How Soulflower grew as a natural personal care brand in the last two decades
Founded in 2001, Mumbai-based Soulflower offers cruelty-free natural personal care products, priced between Rs 300 and Rs 2000.
After years of working as an architect, Natasha Tuli founded a handmade natural personal care brand, Soulflower in 2001.
“I am a very practical person and do not like to visit salons. Working as a landscape architect brought me close to herbal and ayurvedic products and I decided to try my hand at making some,” she says. Natasha was soon joined by her husband Amit Sarda as co-founder of Soulflower.
Nearly two decades later, the entrepreneur says people have a much better understanding of the products. When they started the company, the Indian audience was not familiar with natural products and they had a tough time explaining products like essential oils and its usage.
The natural and organic products industry has gained popularity over the years and is expected to grow by CAGR 17.27 percent between 2017 and 2022. Natasha does not view the rise in players in the market as competitors and believes this expansion will help create more awareness.
A product first company
Natasha says every product has a story or memory behind it, usually of recreating traditional household practices from her childhood. For example, Sandalwood scrub soap is inspired from her childhood experiences of her mother applying milk onion during holidays.
Products of Soulflower
Priced between Rs 350 and Rs 2,000, Soulflower has nearly 200 SKUs, including carrier oils, essential oils, shampoo bars, soaps, masks, aroma oils, diffusers, and potpourri, among others. The entrepreneur claims all the products are vegan and cruelty-free.
It’s office houses ten cats and the team feeds around 300 stray animals daily. They continued their feeding drives during the nationwide lockdown as well.
In 2015, Soulflower entered the global market and started selling its products in the US, Dubai, and the UK.
In India, it operates on dual models of B2C and B2B and counts on companies like Kotak Mahindra and Viacom 18 among its clients. Besides selling through its website, it has a presence in over 500 retail stores including pharmacies, reliance, lifestyle, and many mom-and-pop stores.
With around 100 employees, Natasha says, “We keep machine intervention minimal and employ natural technique in the old-fashioned way like making dahi (curd). Perfection comes from mixing the right proportions.”
Leveraging social media to show the purity of products and what goes behind making the natural products have helped the brand connect with customers.
Challenges and the road ahead
Natasha’s entrepreneurial journey has seen its own set challenges. Initially, people did not treat her as an entrepreneur. Although she creates and designs all the products, people would ask if she was helping Amit in his work.
“When people see a woman entrepreneur, they assume they are helping the man do his job. They can't imagine a woman having a concept and an idea and following the entrepreneurial path,” she says.
Being a bootstrapped company without any external funding was another challenge faced by the founders.
COVID-19, has seen an increase in sales and the startup is now focusing more on its online business as it provides engagement with customers.
While the pandemic did not affect its business negatively, Natasha realised that the brand’s presence in just one city was not enough. Besides having two factories in Mumbai, Soulflower’s third factory is being set up in Rajasthan, which is closer to a significant raw material like oil.
Moving forward, the founders hope to launch new product categories like baby care.
Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan