Over the past few years, I have attended pop ups and exhibitions for one reason only- to meet and get to have conversations with people in the space of natural wellness. The curiosity to get to know more about the person behind a brand, the excitement to try their products and share them on my page is what keeps me going. Today I’m going to be talking about 3 new brands whom I had the opportunity to encounter recently and have in-depth conversations with.
Why Natural wellness?
We live in a world of artificial intelligence, toxic media and fake people. it is about time that we try to go back to our roots. Time to go back to nature. Right?
Today I’m introducing you to 3 brands who are sustainable
Arth Organic Skincare
Aakruti started her career as a journalist, but found that she wanted a break from corporate life. While on the break, she started experimenting with her grandmother’s at home skincare DIYs. They worked wonders on her skin! However she was not a fan of popping on a gram flour mask and sitting idle for 30 minutes. She started to dig around to see how she could incorporate the natural wellness DIYs into everyday skincare. She looked into soap making and started making soaps for herself. With the help of her grandfather, who is a botanist, she dug deep into properties of ingredients and their benefits. The more she experimented, the more she realised her love for creating skincare products. Thus was born Arth, Organic Skincare.
What I loved most was the wide range of soaps in oh-so pretty designs! Each soap has a specific formulation targetting an issue. There are more than 8 varieties of soap and in a price range of about 350INR. Another super interesting product that caught my eye was solid lotions, yes, you read it right. Lotion that you can carry as smaller individual units and apply on the go. It melts into the skin.
I love how Akriti is a self made formulator and is constantly learning from the older generation, and researching to make the recipes more modern. There is so much passion in the way she talks about her products. Her aim is to employ more women and teach them how to make these products, while she grows her brand.
Currently it is a one-woman show and Akriti does it all- formulating, testing, creating, packaging and selling.
You can check out her Instagram page here.
Kimaya Blends.
Vaishali, a mother of 2 young boys, found that motherhood was giving her a headache (in reality and emotionally). After the birth of her first son, she caught herself low on energy, and constantly popping a pill to manage a headache. With a Masters in chemistry and botany, she knew the ill effects of this. This is when she started looking for natural wellness options and turned to essential oils.
The more she read about it, the more curious she was and she went ahead to do a certification in aromatherapy. She started creating essential oil roll on for relief. Pain relief from cramps, sinus relief, stress relief are just a few of the blends that she has created. What started as a personal search, has taken her on a journey that she never expected. Formulating blends has felt like being back in the chemistry lab and she has found something that makes her happy.
Recently she has also added solid deodorant, and spritzes that can be used a toners to the range.
A one woman army, Vaishali takes care of formulating, making and packaging the blends.
You can check out her Instagram page here.
Snato
Debosmita desperately needed a creative outlet, something that would take away from the mundane office job, and that is how she stumbled into making skincare products. She found someone to teach her the basics and there has been no looking back. She started Snato and her range includes delicious smelling soaps, lotions, lip balms and even candles. Snato also offers sustainable alternatives such as metal straws and body exfoliator gloves.
Debosmita recently moved to Bangalore from Kolkata and so Snato products are now easily available in the southern states.
You can check out her Instagram page here.
There was one thing that Debosmita said that really stuck to me.
“When it comes to home bakers, we don’t ask if they are certified to cook or certified to bake. We don’t check on the source of their ingredients or expect them to be only organically grown. This is for something we consume and put it into our body. However when it comes to skincare, we tend to prefer brands that are certified, organic, ethically sourced . We want people who have taken courses and are academically certified to formulate skincare. We seem to prefer this for products that are topical. This is seems like a bit of a double standard, right?”
Her words hit me hard. It made me think. Was having an academically strong background and a full fledged manufacturing unit a key criteria for us to try a skincare brand? Didn’t all skincare brands start from a home kitchen? No one directly invested a manufacturing unit right? Was passion not enough as a starting point? If everyone was only going to prefer a ‘well established’ brand, then how do smaller brands become well established? Who is going to support these smaller brands?
Let me know your thoughts on the same in the comments section.
I hope you enjoy exploring these natural wellness brands, and all that they have to offer. For me, well I loved their stories and hope you did too.
More reading
Curious to read about more skincare brands? Click here.
miss kays
Disclaimer- All images were sent by the brands and I do not own any of them.