Latest / Skin Anarchy / The Meaning of Modern Ayurveda in Skincare featuring Pritika Swarup of Prakti

Transcript

The Meaning of Modern Ayurveda in Skincare featuring Pritika Swarup of Prakti · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very, very special episode.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very honored to be hosting our guest today.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: She is truly a trailblazer in the skincare beauty community.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Many of you might recognize her from all of the modeling work she's done and all the wonderful work she does across the board, but her brand is absolutely brilliant.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, please welcome Brithika Smaru from Procdi Beauty.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome Brithika.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: So excited to host you.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to be talking to you and I'm just thrilled to be talking about Procdi.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's our four-year anniversary and so excited to jump in.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't wait to get started, but I want to actually kind of, you know, have you walk us down memory lane?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: You've done so many things and accomplished so much at such a young age.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's, you know, that's like the brown person motto in life.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So walk us down memory lane.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: What got you into modeling and like your whole career?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like what led to that?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was scouted at Disney World.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I got started in this whole modeling industry.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from Virginia, and that's what brought me to New York.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, that's how I started going to school here, building my career.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's where like everything kind of happened at once.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was just 17.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as far as my skincare, my whole skincare journey started when I was like four years old with my mom, and you know, she's an Ayurvedic practitioner.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: So she really taught me what beauty is, you know, beauty from within and this idea of holistic wellness and just that everything is connected, which was so different from anything I had understood in my career.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they were like conflicting ideologies, right?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, and then I went through college.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I actually started Procte, I started building Procte my senior year.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's it's uh been with me for, I mean, I feel like now it's been six years that I've been building the brand.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, four years the brand has been live and out there.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been a really, really fun journey with a lot of.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I like I know we were before the interview started, and I was just telling for all of our listeners, I was telling Rithika how excited I I've been to watch Procte Grow because it's been a brand that I remember like the first time I saw it on Instagram, I was like, I love this and I love everything about it because it's colorful.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you the Hindi is there, the the words, the meaning, it's all there in a way that's meaningful to a South Asian person, but it's still discoverable by somebody who doesn't understand the language, hasn't been introduced to the culture yet, you know?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that is so difficult to do from a branding side.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like, you know, I've seen a lot of brands in this industry, but I would love for you to speak on that, you know, like what was that blueprint making phase like for you, you know, like putting everything on paper before you even started the branding side of everything?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there was no blueprint because it hadn't been done.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh, you know, really started by, I mean, just I've I've always felt really proud to be Indian and I've always felt very much connected to my culture because of my mom.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, when I was thinking about this brand, I wanted it to embody not only the philosophies of Ayurveda, but also, you know, who we are, you know, our beautiful jewel tones in India are, you know, we talked about our copper skincare tools, even the names of the products, like their Hindi English words, it's just a celebration of our culture.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's also, you know, people will always have different stereotypes of what Indian culture is, right?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just being able to show that in a way where I was just super proud of it.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And even from the ingredients in the formulas, like everything was built with such care and intention, and especially with the packaging, like I think that's where a lot of it shows, not only in the formulas, but like the genie-shaped jars and you know, it just down to the to every single detail.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like I get really excited about it because I mean it it took a long time, I think, to to really get the sweet spot.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it it took a lot of time, you know.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: The two years of development was really um was really difficult because you want to get it right and you don't know how people are you know, they're gonna love it, they're gonna hate it, are they gonna understand it, right?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I get what I get really excited about talking through is just honestly like the packaging and the fusion of all of the nods to India.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I mean, honestly, it comes through in a very, very elegant and beautiful way.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's that embodies, you know, Indian culture that embodies like how all of us see it, right?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like when we look at our culture, I mean, I know for me it's always been like this.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I grew up in the culture, but I'm always in awe of all the wonderful moving parts, and especially when it comes to beauty for so long.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure you've seen this, obviously.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you created such a beautiful brand, but for all of us listening, I think a lot of South Asian people, especially when we are living in America, living in other parts of the world, we see our culture being appropriated so much that it becomes like, I don't know, just routine.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you start seeing it come out again, you know, in a beautiful way, in a in a blended way, it's beautiful to watch that, you know.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I really, really celebrate what you've accomplished here.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that's also why Procdi grew so fast, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've had such an upward trajectory since you launched.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: How's that been, you know, from the business side?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think it's been, I mean, I was really surprised and excited, like as we gain momentum.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: We started with one product.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have 10.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in the one product, our instant glow exfoliator, that's still, you know, a fan favorite.