A healthy skin is an indication of your internal health and wellbeing. Like most good things, it begins from within believes Shilpa Rathi Maheshwari, an entrepreneur in the neutraceutical space. Operating from a space where she believes that using topical treatments is essential, along with taking other steps to care for and feed your skin from the inside out, she created her brand I AM LOVE to amalgamate these approaches.
Water, vital lipids, vitamins, and amino acids are just a few of the nutrients your skin requires. “If you don't have a healthy internal system, no matter what you do will only be very superficial,”says Shipa.
Shilpa’s brand offers neutraceutical supplements that nourishes the skin from the inside out. She discusses about her brand, I AM LOVE, in detail and places focus on the significance of treating the skin from the inside out in a conversation with the Women Entrepreneur Team.
The skincare industry has evolved massively over the past few years. In your opinion how haveIndian consumers’ preferences evolved in terms of skincare?
Even two years ago, the answer would have been very different. Until a few years ago, people had just begun showing an interest in knowing what goes into a product. But today the Internet has revolutionized everything. Consumers use the search engine to verify everything from what they eat to what they apply. However, I believe that these days you simply take your own steps to make a purchase. Exposure and accessibility of high-quality goodshas increased tremendously.For each product that people buy, today they look into what the product is and what ingredients go into making it. Going beyond the ingredients, consumers also verify the products' test results. Consumer awareness has progressed to a higher level.
If you have the word ‘treeoil’ on the label, customers can look at the label, see how high or low the said ingredient stands in the list. Therefore brands and marketersneed to be extremely cautious when it comes to labeling; clean labeling is required.You can't fool a consumer any more. That is why brands are putting everything out there and informing people about the ingredients.
Take us through your personal journey with skincare and what prompted you to launch a skin care brand of your own?
Like every other woman who doesn't want to age, I was the same in my twenties. I didn't know the importance of having the general glow that you have in your 20s when the skin is very young. I had severe acne all of a sudden, and like everyone else with acne, I went to the dermatologist and tried all of the allopathic treatments that were suggested. I spent a lot of money on medications and other things. The results were effective, but it didn't show long-lasting, permanent outcomes for me.
While living in the U.S. between 2005 and 2008 I used skincare with ‘actives’ such as hyaluronic acid, glycolic peels etc. Even though they were helpful, I was aware that I couldn't use them for an extended period of time because actives thin the skin and affect the skin barrier. It was less of a preventative measure and more like a cure.
My brother introduced me to some of the products he formulated while working at Pfizer. In 2019 and 2020, I noticed that many organic brands were emerging and that clean labeling was gaining traction. People were curious about what they were using and how to achieve healthy skin without using any surfactants, sulphates, or other chemicals that could harm their skin over time.
I only recently came to understand how crucial it is to maintain internal health and wellness in order to have good skin. Since my acne has cleared up, I've started to realize how important it is for me to maintain my internal health. Things such as regular exercise, eating well, giving up junk food & other items with a high-glycemic-index can make a huge difference.
My personal experiences with understanding skincare and overall health brought me to the realization (Circa 2019) that what worked for me might likely work for many others. Entrepreneurship is something I've recently developed an interest in and I just went ahead and launched the product and then the brand.
Tell us about the underlying philosophy behind your brand.
I started with the nutraceutical industry's motto, “Let food be thy medicine,” and we believe in it, thus we launched goods for skin and internal health. While working and trying to develop a product, we found that there were a lot of players in the health sector, but not many in the skin-carecategory. We believed that if one wants a healthy body, one must make changes from within, such as taking vitamin supplements.
Topical creams and serums undoubtedly benefit you because you need to protect your skin from pollution and possibly repair your skin while you sleep, which is when you are least active. However, if you don't have a healthy internal system, no matter what you do will only be very superficial, possibly only reaching the dermis level and not going beyond to the epidermis level, which is the next level in your skin. As a result, our skin supplements began to exhibit improved pickup when we were pushing out health supplements and skin supplements.
We have been into skincare for approximately nine to ten months and have come to the conclusion that skin is both our main strategy and our calling. Our current focus is primarily on the skin market, and we offer products based on the concerns that customers have. We refer to our range as being more efficacy-based.
We have products for acne, oily skin, spots, wrinkles, blackheads, whiteheads, pigmentation, and early ageing. We now provide vegan collagen creamer, a dairy substitute that eliminates the need for a separate health or skin drink in your daily routine. You just use this in place of milk in coffee or tea.
How big of a market opportunity do you believe the Indian market has for nutraceutical brands such as yours? What do you believe has caused this particular industry's growth over the last few years?
The neutraceutical industry has experienced growth over the last few years and the Covid 19 crisis only accelerated this growth. Although the pandemic was devastating for various reasons yet it forced us all to examine our lives. Before the pandemic we were all so accustomed to dining out and living a nine to five lifestyle that we had forgotten how important it was to look after our health. It was more of a break from our nonstop life, and it made us realise what is truly important. The importance of a clean diet, healthy relationships, and other things related to health were made clear to us. The game was therefore substantially altered by COVID.
According to reports, the Indian neutraceutical sector made up less than two percent of the global market until around 2020, but within a year it increased almost 50 percent of what it had been for all those years. People living in metropolitan and semi-urban areas are now being reminded more than ever that it's important to return to our roots and focus on internal cleansing in order to improve all aspects of our lives, including our health, appearance, and everything else.
What is your opinion on the direct-to-consumer D2C revolution? How do you leverage this trend to grow your business?
The D2C revolution is nothing more than cutting out the middleman and selling to the consumer directly, which is what we are doing we well. However, reliable online retailers are still needed as middlemen. When creating any brand, we still needed to use an Omni channel marketing strategy. Brands wish to provide more benefits to the final customer and we also don't want these internet stores to monopolies a lot of our hard work. Consumers want more trustworthy businesses to reach out to them; they don't want brands that are solely promoted by internet retailers.
However, more D2C brands are emerging and becoming visible to customers with the aid of Facebook marketing and Google, and we are realizing that ‘you’ are being heard as a consumer. Your feedback is directly reaching the brand, and the brand is creating products based on what consumers actually want. Communication has become very direct, and many of our learnings are coming from our customers in terms of the content that we create on our websites. It also helps us understand the problems being faced by consumers which makes it easier for us to fix it.
Additionally, we as brand make sure that our client service is strong. Consumers' pain points frequently prevent them from making repeat purchases or spreading positive word of mouth. Therefore, it becomes quite necessary for brands to create products that will help a consumer at a pain point that they don't even realise was a pain point.
How has I AM LOVE’s growth been since its inception? What is your vision for the brand’s growth in the near future?
Being a new player in the market for skin nutraceuticals based on efficacy, we initially ran into lot of challenges like getting the product on the shelf; it took a lot of consumer education and trust-building to grow. Reaching out to consumers was getting easier, but turning them into leads was become much more difficult. Months went by with virtually no sales, and then after a few months, things started to pick up. I learned several things and understood the value of social proof to consumers. As a result, we began offering a sizable number of products for free to customers who were dealing with acne. We'd give them a free two or three-month subscription, and all we'd ask in return were their images.
My vision is to be the go-to place for customers to receive a 360-degree treatment that is largely supported by science and nature, a good balance of the two. Topical and nutraceuticals ought to work well together. Therefore, the topical formulation should address the entire cycle to completion, which is not addressed by the neutraceuticals. If my nutraceutical is treating a specific issue from within, topicals should complete the cycle from outside. So we are working towards coming up with very specific topical treatments as well, which will close the entire circle of what a nutraceutical products are trying to provide.
