The Woman Behind This Vegan, Cruelty-Free Makeup Brand Tells Us Her Story Of Founding Kiro
If you are a makeup lover, then you have definitely been keeping the tab on the latest trends, challenges and of course, looks. One of the categories that is being talked about the most amongst beauty junkies these days is “clean beauty”. And while the term is bandied around quite easily, the idea in this category is to mindfully create products that help keep our environment and makeup toxin, chemical and cruelty-free.
This Women’s Day, we decided to speak to the brains behind this beauty brand – Vasundhara Patni who bravely launched the brand during the pandemic. She gives talks about the brand, her favourite product and much more.
Why did you decide to come up with a vegan brand?
Vasundhara: The mindset of the consumer is changing as of the last couple of years towards the more mindful, conscious consumption, I think veganism was at one point perceived to be for super health-conscious, super picky small niche of people. Today, I think it has been adapted it’s been accepted and people want to follow this belief where you know you are not harming animals. It’s just a very basic conscious understanding just because I am using products doesn’t mean I need to harm other living organisms.
What does Kiro (K-ee-ro) mean?
Vasundhara: Kiro comes from the sanskrit word Kiran – a ray of light, the unification of colours, celebrating something that is so natural. So it kind of worked really well because first of all, we wanted a name that was not necessarily skewing to any particular geography or any particular country. We didn’t want to sound Indian, we didn’t want to sound international or Japanese or European or anything like that. We wanted it to have a very universal identity, but at the core of it, we still wanted to have something Indian about it. So it took us a lot of time for us to find a universal sounding name that had its core in India. So, the core came from the word Kiran the root word of the word Kiran is Kiro. So we loved the meaning. We found it very appropriate for a colour cosmetics brand.
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How do you see the Indian makeup and beauty market growing?
Vasundhara: I see a huge, huge scope in the Indian beauty market. I see a lot of potential here and that’s the reason why we have started dabbling in this space. I think there’s going to be a couple of changes that will happen thanks to the pandemic also. A large percentage of people are moving online even though beauty as an industry was considered one of the few industries that would have a huge handicap from an e-com perspective. There’s been a lot more acceptance of shopping online. Also, I think India has never had such a large set of working women previously. Year on year the number of working women are increasing and that has definitely increased their spending power and their disposable income and therefore women are indulging in more and more makeup. I think that is one more path that is going to be very crucial in the growth of the beauty industry.
What are some of the trends you’ve observed?
Vasundhara: I think there are two very extreme trends that are happening right now. I mean, from a looks perspective. One is the very nude, ageless beauty look, which is a very natural look. It’s been around for years; it will be there for the next 20 years. You know it’s one of those looks which is really popular the no makeup, makeup look. And then there is the other one which is exactly the opposite. It is what you see at the Met Gala. The make-believe makeup is very very flamboyant, very unrealistic. So you know I see that there are these 2 very very strong look trends that are becoming very popular and very accepted by people.
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Where does the brand plan to go from here?
We are looking to definitely increase our range of products.
Any bestsellers from the brand you would like to recommend to our readers?
Yes, my personal favourite product is the eyeshadow stick. Honestly, I think for me that is my game-changing product, given that I am not a makeup junkie. I don’t use makeup, but this eyeshadow stick has been my favourite product in the entire line up. I love the liquid lip, I love the eyeliner
https://thehauterfly.com/culture-2/5-ways-to-sanitise-your-beauty-products-and-keep-them-germ-free-and-squeaky-clean/
