What made you want to enter the beauty/make-up industry?
I have always been passionate about building a business with women as the core audience. I remember making many women-centric business plans on paper while studying. Fast forward to 2012, we launched a subscription service that offered women an assortment of beauty products every month, and a number of them shared their preferences with us. This made us realise that even with the innumerable brands in India, none of them catered to the Indian skin tone or were favourable to the Indian climate. That is when I decided to enter this space.
How did the brand get its name?
During a brainstorming session, one of our team members suggested the brand name ‘SUGAR’, explaining that applying make-up products gives you a sugar rush without the high calories. We liked the name and decided to add it to our survey. We were pleasantly surprised with the results — a majority of the people believed that SUGAR already existed as a brand, which further solidified our decision to name our beauty brand SUGAR Cosmetics.
Who has been your inspiration through your journey?
My biggest inspiration in life has been my mother; she has been my strength since childhood and has pushed me to strive harder and establish my mark in the world. From a young age, she instilled the value of giving back to society in me. Her undeterred support, patience and love have guided me through some very tough times. Through her teachings, I hope that one day I can live up to her legacy as a mother and as a woman.
What were the challenges you faced in your journey?
A challenge that I think all new businesses face, and so did we, was working capital. Managing the credit cycle is key to keeping the working capital cycle to a bare minimum, which in turn ensures efficient capital use and rotation. We had little funding when we had started out and that was really tough. I recall times when we were out of stock and yet couldn’t order a new batch of products because we just didn’t have the money.
What is that one lesson or experience you will always remember?
One of the biggest life lessons I’ve come across is to always do what you love, find your passion and work on it every day. It’s crucial to realise the importance of hard work and have faith in yourself. At a very young age, I declined a plush `1 crore job offer to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. I trusted my instincts on choosing the life I wanted for myself.
What are the changes you have noticed in the cosmetic industry since you launched your brand?
The Indian beauty industry has seen remarkable growth over the past few decades. Beauty brands are now more in tune with their consumers, they are more focused on their needs. Gen Z and millennials want products that not only make them look beautiful, but also reflect their personality. For them make-up is a form of self-expression and this is what the industries are concentrating on.
What are the big plans for your brand?
As our next step, we plan on expanding our core pillars, we intend to go stronger on our omnichannel approach to be able to grow the brand and its product ranges. Increasing our distribution channels in India and beyond, along with creating an even stronger base on our D2C platforms will be key. We also will be looking at creating solid content to keep educating and engaging our SUGAR community.