Getting a healthy looking skin is not all that easy. Even though there are lots of skincare products available in the market, most women don’t know which will suit their skin type. Which is why they keep experimenting with products.
SkinKraft was born out of two undeniable truths about the current skincare industry — a) Women are often caught in an unrewarding cycle of experimentation even while trying to find basic skincare products and b) Despite growing levels of frustration among consumers, skincare brands continue to churn out generic formulations catering to the mass market.
Chaitanya Nallan, CEO, SkinKraft, says that their Stylecraze.com, online beauty and wellness community of over 30 million women, gave them a direct insight into this problem.
Active engagement with the users, both on their website and social media, led them to understand that each person’s skin is unique. “In fact, people born into the same family have different skin characteristics. People having the same lifestyle have different skin issues. For that matter, even twins have different skin behavioural patterns,” points out Nallan adding that skin type, skin issues, skin support systems, pigmentation levels, skin damage levels, hydration levels and several other aspects make your skin unique.
Claiming that SkinKraft is India’s only customised skincare brand, he says, “Through a holistic assessment of the customer’s skin, similar to a dermatologist’s assessment, we create a skin profile — a skin type and skin concern specific picture — that analyses the customer’s current skin requirements and with this information, we classify the customer into one of the 72 broad profiles, each of which breaks down into thousands of combinations.”
The main idea behind the startup is to make customers aware of what products they are using and also to know their skin. He believes that the skin is an important part of one’s body and personality. “A glowing skin can boost your confidence and make you feel good from within, so at SkinKraft, we have a regimen designed for all skin types,” says Nallan.
Their website has a list of questions and answers that are specifically curated by their dermatologists on the basis of which they suggest accurate products.
Talking about the products, Nallan points out that their brand suggests customers a regimen that has to be followed daily. So a SkinKraft box includes a cleanser, a moisturiser, and a skin issue specific product. “All our products are backed by hours of intensive research and collaboration with Indian, Taiwanese and Japanese dermato-cosmetologists, pharmacists and pharmaceutical engineers,” he says adding that the products are gentle on the skin and free of harmful chemical compounds and irritants such as parabens, phthalates, SLS and formaldehyde. He further mentions that the products are not tested on animals and are ethically produced.
Usually, the best skincare products are expensive but Nallan says that investing in expensive products is subjective. “Everyone has their own parameters for ‘expensive and reasonable’ but when it comes to skincare, the question should be how important is your skin for you and then accordingly, you decide how much you would want to invest,” he says.
Nallan believes that the next big thing to happen in the skincare industry is the heavy use of Artificial Intelligence. He points out that in the next 5-10 years the consumption pattern in the beauty industry will shift significantly from mass-produced products to customised ones across segments like skin, hair, colour etc. He believes that this would happen because of the confluence of three significant trends: mass internet adoption enabling feedback loops and user input, AI enabled understanding of ingredient effectiveness and modern manufacturing technologies. “AI will help make things more handy and user friendly for customers, “ he concludes.
WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU?