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, we spent years with the research and, you know, leading focus groups and with hundreds of women, right?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And trying to understand like what they really want from beauty.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, obviously they wanted like healthy glowing skin.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we launched with Pretty Polish.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then we followed up every few months with a new product, like taking all the learnings and like what our audience really wanted and putting that into the next product and the next product.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, sooner or later, like we figured out our D2C, and then we started launching with different retail partners.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there was Goop and then Credo, then uh Revolve and Bloomingdales.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I think what's really exciting is when you feel like you understand your consumer and you you know what they need, and that's what kind of fuels you to keep going and putting out new, new, new.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's kind of how it just happened.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a lot of uh it's a lot of trial and error too, right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we learned with every single step.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I mean, that's awesome though, that you were able to grow it the way you did.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I really want to actually dive into the Ayurveda side of it because um Ayurveda is such a like broad and in-depth area of study, you know, and it's like there is nothing that can encompass everything that we, you know, can possibly learn from this uh the science.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so tell me about your journey with Ayurveda.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what were things that really inspired you and obviously that you incorporated, but like where did that begin?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you really digest it in a way that you're like, I can translate this, you know, meaningfully in a brand.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the journey, it's been my whole life.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh, you know, as I said, my mom's an Ayurvedic practitioner.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: She actually works at the Ayurvedic Institute.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like she she really taught me about the idea of balance within the body, mind, body, consciousness, and that a lot of issues with skin health, like inflammation, hyperpigmentation, acne, like it's never about solving like the symptom or like the surface level.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was really that it was coming from inside, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like stress, lack of sleep, um, you know, a lot of inflammation.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was just, there was just this idea of this interconnectedness, right?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that had always been just in the back of my mind and had been like part of a lot of practices that I was doing since I was a kid.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And just realizing when I started to spend more time in the industry, like even just working with all these different cosmetic and beauty brands, like I started to see that the industry and just in general, like I guess you could say modern skincare brands, were all about just addressing like the symptoms versus understanding what the root causes and then looking at skin like it's isolated, right?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like it has nothing to do with any of our other systems.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and that was really strange to me.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of like the first gap that I saw there.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, they're these two philosophies, but they're growing completely independently.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, that that was like one of the biggest things is that I wanted to bridge these two philosophies.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I never wanted to obviously put out products that weren't like efficacious, like that was always going to be like the number one.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then there was the idea of balancing the microbiome, strengthening the skin barrier, thinking of skin health as long term, and also like something that I that I really get excited about is the ritual aspect.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you think about Indian beauty rituals, they're very sensorial, they're indulgent.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: We got excited and uh we look forward to, you know, our beauty routines.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was something that, you know, over here it was just not the same.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh it's just a lot more like clinical, and it was like, okay, this is a routine, I have to do these things, but you know, it's something, it's a time where you can give back to yourself and you should truly enjoy and look forward to.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to bring that back to skincare.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so every Prakti product is it's its own ritual.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like we have our our instant glow exfoliator, it it uh gets activated with water, it changes color, it has mood-boosting aromas, like um, it's just this moment where you can truly be surprised and excited and enjoy.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that and that's no, I don't know if that's like the Ayurvedic philosophy, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's the idea of like how we enjoy our rituals.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to infuse that into the brand.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, we actually I saw, I saw what you had sent earlier about Ayurveda being known as like just the ingredients, just natural botanicals.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just such a small part of what Ayurveda is.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's this whole system.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think just picking and choosing the right, like the right philosophies that could be, you know, relevant to skincare, right?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that Ayurveda is a huge science and it's been around for thousands of years.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just understanding like how I can also educate on this, right?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and how people understand Ayurveda.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautifully, beautifully articulated.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I I couldn't agree with you more.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's so much that gets lost in translation sometimes when you talk about Ayurveda and like everything that you said resonates so much with me because like I know for a long time for me, for the podcast, I was talking to a lot of brands that were, you know, trying to explain this idea of like the sensorial aspect of skincare and how important that is.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And like now we're like catching up with it, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: From like the psychology side, the psychiatry side, where we're realizing like this is an like a doorway for so many people to have that time and their space and their and their day where they can be like, okay, this is me time, you know, even if it's five minutes, even if it's two minutes, it becomes a part of you and it becomes a part of your your self-care.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like there needs to be an understanding that there are ancient sciences, ancient wisdom that's already existing right in the world.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And South Asia is a beautiful place that's an example of that, that this has been there for so long.