Asha Gunapati’s products are based on her belief that “what goes into your mouth should go on your skin”.
Her range of soaps is natural and handcrafted with subtle fragrances. But they stand apart in their incredible designs making them look deliciously tempting. Cupcakes, jelly bars and whipped creams, so enticingly designed are the soaps that she literally had to keep a disclaimer — ‘Do not eat. It’s a soap’ — at her recently held exhibition at a mall in the city.
An HR professional, who quit her corporate job to be with family, Asha started making handcrafted organic soaps as a hobby in 2013, and it was only last year that she decided to dive into an entrepreneurship venture to start her own line of products called ‘Sreshta Skin Essentials’. Now, she also provides employment to a team of eight underprivileged women who help her in making the organic soaps.
Asha says her soaps are devoid of chemicals as she uses natural ingredients such as essential oils like lavender, tea tree, cedar wood and rose and carrier oils like olive oil, coconut oil and almond oil to make the soaps. Before starting her venture, she did a thorough market research on handmade soap brands in India and found that most of these soaps were very expensive.
“I felt there was a big untapped market for natural organic soaps in the affordable segment. But if I had to make my products stand out, I knew I had to give equal emphasis to quality and design,” says the creative entrepreneur. With an initial investment of Rs. 6 lakh, Asha set up her home-based enterprise and started reaching out to customers through the e-commerce route.
Her soaps come in a range of flavours like lavender mint cupcake, raspberry bar, rainbow soaps and chocolate cupcake and can be ordered from the websitewww.feminineindia.comor her Facebook page ‘Sreshta Skin Essentials’.
“Initially, we were in losses since the manufacturing cost was way too high. The raw material cost itself was over Rs. 2 lakh, most of which are procured from Noida and Bengaluru. We use imported almond oil from France and Kojic acid, a natural whitening agent, from Japan,” adds Asha. She uses two methods in making the soaps — the cold process which takes about 30 to 45 days to make a batch of soap and the glycerine soaps that can be used instantly.
Describing her entrepreneurial journey so far, Asha says: “It has been a roller coaster ride. I started the enterprise when my father passed away and I had to support my mother. It was the toughest phase of my life. But it was this business of making handcrafted soaps that helped me come over it. I put in all my creative energy into it. Sometimes it is great and sometimes it is tiring and backbreaking. My day starts off with me collecting online orders, processing them, checking the stock, packing and shipping them. If the item is out of stock, I make it. Amidst all this, I also like to experiment with new things and update my product list.” To reach out to more people, Asha showcases her work at various exhibitions. Her next exhibitions will be in Vijayawada and Bengaluru.
