IT doesn’t take much imagination to see that in order to win the title as Miss Jamaica and, more spectacularly, Miss World, one has to meet, at the very least, the generally high standards of a beautiful woman.

Enough time has passed for those who have watched Ms Lisa Hanna grow into womanhood after winning the Miss World beauty pageant as a mere slip of a girl in 1993 to conclude that here indeed is someone who has surpassed the ordinary definition of beauty, having superlatively demonstrated that brain is almost as key.

After her sojourn as Miss World, parliamentarian, Cabinet minister, and prime ministerial hopeful, no one would be surprised if, at 51 August coming, Ms Hanna took time to rue the fact that she has only now decided to step into the commercially lucrative world of beauty products.

On Tuesday, the former Miss World launched her Age Intelligently series of skincare products under her LisaHannaBeauty trade name, partnering with Italy’s The Spa by Equinox Hotels.

Of course, Ms Hanna has astutely identified a niche in which women approaching middle age are more acutely aware of the need to continue to take care of their skin and accentuate their beauty, while catering to younger women who wish to cultivate attractive, healthy skin earlier.

Herein she flies the Jamaican flag yet again, from distant Retreat, St Mary, where she was born, but this time without the inevitable, pernicious divisiveness of the political arena, because a woman’s beauty knows no party and skincare is universal.

It could be argued that Ms Hanna’s story is the epitome of an unlikely journey for someone who had never considered herself “a girly girl”, and moreover had been a teen activist for serious issues such as child rights and literacy.

She once told a Jamaica Observer writer that the closest she came to parading the female side of her was when she modelled the clothes made by her mother, Mrs Dorothy Hanna, at fashion shows, remembering that her own clothes were so neat and well-fitted that people generally were unaware that all her clothes were made by her mother.

“I had no interest in beauty pageants, and I didn’t even know how to tweeze my eyebrows,” she recalled at the time, difficult as that would be to imagine in 2026.

The cornerstone of the Age Intelligently series of skincare products is dubbed, we are told, The Serum, “a clinically tested renewal treatment developed in Italy… to support firmness, elasticity, and visible radiance through a controlled, multi-depth approach, which delivers immediate comfort while working beneath the surface to refine texture, restore luminosity and strengthen skin over time”.

There are, as well, the Moisture Crème for “deep nourishment, visible firmness and lasting glow”; Hydra Dew Elixir; Advance Balance Cleanser; Instant Relief Eye Gel; Luminous Face + Body Glow; and Advance Fade Balm.

No doubt, Ms Hanna hopes to join the ranks of another Caribbean beauty icon, singer Rihanna of Barbados, whose Fenty Beauty has carried her name and that of her country to the world, and whom we have had the pleasure in this space to hail for her extraordinary success.

We wish Ms Hanna great success in her new endeavour, knowing that such success would not be based merely on the fact that she has been a Miss Jamaica and Miss World winner, but must satisfy the sophisticated taste of the modern woman.