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so for us to not tap into that is is almost like an injustice, you know, as human beings.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: We we aren't looking into what already exists and really leveraging.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if look at all the bathhouse cultures, right, across the world, like Morocco and the Roman Empire, and there's so much that we can take from that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: But then I mean, to bring that forward from the Ayurveda side is really, I think, very meaningful because it's one of the only cultures that survived for so long in that robustness, in its robustness, you know what I mean?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if that made sense where I'm trying to go with that, but um, it really does matter, you know, for us to understand.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I love that you really dug into it and I love that you brought it forward.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's such an important area.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So no, thank you.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Ayurveda is even more relevant today.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we talk about the like now, right now, like the gut skin connection, like people are talking about these things.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're seeing like Ashwagandha and Rhodiola Rosea like pop up in like supplements.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think it's super relevant today.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm excited to see, you know, a lot of these things becoming more and more mainstream.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think we saw this a long time ago, but it's it's really happy, you know, makes me very happy to see.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to actually ask you, I want to divert a little bit because there are so many conversations I feel like going on right now around like South Asian-inspired beauty, you know, and I know we've seen this for a long time, right?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: We saw like Haldi and like all the, you know, ginger and everything was coming up in little bits and pieces.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: But then like I almost feel like the narrative went left, you know, like it was like really, really, really good for a long time.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: But then I started seeing social media talk about South Asian women in a very like negative light.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think I I talked to Adi.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you saw that episode I did recently with Adi, but he was I asked him this and I want to actually get your perspective on this.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Where where did that narrative turn into how South Asian women aren't desirable?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm telling you, as a millennial, I did not grow up with that at all.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like I did not hear it.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: My white friends weren't talking about it, my black friends weren't talking about it, you know what I mean?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so all of a sudden I look in the social media world and this realm, and I'm like, what the heck, man?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where did all of this start?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, have you seen that?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or I don't know if I'm hallucinating, but no, I I don't know if I've seen that South Asian women aren't desirable.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think that there's a there's always a lot of opinions out there, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um I haven't seen anything like super night.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, as a kid, people go through a lot of different things.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, like I mean, there's like bullying, there's like, okay, you're different, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I also feel like when people kind of open their minds to see uh different types of cultures and backgrounds and you know identities, like that's that's the way that it should be.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it that isn't always the way that people, you know, have the experience being brought up.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know if it's like a younger generation of not having the openness and you know being able to be uh just receptive to different cultures and ideas and people and backgrounds.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I it could be that, but um, I don't I haven't seen too many negative things about the people hating on South Asians.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you haven't you know, it might be because I filter my social media use.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't I'll go on to post.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not like one of those, like, you know, scroller, like I'm not scrolling for hours.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that that can sometimes be bad because you know, we want to stay up to date with everything.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be able to, you know, just be educated about everything from the trends to what the hot topics are, but I also feel like that can cloud my it can it not only like takes a lot of time, but it just clouds my mind, you know.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, it does, it does.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're right, and I think that's brilliant that you don't do that because trust me, there's you're not missing anything.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I would definitely be if I was seeing things like that, I'd be like, what are you talking about?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what I'm saying.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's what like honestly, that's why I'm asking you.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because for my entire childhood, growing up, watching this universe, watching this world, I was like, Are you serious?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, South Asian women are like some of the most beautiful women on the planet.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are you guys talking about?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I see all these young-core your eye.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: I threw your eye.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and also, like, and the thing is, like, I've I've seen it with the younger generation.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm bringing it up.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I've seen a lot of younger creators, they're beautiful women, beautiful creators.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They bring our culture up and they also bring this narrative up.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it just like breaks my heart to hear that because I'm like, we should never have to like no culture should have to deal with that.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: But then also, like when things start popping up out of nowhere, it makes it even more, in my opinion, important for brands to exist that really reflect the culture, you know what I mean?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So people can start understanding what we're all about, like at the end of the day, that's really what it is.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it comes from that understanding.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I get why it's like the younger generation too, because I think we've all experienced different forms of that like growing up where people don't understand, like coming to school with oil in your hair, or you know, what a bindi is.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think we all experience that when we're younger, but I think you know, this generation, people are just they're out there, you know, they're online.