When you think of beauty brands that disrupt the norm, the story usually starts in glossy labs in Paris, Seoul, or New York. But in Malaysia, one woman built a cult following by tackling an issue so taboo, most beauty founders would have tiptoed around it. Her name is Naza Yusof, and her brand—once cheekily known as Sang Bulu, now reborn as Oddly—was never afraid of being a little “weird.” In fact, that’s the whole point.

Back in 2021, while big beauty players were pumping out the same serums and sheet masks, Naza dropped something entirely different: a painless, at-home hair removal spray. Inspired by her own fear of being scolded by nurses before childbirth (a story she swears is true and not just her sister trolling her), Sang Bulu tapped into a very real anxiety that Malaysian women were already quietly talking about in Facebook mom groups. Waxing was painful. Shaving was messy. And both came with the risk of irritation, darkening, and razor bumps. Naza’s solution was simple, efficient, and cheekily packaged with a name that literally means “Hair.” By the end of its first few years, the brand had sold more than 82,000 bottles.

But Sang Bulu wasn’t just a viral one-hit wonder—it was the foundation of something bigger. From that single “weird but genius” product, Naza began to shape a brand identity that leaned into efficiency and honesty. No empty promises. No quick-fix gimmicks. Just products that work so well, you end up needing them less and less over time. That philosophy became the DNA of Oddly—a rebrand born in 2024 out of both business growth and Naza’s personal evolution as a woman, mother, and founder.

Oddly, true to its name, doesn’t try to blend into the noise of the beauty industry. It doesn’t chase the hyper-aesthetic, Instagram-filter perfection that international beauty giants keep pushing. Instead, it embraces what’s different—the cracked heels no one talks about, the darkened skin from pregnancy, the back acne that flares up when you least expect it. For Naza, these weren’t abstract “consumer pain points.” They were her lived reality. And instead of hiding them, she used them as inspiration to create products that actually serve women living in Malaysia’s heat, humidity, and everyday chaos.

But building a homegrown beauty brand in Malaysia hasn’t been easy. As Naza admits, money—or rather, the lack of it—was the biggest challenge. Competing with international names that dominate the market while working with a fraction of their budgets requires not just persistence, but also raw authenticity. That’s where Oddly shines. The brand isn’t trying to be a local copy of something global. It’s a brand that understands Malaysian skin, Malaysian weather, and Malaysian women.

And maybe that’s why Oddly resonates so strongly. It’s equal parts witty and trustworthy. It doesn’t sugarcoat the struggle of balancing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and skin flare-ups. It doesn’t pretend beauty is effortless. Instead, it makes space for honesty, for flaws, and for rituals that feel human, not aspirational.

Now, with a growing line of body care staples and more launches in the pipeline, Oddly is setting itself up to become Malaysia’s very own cult-favourite beauty house. And if Naza has her way, it’ll stay true to the weird, the raw, and the real—because in a beauty world obsessed with fitting in, Oddly is a reminder that sometimes the best brands are the ones that dare to stand out.

With that in mind, we sat down with Naza Yusof to talk about the journey from Sang Bulu to Oddly, the challenges of building a beauty brand in Malaysia, and why she believes that sometimes the “weirdest” ideas turn out to be the most powerful.