“I studied aerospace engineering and wanted to do something in cosmology. But I think my destiny was different,” says Sivaranjani Ganapathy, a 26-year-old entrepreneur. Her initiative, Amato: Crafts and Bakes, offers customised cakes and an organic skincare range. Ganapathy hails from Thoothukudi and moved to Coimbatore after her marriage. “Thoothukudi is a small town, known for its cakes and macaroons. Everybody there has a story about baking. I too read a lot of books on baking as a child and made my first cake when I was in Std VI.” She adds that it took her years to perfect it. “After joining college in Coimbatore, I started watching online videos on baking.” And in her second year of college, she finally made a fluffy cake. “It was a plain vanilla butter cake, and everybody loved it.” However, the way to that perfect bake was paved with mistakes. “I used salted butter instead of unsalted, I did not know the difference between a regular microwave oven and an OTG oven and there were so many more things I was ignorant of. With time, I learnt.” Ganapathy also attended baking classes at Bengaluru and New Zealand “to make gum paste flowers and jelly cakes.”
The texture of the cake is the most important she says. “It has to be soft and fluffy and not too sweet. The cream, butter and sugar should be whipped thoroughly.” Her cakes start from ₹1,100. “I have made cakes worth ₹15,000. It was a five-tier chocolate fondant wedding cake and was decorated with pink and purple flowers!” She sends her cakes to Thoothukudi, Nagercoil, Madurai, Bengaluru and Chennai.
Recently Ganapathy also launched a skincare product range. “My mother gave me a bath powder with 18 herbs. It had to be mixed in water before application.” When she hunted for similar organic bath products in the market she found none that she was happy with. So she signed up for a soap-making workshop and attempted to convert her bath powder into soap. “I started making soaps for myself. I did a lot of research to find the right combination of ingredients for serums, face washes, body washes, lip balms, scrubs and bug repellent lotions.” She tried it on her family members first and only then marketed her products through Facebook and Instagram.
The base product for her cosmetics is coconut oil. “I get it from my farm in Thoothukudi. I also use almond oil and a variety of essential oils.” Of her soaps she says, “Haldi fresh is made of Borneo camphor, wild turmeric, and milk. Forever young contains neem, aloe vera and poppy seeds and prevents acne.”
COIMBATORE, TAMIL NADU 10/11/2017. (for MetroPlus) A organic skin care product on display at Amato - Crafts and Bakes, in Coimbatore on November 10, 2017 Photo: M. Periasamy
She adds beeswax to lip balms for consistency and “beetroot juice for colour.” She remembers a customer who came to her for a bug repellent, as her four-year-old son was allergic to those available in the market. “She was so happy that she came back for more and also told me that she now uses it on her eight-month-old baby too”. Ganapathy procures the raw materials from around the world. “The containers are imported from US.” She has products for all skin types and helps her customers choose products based on their skin type. She claims a shelf life of eight months for facewashes and soaps and 12 months for lip balms, facepacks and serums. Her skin-care products are delivered across India. She also plans to start an online and a physical store.
To know more, Call : 9677967155 or visit amatocraftsbakes on Facebook and Insta or you can go to www.amato.in
Product range
Eight varieties of soaps: haldi fresh, coal bar, skin fit, citrus blast, caffeine goodness, honey dew, forever young and cocoa magic.
Six kinds of Body washes and face washes.
12 flavours of Lip balms: blueberry, lychee, caramel, rose, mango, rum, coconut, mint, brandy, grapefruit, lavender and orange.
Ganapathy also has a variety of scrubs, face-packs, serums, bug repellent-lotion and balms to choose from.
