From Shruti Haasan and Ranveer Singh to Rashmika Mandanna and Rana Daggubati — celebs and dermatologists are all gung-ho about their own beauty brands

With Priyanka Chopra’s Anomaly launching in India a month ago (a year after it was launched in USA) and Ranveer Singh announcing his investment in desi makeup brand Sugar earlier this month — the world of celebrities and makeup have crashed into each other in India like never before creating a mélange of sorts that nobody is really complaining about!

But these are just the recent collaborations. Earlier in August, couturier Masaba Gupta launched her cosmo-wellness beauty brand, LoveChild and in April, actor Rana Daggubati launched his men’s grooming brand DCRAF. But that’s not all, a year ago in December; actress Nayanthara launched her lip care brand The Lip Balm Company and more recently still, actresses Rashmika Mandanna and Shruti Haasan also announced their respective skincare lines with Plum and Pulp. Closer home, three dermatologists from across South India — Rasya Dixit, Kavitha KB and Aarthi L — collaborated with actress Anagha Maruthora to launch a skincare line called MySkinn. Celebrity skincare is now in India officially and we catch up with a few celebrities and dermatologists to track the trend and find out more.

The idea
What better way to market skincare than through celebrities who are always expected to have picture perfect skin! And it gets even better when the celebrities go beyond just being mere brand ambassadors and do more.

“I’ve always been a skincare junkie and Plum was one of the brands I fell in love with when I first came across them. Their packaging, their products — and the products smell so good — but, more than anything else, they deliver what they say they will deliver. When the opportunity came by to collaborate, I was more than glad to build a long-term relationship with a brand that is not only passionate about its products but also walks the talk when it comes to being clean, real and good through its initiatives,” begins actress Rashmika Mandanna who is now an investor and brand ambassador for vegan skincare brand Plum.

Sharing similar interests, Ranveer Singh, who is now an investor and brand evangelist in homegrown beauty company Sugar Cosmetics says, “I have admired the brand’s ability to build a tremendous fan-following over the years and I’m excited to be a part of this journey and help the brand achieve its mission of providing Indian women access to premium and quality makeup products especially formulated for them.”

Shruti Haasan also seems to have shared this excitement around the brand she collaborated with for her recently released line, Pulp X Shruti. “I’ve always been into skincare and I’ve been following Pulp for quite some time. I discovered them during the lockdown and I found out that they were originally from Hyderabad and I was living there too, through most of the lockdown. So, I took some time to find out more about the brand, their brand ethos and how they developed each product and formulated them,” Shruti explains.

And the same enthusiasm was also shared by Rana Daggubati concerning his foray into skincare. “DCRAF is a D2C men’s grooming brand co-created by creator-led live entertainment commerce platform Roposo and me. I believe that men neglect skincare and grooming because it seems overly complex to them. With DCRAF, my aim was to make ‘looking good’ simple for men through trustworthy, effective products. An Indian brand for Indian men, with inclusivity as its core philosophy, this brand has products in the face, beard and skincare categories,” shares Rana.

The buy in
But how involved is a celebrity in a collaboration like this? Do they really spend time investing in the product? Do they use these products on a daily basis, especially since they are now brand ambassadors and investors too?

“I’ve been very involved from day one in the Pulp X Shruti line, because I am a huge skin care aficionado. I love beauty, wellness and skincare products. I knew what ingredients I wanted and Pulp with their extensive knowledge and research were able to take the ideas I had and make them better,” Shruti is quick to respond.

“I play an active part in what the brand stands for and the curation of its product range. The essence of the brand — men’s grooming being simple — stems from my experiences and the realisation that many other Indian men would be wanting the same,” adds Rana.

Rashmika takes the conversation slightly further saying, “Given the industry I am in, it is absolutely essential to be on top of my game when it comes to my skin and hair. However, I want to bring and witness more ‘realness’ in the beauty space. I would also like to bring about a change in as many unrealistic beauty ideals as I can along the way. I see ‘perfection’ as a ‘made-up’ concept. I think I would bring in a consumer lens, which according to me, is at the forefront of building a successful brand. Plum also believes in striking false beauty standards and stands for manifesting real goodness through its initiatives.”

The other side
But does this work for the dermatologist formulating the skincare product in the first place? How beneficial is having someone popular or a celeb on board?

“Indian skin deserves its own range of skin care, one that is suitable for our skin colour and our weather. Simple things like how a regular sunscreen feels sticky or leaves a white cast, affects the compliance to the product. The other main reason was that most of the product lines now focus on actives, instead of focusing on essential skincare to protect the skin. As dermatologists, we decided to bridge the gap between what the consumer needed and what was available to us to prescribe. Anagha is a gorgeous young tech savvy actress, in sync with this new generation. Today’s generation is an Insta generation, clued into social media, and wants instant solutions. However, skincare is not like that, it takes time, correct guidance and care under a dermatologist prescription. Anagha understands the importance of taking the correct counsel from the real experts — dermatologists. She trusts them with her skincare. And therefore, she becomes our ideal brand ambassador,” explains Dr Aarthi L from MySkinn.

And Anagha joins in immediately, “I have always liked simple and fuss-free skin care. My lifestyle is such that often my skin is tired and overly treated with makeup and it needs care. But, I want to do the minimum and get maximum results. With MySkinn I found that comfort zone and trust. So, when I heard about her plan to create a new brand of skincare products, I definitely wanted to be part of it.”

What next, is of course, the only question we’re left with and Shruti graces us with an answer regarding her future endeavours with Pulp X Shruti. “We hope to expand this range to have more targeted solutions and do more research into what is required in the market. We are unisex and we welcome all sorts of skin types and colours, textures, ages — no barriers! So, as we go forward we hope to create products for everyone and for every possible skin problem they could have,” she concludes.

romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal

With inputs from Sabrina Rajan