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's so much more important, I think, now to even say something, to be like, let me tell you about this so you know what you're what you're commenting on.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I hear you.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, now I want to ask you because I know skincare is an incredibly saturated industry.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's been like that for a few years now.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you launched Proctly when I mean this was kind of starting to happen, I feel like, you know, or it was already happening.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, were you ever like doubtful or like, you know, did you ever have moments where you were like, I don't know about the scaling and I don't know what I'm gonna do from the business side with, you know, growing this brand the way I want?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what was that like for you as a young entrepreneur?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course, there's a lot of uh self-doubt, I think, especially when you're building something that doesn't exist and people may not really understand it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think that Practhi has grown so much, like even from this initial idea, um, not knowing like what the products were gonna be, like there was no framework like we talked about.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just this like voice in your head that's like, you can do this, you've got this.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because when you're on to something, like you have a gut feeling, right?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to learn how to trust yourself.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so it took me, I think, a lot of back and forth, but then I got to a point where I really trusted myself.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I trusted my judgment and and knowing that I really wanted to do this because otherwise, you know, I was.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been in the industry since I was 17 as a model.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I studied financial economics, I was supposed to go work at a bank.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I, you know, there were just my parents still think that I should sometimes for that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're like, you know, I actually think he'd be great over there.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, guys, come on now, we've been down this road enough.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not gonna do that.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think I I just knew in my heart that this was exactly what I was meant to do.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it took, it took a lot of uh, you know, a lot of like I feel like courage to be like, this is what I want to do.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then afterwards you just put everything you've got into it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it wasn't easy.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, it's so hard to give up when you have a road bump and like a bump in the road, and like it's just so no, it was did I say it's so hard?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to just be like, oh, something wrong happened.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I this isn't for me, you know, this is not gonna work out, or like the first issue that we came across, like, you know, it really tears you up inside because as a founder, it's like directly, you know, it's directly like back to you.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you just have to know that the that that voice in your head and the gut feeling that you have, you have to keep going.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I mean, it's it's challenging.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say I haven't cried many nights, you know, when things when things have happened, but I just knew that it would it was what I was meant to do.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just, you know, I never gave up on that that idea and that feeling of just I'm gonna do it.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's I mean, I it's not easy, and I think that's a really, really important message to put out as well, because I think these days we have there's so much going on, I think, with the economy that everybody wants to go into entrepreneurship, which is a beautiful thing.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think the more we create, the more we learn and we grow.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: But there is a real slope here, you know what I mean?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: There is a real like learning curve, and you exactly how you said so beautifully, like you can't, it's so easy to give up and it's so easy to be like, this is hard, and you know, but you have to keep going.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, just going off of that, what were some of the moments?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe maybe walk us through some of your war stories, you know, what were some of the moments where you felt like, you know, this is tough or this is something that I didn't really plan for, you know, were there any moments like that?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think you only have more and more of those moments, like where it just because there's like new problems that you never faced.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you you think that in the beginning you get to a point where you're like, oh yeah, like now I've seen it all.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can, I get it all, but it's always evolving.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you have to be able to adapt so quickly.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So especially in the beginning, like I didn't have any experience like as a chemist or developing products or even building relationships with different manufacturing labs.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And like I had this idea, you know, of our formulas, not only being these Ayurvedic botanicals, but these like act like advanced actives and having this like idea of balance.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then with the sensory experience brought in, I mean, I can tell you a lot of those conversations with like the you know, the heads of these labs, they were like, I like I don't understand this.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, we don't have these Ayurvedic ingredients, like just you know, like there were so many no's and so many uh experiences that I had where I'm like, oh my gosh, like what if I can't create these types of products because there's just no existing, you know, structure.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like even I couldn't, like I had to buy so many of the ingredients in our products like up front, you know, with capital that I didn't have, but even to make the uh, you know, the different iterations of the product, like even not even to launch the product yet.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was just to, you know, try to make it happen.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that was really hard because I I just felt like, okay, I know that this is going to be really important because we can't ever forget about, you know, including like the adaptogens, the anti inflammatories.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, for example, like Rhodiola Rosea was not something I could just get.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I just bring up that as like an example of like we couldn't just like source that.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like it took a lot to even incorporate that into our you know, cleanser.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it that was pretty hard because I was like, after talking to a couple labs, I was like, what if I can't actually create?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Products like this, like the whole idea, you know, this whole idea.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: But then you have enough conversations and you find the right person that understands you, that understands your you know unique philosophy behind each product.