Today we’d like to introduce you to Gayatri Pradhan.
Gayatri, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always had two great loves – travel and skincare. Combining the two was only a matter of time.
Through my Indian heritage, I’ve become receptive to schools of thought like Ayurveda that value natural ingredients to address skin’s issues. Traveling across the world, I began to see that every culture has their own powerful beauty rituals, rooted in local and natural ingredients that are effective.
Combining my education in pharmaceutical and cosmetic chemistry with a decade of experience in marketing global skincare brands, I set out to make formulations with ingredients that were completely plant-based, very effective and felt incredibly luxurious to use.
Serendipity struck in the form of Patricia Mirabito, a cosmetic chemist with 20 years of experience who works with the top dermatologists in Argentina. Together, we scoured various regions for the most effective, unique and safe ingredients that would power our products. We made prototype after prototype, testing them on friends and family. And when those testers clamored for more of the sixth round of prototypes, we knew they had something big on their hands. Thus, Poéthique was born!
Today, we are sold in small boutiques and spas that focus on natural skincare and have been covered by various beauty editors and bloggers who love our products.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has definitely been bumpy and not always straight. One of my early struggles was trying to find a product formulator who was also willing to push the boundaries of plant-based skincare beyond the simple oil blends and butters that are a common feature of the natural skincare market. Most of the labs I contacted wanted me to use their existing formulations and add a ‘scent’ to it. But my vision was for original, made-front-scratch products.
This is one of those areas where the universe smiled on me – a mutual friend introduced Patricia and I and our conversation was so in tune, and in sync, I knew I’d found the perfect partner! Pato (as she’s fondly called), is a crackerjack formulator and was able to take my vision and transform it into the most amazing products!
My takeaway from this has been to share my challenges with my friends, as someone, somewhere might lead you to a solution.
Please tell us about Poéthique.
Poéthique is the culmination of 30+ years of experience, passion and desire to do skincare the right way. The right way means doing right by our skin and our bodies – using non-toxic, safe and effective ingredients, and also, doing right by our environment – which means finding sustainably sourced ingredients, cruelty-free ingredients, designing fully recyclable packaging and supporting organizations that help conserve our planet’s biodiversity.
We take a lot of time to find the right ingredients and then, the right suppliers for those ingredients, which means we are not releasing new products every 6 months. But when we do, they are very well-received as the care and thoughtfulness that goes into making the products shows in the effectiveness! Most of our customers are repeat customers because they’ve seen the results and love the way their skin feels after using our products.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
It would be getting weekly head massages from my mother! She would warm coconut oil, add some herbal extracts to the oil (for hair shine and strength) and then massage my scalp with that for 20-30 minutes. I felt so loved, I felt all her care and affection pouring into me – it was such an incredible feeling.
I try and replicate something similar with my own daughters now, sometimes with head massages and sometimes with foot and hand massages and they LOVE it! They say it makes them feel like princesses!
Pricing:
- We would love to share a discount code (10OFF) with your readers so they can discover Poéthique for themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.poethique.com
- Email: love@poethique.com
- Instagram: poethique
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/poethiquebeauty
- Twitter: poethiquebeauty
Image Credit:
Naomi Farr, Anthony Grassetti
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