This woman entrepreneur’s beauty brand offers multipurpose products for everyday skincare

After completing her graduation, Samhitha Inturi worked with her father in the power sector to garner experience and learn strategies to develop her own business.

However, the ‘Aha’ moment for her own business came while she was in college itself.

“I suffered from multiple skin issues and spent a great deal of money and time understanding my own skin. I also came to the realisation that not everyone has the same kind of skin,” she says of the pain point behind launching her skincare brand, 3AM.

Samhitha wanted to build a brand that aims to declutter skincare routines while offering clean, simple, and effective skincare products that solve different skin issues.

“We wanted to offer minimalistic and multipurpose skincare products for people to maintain their skin on a daily basis. In the current busy schedules and pandemic lifestyles, it is definitely a hassle to spend time, effort, and money on 10-12 step skincare routines, while it is effective to declutter and reduce skincare steps, when one or two products can deliver the results. It not only saves a lot of time and money, but also encourages people to buy less and be conscious of their environmental impact of consumerism,” she explains.

Based in Hyderabad, the second-generation entrepreneur has positioned 3AM India as a modern FMCG brand based on the mantra of “accessibility, availability, and affordability”. It is available across the city in over 45 retail stores (Ratnadeep, Health & Glow) and also to people across India through its own website and Amazon.

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The products

3AM’s range of products include a basic moisturiser, speed dial face mist, and a sundowner sunscreen. All the products are multipurpose as the moisturiser can be used as a primer, under cream, day and night cream. The mist also works wonders as a toner, setting spray, mist or as an aftershave!

“All the above products are made for all skin types and ages for both men and women. These are everyday maintenance products, hence any individual can incorporate them into their skincare routines. Our R&D took over one-two years to come up with products that cater to current needs of people. The ingredients are all plant based (vegan + cruelty free) and are directly sourced from the right channels to make sure no harmful chemicals are used,” she says.

From tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers, and mulberries, to neem and a host of other natural extracts, 3AM boasts of an interesting ingredients list – all available in detail on its website.

Everyday skincare

3AM is gender neutral and caters to men and women of all ages and skin types. It aims to be everyday skincare for everyone.

To eliminate unnecessary waste, 3AM skincare range is packaged using eco-friendly and recyclable materials like glass bottles and Shiro paper while making sure a very minimal amount of green plastic (PE) is being used. 

Samhitha launched 3AM along with her twin brother, Sampath. While it was conceptualised while she was in college, the brand was launched in August 2020.

It works on a D2C business model and also a B2B model where it directly retails to supermarkets and grocery stores.

“As a brand that launched and sustained itself during the pandemic, 3AM has received an excellent positive response from our customers so far. We have had days when few of our customers sent out before/after photos, called us and appreciated our multipurpose use of products, and loved our sustainable packaging,” she says.

Its counterparts include any skincare brand that is available on the racks and include Nivea, Biotique, Mamaearth, Beardo, and Wow Skin Science.

“Our strategy is quite different from our competitors because we are here to offer products that are multipurpose and can solve multiple skin issues. Less doesn’t mean ineffective is our product “motto”. We have more products in the pipeline, but we will offer options where a single product can be put to multiple uses and gives multiple benefits. We do not want to intimidate our customers and here give clean, simple, and effective products,” she adds.

Currently 3AM’s funding comes from family supported network with an initial investment in R&D and capital around Rs 3 crore.

The founders plan to introduce more products early next year, including some in the haircare segment and also expand 3AM’s offline presence by partnering with beauty retail chains and national level supermarkets in all Tier I and most Tier II cities by the end of 2023.

Samhitha has some parting words of advice to other women entrepreneurs.

“Any business requires patience, resilience, hard work, and teamwork to make it happen! No matter what happens, never give up and just keep going. No one is going to believe in you like you do,” she says.