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea that, you know, we I want them to have mood-boosting aromas because there is a really important experience.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like the smell of the product is very important.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can energize or it can calm you.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's a lot of those uh, you know, parts of the product formulation process that that really uh I think aged me 10 years, but you know, I after those, I think I realized like you find the right person and then you just go and you're like, okay, now you can do this.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: But that was like one of those times where I was like, oh my gosh, like if I can't do this, like maybe this isn't the right thing, maybe it's not possible.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that was probably one of the harder um moments at the beginning.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it makes sense.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, especially because you're bringing like a whole like cultural thing over that's not it's just harder to source these ingredients.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: I totally get that, you know.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the qu the biggest questions I've had, and I don't know, I mean, uh how comfortable you are speaking to this, but like clean beauty has been big for a long time, right?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen it at so many clean brands, and it it was a cool movement for there for a while, but I feel like Ayurveda gets lumped up in clean beauty, and I don't like that because I'm like Ayurveda is a science, there's a science to everything, as you know, and there is a reason why everything is documented the way it is in Ayurvedic literature.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so, what were I mean, did you run into that at all?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Where like maybe retailers or somebody looking at the brand was trying to lump it up with clean beauty?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I do think that, you know, especially when you have this like unique identity or like product philosophy, like people want to put you in a category, right?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's there is no already existing category, you know.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: But there's like the clean beauty conversation where Ayurveda is also clean beauty to in a sense, right?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like we use natural botanical ingredients, like everything from like homemade masks and and hair oils, like it is like that's as clean as you can get, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always been a part of what Ayurveda is, but um Iur Ayurveda is not what I mean is clean beauty is a part of Ayurveda, but Ayurveda is not clean beauty.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's important to be able to communicate and educate on what what your brand is saying, right?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like what you you want your products to be interpreted as.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I mean, for sure, like when there are say like clean beauty editorials from retailers that we work with, like I love that Procties included because that's true.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are like the cleanest our clean, like and I wouldn't even say like credo clean, like EWG, like you know, there's so many different ways to even talk about clean, but from the beginning, we made sure that we had done all of the, I mean, forget about just clinical testing, like it's like the safety, stability, the ocular, the, I mean, there are you know there's just so many things that you wanna you wanna um really focus on in the beginning.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I just think that you shouldn't have to fit into a category.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard, it's hard because people will always try to put you in the category, but really communicating who you are, why the products are different, you know, that's that's what's important.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's awesome.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I yeah, I I like that you pointed that out.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: That I really is clean, it is clean beauty.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's there's also science, you know, like it just happens to be incredibly science fact.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I think it's really cool to to see that too, because for a long time we we like you said, you know, like we love the buckets, we love the categories and the grouping of things, but it's like I think we're finally, and this is my humble opinion, we're finally coming into the space in skincare where our consumers are like, no, I want the science.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's they're also still like, well, don't compromise though.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Don't give me all the all the crap, you know, keep keep it clean, keep it nice and you know what I need, but but give me the science.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Ayurveda is just like that's like there it is.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's the holy grail of that, if you really think about it.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so much, and I also like I've seen recently, like, I don't know if you if you follow a lot of like the regenerative skincare scene at all, but like I've seen a lot of people are like raving about regenerative uh skincare, right?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like wound healing research and like burn research and stuff.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: I love seeing that because I'm as a scientist, I'm like, yeah, you know, total geek out.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, there is so much value in understanding what like true like herbal medicine can do and to understand like the way things, these molecules work.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what Ayurveda really brings forward is like we don't know what half the stuff does.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like we don't like some of the extracts, like honestly, like how many how many people have like taken these extracts and like really isolated every molecule, studied it?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we haven't done that yet.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess my question for you is like as you evolve Procthi, do you see like a day where you're gonna want to go down that road more where you're like, let me really hone in on some of these like major molecules that are in some of these ingredients?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think that all like I don't want to say all skincare, but like even like medicines that we take, like everything, I mean not everything, but a lot of the medicines, like they've come from nature, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's what's so cool to me is that 5,000 years like of this Ayurvedic wellness system, like you're right, sometimes we don't know what each ingredient does, but like someone, I mean, I'm saying someone did, like, like at the when it was all being created, of course.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that it's exciting that even now it's becoming a bit more modernized.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what's where the innovation is really going to happen is the synergy between you talk about these scientific ingredients or clinical ingredients, and and with like say, I don't know, like think niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, like with the white, with white snow mushroom or with uh ashwagandha, because that's super moisturizing and hydrating.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's an exciting space that we could move into.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we are already in that space.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it could be broken down even more, and there's a lot more to learn there, but that's the whole idea behind the formulations of procte.