Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Building a luxury skincare business is no child's play. However, for Srividya, that is how the idea developed- while making bath-time fun for her son!
Building a luxury skincare business is no child’s play. However, for Srividya, that is how the idea developed- while making bath-time fun for her son!
Bubbly, effervescent, and never one to shy away from a discussion about skincare, Srividya is a business owner former model and makeup artist. Growing up, she was surrounded by her father’s Ayurvedic practice and her mother’s love for fancy skincare.
When her new-born son was fighting eczema and Srividya realised how difficult it was to find good products, her brand was born! She used her knowledge to combine the best of luxury beauty and Ayurveda with her stint in the beauty business and natural instincts to launch Vidzeal. The simple gesture of making bath-time safe and fun for her son, helped her embark on her entrepreneurial journey in luxury skincare.
Today, Vidzeal sells a range of hand-crafted soaps, scrubs, body butter, healing lotions, serums, and more. As for skincare tips, she swears by the three easy to remember rules – scrub for circulation, masks for supplement and body butter to replenish the moisture.
She believes women who want to start a business need to trust their instincts and go right ahead. “If creating is where your strength lies, do it! Get help when faced with blank spots. Know what you are good at and work on them. Delegate tasks that you are not so good at, but still need to be done for the business, to someone willing to do so for a price,” she says.
Commenting on her journey, she says it is difficult to gain the trust of people when you sell via an online model. Her clients often trust her instincts and make decisions based on what they see over a screen without touching, feeling, or smelling the products.
However, the compliments and feedback are entirely worth it, she adds. And jokingly recollects how a client said that her sex life improved after using Vidzeal’s liquid gold serum!
She says her products stand out thanks to three things- ingredients, process, and blends! “I make all products by hand, based on clients’ skin needs, preferences, and lifestyle. This customised approach is missing in the commercial space- filled with mass-produced goods. I spend the right amount of time understanding the client’s preferences. It’s like building a unique relationship with people’s skin and learning to feed it appropriately.”
Your products are often a blend of natural butter and essential oils – why is it so crucial for us to use essential oils on our skin? What is your favourite essential oil?
Essential oils are ‘essential’ in the sense that they contain the ‘essence of’ the plant fragrance. They give life to the butter and oils. The perfect blend of oils can induce a mood by inhalation.
There are mood receptors in our brain that respond to different types of scents. Moods can be altered by a prescribed blend of essential oils. I am a massive fan of Myrrh, Frankincense, and Lotus essential oils. Besides being gifts worthy for Jesus in the Gospel, Myrrh and Frankincense have properties that make them the one-stop-shop for healing surface-level scars!
How has COVID-19 affected your business?
COVID has put our business to a standstill! This is not because of a change in skin needs but because of a lack of transport. The only thing that changed is that I am unable to courier products.
Once the lockdown is over and services resume, I will have a whole lot of respect and love for the entire system that enables us to do the things we want to do. I reckon people will want to stock up instead of trusting impulse for last-minute orders.
What is one piece of advice that someone has given you in your life that you will cherish forever? Tough one! I’m known to never take advice. But if I were to really think, it will have to be my 4-year-old son suggesting “Mama, eat some food, you’ll feel better.”
Vidzeal products can be ordered through their Instagram page.
Picture credits: The author and the interviewee
A marketing graduate from the Indian School Of Business, Nandhitha is passionate about writing. She loves to write about the world around her and also enjoys dabbling with fiction/poetry. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Being a writer, Nivedita Louis recognises the struggles of a first-time woman writer and helps many articulate their voice with development, content edits as a publisher.
“I usually write during night”, says author Nivedita Louis during our conversation. Chuckling she continues,” It’s easier then to focus solely on writing. Nivedita Louis is a writer, with varied interests and one of the founders of Her Stories, a feminist publishing house, based in Chennai.
In a candid conversation she shared her journey from small-town Tamil Nadu to becoming a history buff, an award-winning author and now a publisher.
Nivedita was born and raised in a small town in Tamil Nadu. It was for schooling that she first arrived in Chennai. Then known as Madras, she recalls being awed by the city. Her love-story with the city, its people and thus began which continues till date. She credits her perseverance and passion to make a difference to her days as a vocational student among the elite sections of Madras.
Please enter your email address