Leaders

A massive trend is ripping up the beauty industry, and it's all about a return to all things Clean & Conscious. People are cleansing their cosmetics cabinets to get rid of anything formulated with known toxins, particularly endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, and are opting for labels with a scientific philosophy. This stems from the greater awareness of living a healthy lifestyle in contemporary times, and it is making buyers and beauty aficionados more mindful of what they apply. Introducing Harkoi, a brand founded by Ritu Bhagat, which is devoted to clean beauty that pledges to stay away from these known toxin ingredients, often embracing beauty and fighting colorism.

Ritu graduated from Monash University in Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting, finance, and marketing. She had always wanted to represent dark skin tones in the Indian and international markets, so she launched Harkoi with the mission of promoting clean beauty and combating colorism. She emphasises that rather than being sacred to beauty, people should appreciate it and accept their true skin tones.

In an in-depth interview with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine team, Ritu shares her leadership thoughts and professional experience as a founder of Harkoi.

Give us a brief overview of Harkoi. What are some important features about the brand that you want us to highlight through the article?

Harkoi is a newly launched clean, transparent, and magnificent beauty brand with a mission to eradicate colorism. We make products that are devoid of known endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and irritants. We are a brand that is transparent regarding product innovation, ingredients, operations, and more. Harkoi creates products that have a great user experience and can be easily integrated into our everyday routines, with innovation concentrating on luxury and never-before-seen textures, application techniques, and more. In addition, the firm is dedicated to eradicating colorism. We believe that normalising our true skin tone will get us closer to a world in which people accept their real skin tones.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. What motivated you to venture out on your own as an entrepreneur in the clean beauty space?

I was born and raised in Mumbai. I completed a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting, finance, and marketing from Monash University, Australia. When I was in college, I founded Harkoi to represent dark skin tones in international markets. We rapidly realised that a brand like Harkoi was critically required in India. I returned to India, and my foreign experience allowed me the broad perspective to create Harkoi, since we're going completely against the way the beauty industry sets unattainable standards and goals for how one individual should look, We want to offer our customers something they can achieve and enjoy, rather than be afraid of beauty.

Tell us about the various beauty products that Harkoi has developed for consumers. In your opinion what makes these products unique and truly one of a kind?

Harkoi offers nail polish, sunscreen, and hand sanitizer to customers. We added some fun to the nail polish range by designing the packaging, as well as a great feeling where we were able to alleviate the problem of brittle nails. We solve the problem of white cast with Mineral Matte Sunscreen, which comes in eight different hues designed exclusively for Indian skin tones. We introduced hand cleanser spray as hand sanitizer, combining nourishing and moisturising components in a 70 percent alcohol base while ensuring the scent is floral and peaceful without leaving hands dry. Our best-selling item is our mineral sunscreen. We spent two years developing this product. We didn't have a big launch, but the product was still a huge success. Our customer gave us positive & raving feedback.

Harkoi's strength rests on the formulas of its products. Each product that we have now is consciously formulated, which means that we consciously research every ingredient, do not encourage fear-mongering of ingredients, and instead of demonizing them, we take the time to explain their functionalities and show the research behind why we use or avoid a specific ingredient in our formulation. We don't establish a target number of product launches, but rather that each product we bring to market delivers value.

What is Harkoi's brand philosophy and what is the thought behind the brand name? How have you incorporated philosophies of clean beauty and fighting colorism within the brand?

The brand name has a funny backstory. My friends and I were sitting around contemplating a name that embodied the emotion of the brand, which has always been inclusivity. We wanted the brand to have an emotional and communal component, so we got down with Google Translate and looked for a term that matched well. We needed something that belonged to our background, so we considered incorporating Hindi or Sanskrit terms. Suddenly, someone mentioned the word 'Harkoi', and we all simply pushed together in such a great moment.

“Harkoi is a newly launched clean, transparent, and magnificent beauty brand with a mission to eradicate colorism”

Harkoi cherishes the pursuit of clean beauty as well as the fight against colorism. In order to be considered clean beauty, our product's components must not include known irritants, carcinogens, or endocrine disruptors. There are active ingredients on the market that have had a significant impact on skin care. We would like to include such components in our goods, but doing so with caution is equally important. As a result, before incorporating a new component into our product, we examine and validate that it fulfills our specifications. Fighting colorism is a difficult task for Harkoi to take on, primarily since it has never been done before. Our responsibility is to not just make products for people, but also to make them feel good about themselves. We do this through the Harkoi programme by portraying a genuine audience on our social networks. We usually use ordinary people and put the product on them to display how the product appears in real life. So they could see it for themselves rather than imagine how it would look on them. We are combating colorism through our products. We invented tinted mineral sunscreen in eight different shades specifically for Indian skin tones, since zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in sunscreen leave a white cast on the face.

In your opinion how will the market for clean beauty products evolve in the near future? How are you positioning Harkoi to keep pace with the evolving trends?

When it comes to clean beauty, Harkoi will undoubtedly be a prominent player in the business moving forward, owing to our awareness of the importance of getting through every product to every formulation. We are constantly explaining the logic behind formulations and taking the time to explain their functions, as well as revealing the research behind why we adopt or avoid a specific component in our formulation. One trend I'm seeing in clean beauty is the introduction of exact parameters for defining what it means to clean up, because a lot of the time it's just a sweeping statement with no content worth. More often than not, it is employed as a marketing or SEO word.

As an entrepreneur what are some critical business challenges that you have had to face in establishing Harkoi as a prominent name in the Indian beauty space? What is your vision for the brand's growth trajectory in the near future?

I was aware of the hardships and struggles that were ahead of me while establishing Harkoi, but this gave me the strength to be a survivor and an entrepreneur since we confront problems every day. We are still not always able to meet our sales and social media targets. But it's been eye-opening for me to be a founder who started with a relative pittance and then replenished it.

As a founder, I want to see the brand expand to the point where it is one of the top factors when it comes to purchasing beauty products. When it comes to purchasing Harkoi products, we aim to be a brand that embraces life's emotions and uplifts. In terms of numbers, we would like to continue expanding our product portfolio. We are currently creating over 15 new products and are extremely excited about bringing them to market.

Ritubhagat, Founder, Harkoi

Ritu is a young, enthusiastic founder who believes that high-quality, well-researched, and created consumer products will change the world, which involves envisioning and creating innovative products for the next generation.