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's this idea of synergy, of this Ayurvedic science, and then also the advanced actives and more of the clinicals that people are, I feel like, familiar with.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you see like niacinamide, most people will know what that is.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna know what a white snow mushroom does?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but yes, but they do work even better together.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and I even think like with our serum, for example, it's a hydrating serum, it has many different molecular sizes of hyaluronic acid.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then it also has like the niacinamides, the white snow mushrooms, ashwagon.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's like, I mean, when I talk about these ingredients, it's actually even more powerful together.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be so cool to do more research because I think that we've kind of scratched the surface.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me in 10 years, like maybe we will have done it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: I would love for you to actually like eventually, because like I I really think, you know, when I look at Ayurveda and I look at some of these like natural, like just they call them natural ingredients, but they're I mean, there's just so much potential there.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And like people don't, we don't realize it right now because frankly, funding isn't there.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I'm speaking strictly from the science side, like there's so many experiments I want to set up and I want to do.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, if I submit this to the NAH right now, they're gonna be like, no, you know, like this isn't cancer research, I don't care.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, you know, I think there's just so much potential.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love when if I read the, especially like South Asian brands, like, you know, or inspired brands, if we go down that road of like, yeah, like let's let's dig in, you know, let's figure this stuff out.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Cause there's just so much.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel like there's just so much that we haven't learned, you know, and we haven't even uncovered yet.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to um shift gears a little bit because you are, you know, a woman in this area of, especially with like growing a brand, it's very difficult, I think, for women to um talk about what it really takes behind the scenes, at least from what I've noticed.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think we are just wired to not really focus on that.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd love to get your you know, take on the that side of entrepreneurship that's not talked about.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: What does it take behind the scenes?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, raising money and getting the funds and building a business that's meant to scale.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see the biggest pitfalls for women, especially and women of color, especially?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'd love to learn about that, that side of it.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I feel like I I always think about this because I I think about what I wish someone would have told me.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you're starting a business, any type of business in any industry, you can't possibly know everything.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you can set yourself up with really great mentors, which is what I did, because obviously, you know, I didn't know anything about product formulation, even on the marketing side.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like my I knew a lot from working as a model in the industry and understanding how products were marketed, and that it was more of an emotional connection versus the idea of like, okay, people just buy the product for the product.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's also the idea that people are invested in outcomes and results, but like you can't know what you don't know.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in the beginning, like, and I had I had some amazing mentors.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I probably would have my advice would be like I and I would have probably set myself up with a couple more mentors, like across the board.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I also think um saying that it's okay that you don't know.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think in the beginning, I also tried to act like I knew everything, right?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't want anyone, and especially as a young female entrepreneur, you don't want people to think, oh, she shouldn't be in this room.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't know, you know, she does she shouldn't be in this marketing meeting.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she doesn't even know how to talk about a series A.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you get so worried about uh people thinking that you you're just not good, you know, you're not at a stage where you can be here or that someone should be doing this, like someone else should be doing this type of thing.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so I think pretending that you know things that you don't know is the worst thing you can do when you're starting a business because you will not go seek help from mentors or from people that you want to bring onto your team.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think you have to be very vulnerable and real about what your strengths are and when you really need help.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I wish that I knew that in the beginning and I wasn't so afraid, you know.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just I because you are, and that's okay to talk about.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm very confident and I'm able to talk about that.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, maybe two years ago I would have been like, oh yeah, everything's perfect, everything's great, you know, nothing wrong is happening.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think that's a big thing, and I think just having clear goals and milestones that you want to reach, not just saying, like, hey, we're just gonna launch this brand and see what happens and grow the brand as quickly as we can, because also there's a huge difference in growing the brand sustainably and reaching profitability versus having great numbers and and growing, growing, growing, but at the cost of you know, when you you're like deep in the negative.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, when we were at one point deep in the negative, and then I had to kind of restructure the whole business and make sure that we were we're having this path to profitability, like a real path to profitability.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, these are things that you learn, and I would say those are the two most important things, and just make sure that you are really, really intentional about what you need early on with when that's like hiring, right?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who do you really need?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't want to, and I've done this too.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've hired uh quite a few people that we just didn't need at that time.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: That would you're like, I need you, but then I don't need you.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, right.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like you need to be really certain about like why it is that you're going to onboard someone else because when you keep it really tight and lean, you can adapt very quickly.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when you open it up to growing your team fast, all of a sudden there becomes a lot more, I guess you could say, communication problems and the ability to pivot quickly goes away.
