge. A place where you could feel safe, express yourself, be held. RUMU is that space. Not a bathroom shelf full of steps, but a single room where you meet yourself as you are — raw, weird, radiant.

RuMU stands for radically honest beauty. What does that mean to you when you're formulating, designing, or storytelling?

Gerard: It means we say things most brands won’t. Like: “this product works because of this ingredient, not that trending one.” Or “no, we’re not using water as a base, because water doesn’t do sh*t for your skin barrier.” It’s about stripping back the noise and treating people as intelligent, sensitive beings. We aim for total transparency.

Egon: And beyond formulas, it’s also emotional honesty. We don’t pretend everyone has time for 10-step routines. We know what it means to live in a body that’s tired, politicised, neurodivergent, or grieving. So the design, the copy, the texture — everything has to feel true. If it doesn’t, we don’t launch it.

We Create Space is all about community. What role does the queer community play in your brand’s identity, design, and mission?

Egon: Everything. We built RUMU thinking about our friends, our exes, our chosen families… and also our actual families. Our grandmothers, in particular, have inspired us deeply. This brand was born from all the people who’ve taught us how to care with tenderness, how to put intention into the small things. Yes, it’s a queer brand, but it’s not exclusive. It’s for anyone who wants to inhabit their skin without asking for permission. When we formulate, write or design, we’re not thinking about the skin ads say you should have, but about real skin, the one you have today. With its phases, its stories, its character.

Gerard: Our design is fluid because our people are. Our identity is loud but loving. The queer community isn’t just an audience, it’s the co-author. Every DM we get, every story someone shares about their journey, that’s RuMU. That’s the whole point.

How do you hope your products make people feel when they use them?

Egon: We want people to feel calm. For the product to give them an immediate sense of care, of pause, of being present in their body. A moment that’s just for them, with no pressure.

Gerard: We want people to feel their skin becoming healthier, more balanced. But without the pressure to transform or “improve” by anyone else’s standards. Using RuMU isn’t about correcting yourself — it’s about caring for yourself. About your skin feeling good in what it already is. If our products do anything, it’s helping you feel good in your own skin — not someone else’s idea of it.

When you decided to support the WCS Awards with full-size products: what motivated that level of generosity?

Gerard: We felt it was right. These weren’t “PR samples” for a campaign. They were gifts, from one queer story to another. We know how rare it is to be celebrated for existing authentically. We wanted our contribution to feel like the beginning of a long-standing relationship.

Egon: Also, queer people deserve full-size everything. Full-size pleasure. Full-size joy. Full-size freedom.

How did it feel to see your products in the hands of awardees and the community across different contexts (the Gala vs the Dinner)?

Egon: It was beautiful. We didn’t have the chance to be at the gala, but the dinner felt intimate. We sat with people. We talked about joy, gender, skin, softness. To see someone open the product and say “I can’t wait to try everything”, that’s priceless.

Gerard: It felt like being in a safe space. There was this effortless exchange of smiles, good vibes, and mutual recognition. It reminded us why we do this —not just for the products, but for what they represent when they’re held, gifted, and shared among us.

In what ways do you think collaborations like this can shift how small queer-owned brands show up during Pride season?

Gerard: They shift the why. It’s about visibility and reciprocity. It reminds us we don’t have to replicate traditional corporate strategies to be seen. We just have to show up honestly and build this community together.

Egon: It’s also proof that community can be currency. That socially-aware initiatives can be loud, and showing up with integrity is priceless in today’s world.

What do you hope people remember: not just about the RuMU gift bags, but about your message and presence at the Awards?

Egon: That we don’t have to adapt to brands and spaces that aren’t inclusive of us. We are there to stay. With the community, for the long haul.

Gerard: Our daily decisions, our daily routines can have an impact in how we show up in the world. Skincare can be a form of resistance. Choose products that adapt to you, not the other way around.

What question do you think I should have asked you?

Egon: What’s the weirdest body part someone has applied the RuMU multibalm to? It is so multifunctional that nothing would shock me.

Gerard: What would your teenage self think if they saw what you’re doing now with RuMU?

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