We were lucky to catch up with Shilpi Jain recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Shilpi, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Skinveda means science and nature in harmony. As a mother, I always looked for safe, non-toxic, and gentle topical products for my kids and family. As a scientist, I had the ability to know exactly what each chemical did in a product. My mission was to create products that married science and nature and showed results at the same time without breaking the bank. My first product was the Replenishing serum that I had developed for my son’s eczema. I saw immediate results and soon it got in the hands of estheticians, doctors, friends and family. They encouraged me to create more products. Skinveda was born and launched at Whole Foods. The ethos behind my brand has been inspired by Ayurveda – a 5000 year old medicine that originated in India and simply means “The Science of Living”. According to Ayurveda, no two people are the same and we are all born with a certain prakriti (inherent nature) and that prakriti changes due to the influences of physical environment, our every day living (or vikriti), lifestyle, nutrition, and how we react to stress. Based on your mind-body type or “dosha”, one can really take charge of their health if they listen to their external and internal cues and follow their dosha specific diet, and skincare routine. The ingredients I chose were adaptogenic and customized to the specific mind-body type. By taking a short quiz, almost like a personality quiz, you are able to determine your Ayurvedic Skin type. So, Skinveda became popular due to it’s niche in addressing skin issues that arose from stress we all face and unique to each skin type. We became the second Ayurvedic brand to be launched in the Plano Whole Foods.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hi, I am so happy to be featured by Voyage Dallas once again. I started my journey as a medicinal chemist in 2000 and went on to work with top pharmaceutical and cosmetic manufacturing firms in California and Dallas. In 2011, while working at a fortune 500 company in Dallas, I noticed the need to create products using my background as a medicinal scientist and my immense self-taught knowledge in Ayurveda. I started working out of my laundry room and created products that combined science and nature. By keeping overhead costs low and having great support from family and friends, I was able to launch 13 SKUs into Whole Foods by 2013. It was perfect timing as they needed an Ayurvedic brand and I am proud to say I was the second Ayurvedic brand at Whole Foods at the time. Since then, Skinveda has sparked a lot of attention by international retailers. I have found the ability to help women and men to truly embrace who they are and not hide their flaws by covering up with make up that ultimately is not a long term option. I believe in giving back towards cancer research and to organizations like PETA and Operation Kindness. I also like to do individual consultations and be on the speaker panel at the society of cosmetic chemists. I am most proud of seeing a difference on people’s skin and health and learning about their journey into Ayurveda. I also am proud to announce our new collaboration with an international investor whereby Skinveda will be sold world-wide under the new name: Ayulogica!
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
The one thing that makes us stand out is that we give clients a concierge service. Now a days when you have a question or concern about a product, you speak with a robot or customer service – someone who has probably no knowledge in skincare. To eliminate this and knowing as a customer how that feels, I decided to share my email with the customers and newsletters with information to engage with them. Also, a great platform to connect directly with customers has been Facebook and Instagram. All these social media platforms have been instrumental in keeping in touch with my clients. This definitely fosters brand loyalty and at the same time helps a small start up grow and improvise.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.skinveda.com
- Instagram: @skinvedaskincare
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skinveda/photos/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skinveda/