• 34:17
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, that makes a lot of sense.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for sharing that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think so such valuable information, just because I know a lot of people are always looking for like what is that like, you know, way to getting being successful successful with your brand, you know, whether that's raising money, being in the rooms, having these conversations, I think there's just not enough information out there that like really speaks to that, if you know what I mean.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like so I just I I find that to be so interesting, what you've shared here.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I want to ask you though, because I know you've had you, I mean, you have such a multifaceted career.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: How is that like juggling everything and like making sure that you're giving enough time to everything?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you're always busy and moving around.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, how is how is balance balancing your life?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, balance means so many different things.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: You're like balance?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, balance?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I I do agree, like you can have it all, but you can't have it all at once.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, meaning that you have to be able to prioritize.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, like if I'm on set and I'm shooting and I've done this and it's been really hard, like just mentally, where I've I'll be on set and I'll schedule meetings for Procter during the lunch hour or like you know, the afternoon break.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that when you're splitting yourself like that, you're never going to give what you're there for.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't be present, you can't give your 100%.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I stopped doing that.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I did that for a while where I would just try to do everything like all together, but I've just learned to prioritize and to almost just say, hey, so today I'm going to be focusing on, I could say one aspect of the brand, right?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like whether it's like our retail relationships, I'm gonna check in with everyone today and I'm gonna do all those calls and make sure that we're not letting anything slip through the cracks.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so there's that where I'll have one day for that.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day I'm gonna be traveling or I'm, you know, speaking or I'm meeting, either I'm speaking in a panel or I'm meeting our customers.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't wanna be on my phone worried about a million things.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to be talking to that customer.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be engaging in the event that we're putting together.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you you can't just split your uh priorities and you can't split your attention.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you just have to be really intentional about when you are focusing on the brand, when you're focusing on a shoot or you're speaking at an engagement.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like you want to be there.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the moment that I realized that I wasn't there fully, I was just like, I don't want to give anything my 50%, I want to give everything my 100%.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: So now I have like blocked times for the different engagements that I have and my involvements, whether I'm like in Mozambique on an Operation Smile mission, like I am not sitting there on emails.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting there learning about the patients and their families and you know, spending the day with them, you know, understanding things about their operation.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like it could just, it could just be, I realized that you've you've gotta be very careful because you don't want to look back and think that you weren't uh 100% invested in something that you did.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that like point came, I think, two years into procti, you know, maybe like three years into procti.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I figured it out and I made sure that I was just I was on top of it and I was very clear with my priorities.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so that I would like to say nothing slips through the cracks.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes things may, but that you know, that has worked a lot better for me, like blocking those times for for specific things versus trying to do it all together because it it does not work a lot.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like that's no, I mean that's that's brilliant advice, honestly, because I think we as women don't compartmentalize enough.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think men are really good at that.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh from what I've noticed, like they're good at like finding those compartments, me like this is this time, this is this time.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I know I've struggled with it a lot, and I know a lot of my my female friends that struggle with it.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really, really great advice.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for sharing that.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, but this is uh it's been amazing, and I and I am so honestly, I'm so proud to see what you've done with Proxy.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: I am a huge fan of the brand.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've been a huge fan, and I for so many reasons, right?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously, we've talked about a lot of things here, but I think creating a brand is hard, obviously, but bringing our culture forward in a meaningful way, I just I cannot applaud you enough for that.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, it means so much to us consumers.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: I promise you, we're looking and it means a lot, it resonates a lot, and you know, really hats off to you for doing it the right way.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that you know, that feedback means the world to me.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I really appreciate it.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's it's well deserved.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: But everyone listening, if you guys haven't checked out Procdi Beauty, make sure you scroll down the show notes right now.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Go check out the brand.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Check out the brand.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, it's wonderful.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, every single product hits very, very like home, you know, at least for my skin.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: My skin loves it.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is lovely.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.